A new PokerStars Championship Main Event Champion will be crowned in Sochi, Russia later today. Just six players return to battle for all the glory, the trophy, bragging rights, and maybe a nice sum of RUB 29,100,000 or just over USD 500,000.
Kazakhstani hopeful Lavrentiy Ni will wield the big stack when play resumes at 12:30 p.m. local time inside the gorgeous Sochi Casino and Resort. Though his chip lead of 2,949,000 is only one big blind ahead of Russian player Pavel Shirshikov.
Most notably and likely the odds-on favorite is Russian poker legend Vladimir Troyanovskiy. Troyanovskiy begins play sitting in the fourth position but still has a very playable stack. Fellow countryman Dmitry Vitkind also has an impressive resume and will be looking to climb the counts pretty early.
Seat Assignments for the Final Table
Seat
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Seyed Ghavam
Iran
2,124,000
88
2
Vladimir Troyanovskiy
Russian Federation
1,791,000
74
3
Pavel Shirshikov
Russian Federation
2,914,000
121
4
Dmitry Vitkind
Russian Federation
1,050,000
43
5
Lavrentiy Ni
Kazakhstan
2,949,000
122
6
Timur Bubnov
Russian Federation
783,000
32
Play will resume in Level 23 with about 26 minutes left on the clock. Blinds are currently 12,000/24,000 with a 4,000 chip ante. Action can be caught live, on a 30-minute delay kicking off at 1:00 p.m. and will continue until one player has all of the 11,610,000 chips in play. Good luck to all players.
Remaining Payouts PokerStars Championship Sochi Main Event
Russian recreational poker player Timur Bubnov was one of the dozens of players who secured their PokerStars Championship Sochi Main Event seats through a $10 Spin & Goes online at PokerStars. While Bubnov didn't need to leave his country to arrive in Sochi, the tournament doesn't exactly take place in his backyard. The 38-year-old hails from Vladivostok, a city located in the far east of Russia, more than 7,000 kilometres away from Sochi. Bubnov is married with two children and his significant one arrived in Sochi with him.
Bubnov made sure their long trip would be worth those hours on a plane by becoming the last Spin & Go qualifier standing. Making the final table already secures Bubnov a giant return on his tiny investment as he's set to receive at least RUB 3,540,000 ($62,637).
Bubnov started playing poker nearly a decade ago, but the game is rather a hobby for him as he plays only occasionally. Bubnov has played at WSOP several times, trying to test his skills against the American players. He also competed in Macau in the Red Dragon series but his performance in the PokerStars Championship Main Event is by far his biggest achievement. Bubnov said he was having a great time here in Sochi, enjoying his game and playing for his own pleasure. After reaching the money, all pressure got away from him. Being relaxed might be his advantage on the final table.
Only Jason Wheeler had a more impressive start to the PokerStars Championship Sochi Main Event than Lavrentiy Ni, a 28-year-old player from Almaty, Kazakhstan. Ni put his foot firmly on the pedal right from Day 1, bagging up the second biggest stack among all contenders. He has capitalized on his strong opening performance so far. Ni has made it from the base camp close to the summit, but the most difficult step still awaits him. He faced his fellow countryman Daniyar Aubakirov on the final table (out in seventh), among other rivals.
Ni's previous live tournament cashes for just over $50,000 with the better half earned thanks to a second place in the 2016 Merit Poker Retro Cup $730 NLH Warm-Up Event in Kyrenia, Cyprus. He banked $29,255 for his efforts back then.
Ni is guaranteed to more than double his lifetime earnings with his PokerStars Championship Main Event reward. Now sitting in 21st place, Ni will ladder to the Kazakhstan's top ten and would catapult himself into the pole position with a win here in Sochi
Dmitry Vitkind was a regular player at the European Poker Tour stops and now he's starting his PokerStars Championship cash-collection. There's a ton of work ahead of him if he plans to match his results from the legendary PokerStars sponsored tour. Vitkind cashed in nine EPT Main Events during his career, remarkably in eight different locations (Sanremo the only place where he made the money twice). Vitkind's top result was €120,000 for fourth place in the EPT7 Tallinn Main Event, which still stands as his career-best payday. He also has a title from the EPT7 Deauville €1k Event under his belt, a victory worth €65,400.
Experienced on the European circuit, The 35-year-old from Moscow has made a name for himself even beyond the borders of the Old Continent, notching up two large cashes in Las Vegas. One of them was $159,8999 for an eighth place in the 2016 Goliath Phanous Poker Series and the other a $97,040 payday for a third place finish in the 2010 Bellagio Cup VI. In all, he's accrued $1.56 million in live tournaments, good for 26th place on the Russian all-time money list.
