Malyshev Leads Final 11 in 2018 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Russia
The flagship tournament of the 2018 partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Russia festival at the Sochi Casino and Resort is one step closer to determining a champion, as just 11 players out of 916 entries remain in contention in the RUB318,000 Main Event. The penultimate day of the event played through 10 levels of one hour each and narrowly missed to reach the final table.
Leading the field into the final day is local player Andrey Malyshev with 140.3 million. All but three results of Malyshev come from right here in Sochi and the joint-best result of the Russian was a 47th place in this very event for ~$17,500 one year ago at the MILLIONS Russia Main Event. In the last level of the night, Malyshev knocked out 2017 finalist Vadim Lipovka with king-eight versus ace-queen suited in a battle of the blinds and won a big flip with ace-king against the pocket jacks of Luke Thursfield soon after.
Second in chips after Day 4 is Viktor Khodorenko from Belarus with 127 million followed by Mikhail Galitskiy with 127.9 million. Only three countries are represented, as Chin Wei Lim from Malaysia advanced with a stack of 88 million, the fifth-biggest stack. The other finalists are all from Russia including Alexey Melnikov (94.5 million), start-of-the-day chip leader Gor Kazaryan (74.5 million), Aleksandr Chernikov (73.9 million), partypoker ambassador Anatoly Filatov (67.5 million), Gleb Tremzin (48.8 million), Konstantin Uspenskii (43.9 million) and Ekaterina Fedyaeva (34.5 million).
Seat Assignments for the Final Day
| Seat | Orange Table | Chip Count | Big Blinds | Seat | Black Table | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | Gleb Tremzin | 48,800,000 | 24 | 1 | Konstantin Uspenskii | 43,900,000 | 22 |
| 4 | Aleksandr Chernikov | 73,900,000 | 37 | 2 | Anatoly Filatov | 67,500,000 | 34 |
| 5 | Mikhail Galitskiy | 117,900,000 | 59 | 3 | Chin Wei Lim | 88,000,000 | 44 |
| 6 | Gor Kazaryan | 74,500,000 | 37 | 4 | Alexey Melnikov | 94,500,000 | 47 |
| 7 | Ekaterina Fedyaeva | 34,500,000 | 17 | 5 | Andrey Malyshev | 140,300,000 | 70 |
| 8 | Viktor Khodorenko | 127,000,000 | 63 | - | - | - | - |
The event is set to recommence on Monday, August 13th, 2018, as of 12 p.m. local time with blinds of 1,000,000/2,000,000 and a button ante of 2,000,000 and the remaining finalists are guaranteed at least RUB2,400,000 for their efforts, while the lion's share of the prize pool is still up for grabs. The winner can look forward to a payday of RUB60,000,000 ($886,200) and trophy that comes along with it.
Action of Day 4 at a glance
When the cards were back in the air at noon local time, there were 58 hopefuls remaining and seven of them were battling for an additional incentive as part of the MPPL Dollar Last Longer competition. All players that bought in for the Main Event with the new versatile currency from online satellites on partypoker were in the mix for a $100,000 payday and it boiled down to UK's Colin McTaggart and Russia's Vyacheslav Nikulin. Down to the last five tables, both were short in chips and Nikulin scored a lucky double with sixes against kings to survive, while McTaggart was less fortunate with ace-eight against pocket sevens soon after to bow out in 36th place.
By then, several notables such as Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Mikhail Surin, Andrey Kotelnikov, Oleksii Kravchuk, Timothy Adams and Aleksei Istomin were all on the rail already. Istomin lost most of his chips in a three-way all-in with ace-king suited against the ace-king of Anatoly Filatov and the pocket aces of Ekaterina Fedyaeva. Andrey Pateychuk was eliminated on the feature table and Nikulin's run came to an end in 33rd place to set up the final four tables.
Ukraine's Artem Metalidi, who comes fresh off an 8th place finish in the 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event for $1,250,000, had to settle for 27th place and Denis Pisarev, as well as Said Butba, also missed out on the last three tables. Further casualties towards the end of the day included Israel's Saar Wilf and two-time WSOP bracelet winner Viacheslav Zhukov.
Down to the last two tables, Triple Crown champion Niall Farrell was still on track to claim the title in a fourth major live tournament series, but the run of the Scotsman ended in 14th place. Farrell lost a big pot with ace-six suited in a three-bet pot against the pocket kings of Viktor Khodorenko, the over card and nut flush draw on the turn bricked off and Farrell was left with 10 big blinds. The very same ace-six of hearts haunted Farrell again half an hour later when Aleksandr Chernikov rivered a better pair against the ace-five suited of the Scotsman.
Vadim Lipovka finished 8th in the 2017 MILLIONS Russia Main Event here in Sochi and was going for back-to-back final tables, however, his bid fell short and the Belorussian was eliminated in 13th place by eventual chip-leader Andrey Malyshev. It was also Malyshev that took most of Luke Thursfield's chips in a big flip with ace-king versus jacks and Thursfield then flopped trips fours in the last hand only to see Chin Wei Lim improve to a flush on the turn with queen-jack suited.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back to bring you all the action from the final day of the Main Event in Sochi as the second champion of Season 2 of the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS tour will be crowned.