Vitkind is using the moniker "veryking" online on PokerStars. He received his online top-prize back in February 2014 when he finished third in a 7,748-strong Sunday Million, boosting his cashier with a sweet $116,220.
Russian professional player Pavel Shirshikov took a substantial chip lead at the end of Day 3 after knocking out Jason Wheeler in a massive four-bet pot to send the American star to the rail in 33rd place. Shirshikov maintained his lead through Day 4 and benefited from his field position on the following day, navigating his way to the final table.
The 30-year-old from St. Petersburg picked up poker 11 years ago during his military service. He turned pro after his duty in the army was over. Shirshikov's bread and butter has always been cash game. He used to grind as "OMGinmarsat8" online on PokerStars, where he'd been involved in a lot of mixed games. However, he quit his online career last year and transitioned into live cash games. Shirshikov spends most of his time in Russia playing here in Sochi, but he also travels a lot. After the PokerStars Championship wraps up, Shirshikov will be headed west. He plans to travel around Europe and play in various casinos.
One of the most exciting Russian poker players is Vladimir Troyanovskiy, a 43-year-old high roller from St. Petersburg. He first learned the game at the age of 13 when his older brother introduced him to 5 Card Draw.
Now widely acknowledged as one of Russia's top poker pros, Troyanovskiy started collecting his live cashes back in 2003 but he burst onto the world's biggest stage a decade later, with two big scores at PCA 2013. He first notched up seventh place in the PCA 2013 $100k Super High Roller, earning $257,580 and topped it a few days later when he finished second to Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst in the $25k High Roller, securing himself a career-best $792,180 reward.
Since then, Troyanovskiy has been a regular fixture in the highest buy-in tournaments all over the globe. He has accrued $4.8 million in live earnings and currently ranks sixth in the Russian all-time money list. His résumé boasts 11 six-figure results including third in the EPT11 Barcelona €50k Super High Roller for €473,200 and two cashes from the EPT Grand Final €100k Super High Roller (third for €339,500 in 2013 and ninth in 2015 for €199,620). Troyanovskiy has also won the €2k France Poker Series High Roller at EPT11 Deauville, banking €141,000. He scooped another trophy and €194,730 after taking down the €10k NLH Turbo 6-Handed at EPT12 Grand Final.
Troyanovskiy's accolades are nearly endless. He appeared on the PCA 2016 Main Event final table, walking away with $207,940 for a fifth place finish. The Bahamas have always treated him well; he made four final tables at PokerStars Championship Bahamas including a victory in the $2k Turbo Event. Troyanovskiy has already been to a final table here at PokerStars Championship Sochi, too. He was third in the RUB 132,000 PokerStars National High Roller.
Prolific on the live felt, Troyanovskiy is a beast on the online scene as well. He uses the screen-name "vovtroy" on PokerStars where he's notched up two six-figure results. His biggest online payday was $186,625 for a second place in the 2015 SCOOP-46-H: $1,050 NLH Wrap-Up Turbo. He has yet another big runner-up finish to his name, from the Sunday Million, worth $152,777. Troyanovskiy has more cashes from the SCOOP series than any other Russian player (closing in on 80). He won the SCOOP watch once. It was three years ago when he took down the SCOOP-12-H: $2,100 Stud for $36,060. In this year's edition, Troyanovskiy's best result came in the SCOOP-41-H: $5,200 NLHE, [8-Max] where he departed in sixth place worth $51,800. He's yet to win a WCOOP bracelet, with his nearest miss coming two years ago in the WCOOP $320+R PL Omaha [6-Max] in which he picked up the $50,276 third-place prize.
Iranian player Seyed Ghavam is an amateur poker aficionado who is involved in gambling not only as a customer both also from the other side as he runs a sportsbook. Ghavam, who will turn 36 next week, hails from Tehran and while he has a huge passion for poker, he can't play it back home due to legal prohibition. So Ghavam often makes trips to Cyprus to play cash games and occasionally enters tournaments, too. All of his live cashes come almost exclusively from Cyprus, with the biggest prize worth $27,075 for a runner-up finish in a $800 tournament.
Ghavam's sole notch outside of Cyprus was the 84th place finish in the EPT13 Prague Main Event for a €13,830 reward. He's now about to add the Russian flag to his profile, too. Ghavam had accumulated over $73k before arriving for PokerStars Championship Sochi. He currently sits in 19th place on Iran's all-time money list but that's going to change soon. Ghavam could possibly move up to the top five, should he become the champion.
Ghavam's Main Event run has been impressive. He finished every day within the top ten. However, it wasn't smooth all the way for him, especially on Day 4 when his tournament life was on the edge. He ran with pocket queens into aces of Timur Bubnov but dodged the deadly bullet, spiking a queen on the flop to score a huge double up and remain firmly in his seat.
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