Kiryl Radzivonau Wins PokerStars Festival Sochi High Roller for 3,000,000 RUB
Kiryl Radzivonau took down a 96-player field to win the PokerStars Festival Sochi High Roller and 3,000,000 RUB in prize money.
Coming into the day fifth in chips, Radzivonau used a wealth of experience, including multiple EPT final tables to navigate his way to the victory and his first career High Roller victory.
That brings their total live earnings to over $1.9m, and should seem them overtake fellow Belarusian Anton Astapau in the alltime Belarusian standings.
Runner-up Oleg Lipkin enjoyed another deep run here at the Sochi Resort & Casino after finishing 29th in the PokerStars Championship Sochi Main Event earlier this year.
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (RUB) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kirly Radzivonau | Belarus | 3,000,000 RUB | $51,000.00 |
| 2 | Oleg Lipkin | Russia | 2,091,000 RUB | $35,547.00 |
| 3 | Daniil Gavrilov | Russia | 1,375,000 RUB | $23,375.00 |
| 4 | Andrey Andreev | Russia | 1,080,000 RUB | $18,360.00 |
| 5 | Vanush Mnatcakanian | Russia | 870,800 RUB | $14,803.60 |
| 6 | Dmitriy Chop | Russia | 680,000 RUB | $11,560.00 |
| 7 | Yakov Oranskiy | Russia | 535,000 RUB | $9,095.00 |
| 8 | Mikhail Sokolov | Russia | 410,000 RUB | $6,970.00 |
26 players returned and it wasn't long before they were all seated around three tables. At this point it was Vanush Mnatcakanian who led the way after overnight chip leader Andrey Andreev lost some chips during the early exchanges.
The pre-bubble action resulted in some quick eliminations, as players failed to spin it up in their pursuit to cash and finish in the top 13. Igor Kurganov had been steady throughout the day, but was sent to the rail in a three-way all in against Oleg Lipkin and Vladimir Demenkov.
The money went in on a Four-Jack-Ten-Three board, with Lipkin holding a set of jacks. Neither Kurganov's straight draw nor Demenkov's flush draw could beat him and the pair were both sent to the rail.
By the time we made it to the first break we had lost nine players and play was on the two-table bubble. By the time Alexsey Zaragatskiy was eliminated to bring the tournament down to 16, it was Yakov Oranskiy who had taken over the chip lead, with Mnatcakanian falling back into the pack.
The bubble eventually burst in bizarre fashion. After Pavel Veksler opened, Siarhei Chudapal three-bet all in. Mikhail Sokolov was in the small blind and announced "call," without realising that Chudapal was all in. Sokolov's call stood and his King-Six of diamonds cracked the Jacks of Chudapal to bring the remaining 13 players into the money.
A few eliminations into the money, and Mnatcakanian had resurfaced to join the top of the chip counts, but it was Kiryl Radzivonau who stood atop the standings for the first time. However by the time play reached the unofficial final table of nine, Dmitrii Deviatov was chip leader with close to 700,000.
However, in a turn of events Deviatov was the first elimination at the final table after he doubled up Andrey Andreev and Daniil Gavrilov. Both Deviatov and Radzivonau held Queen-Jack, but the latter hit runner-runner diamonds to river a flush and eliminate his opponent.
Mikhail Sokolov was the first elimination at the official final table of eight, as Mnatcakanian doubled through Radzivonau to put the breaks on his surging chip stack, which was already over one million chips seven-handed.
After the dinner break, it didn't take long for Yakov Oranskiy to bust at the hands of Daniil Gavrilov, putting Gavrilov at the top of the leaderboard.
Dmitriy Chop had had an exciting day, including a penalty for attempting to tear up his playing cards, but he was eliminated in sixth place when his Ace-Nine failed to best the Ace-Jack of Andreev. He was soon joined by Mnatcakanian on the rail who was out-kicked by Radzivonau on a Jack-high flop, and he was eliminated in fifth.
With four-handed play relatively deep-stacked, there was no rush for any of the players to make any rash plays, and it took a long while before Andrey Andreev bust to Radzivonau, who now held more than half the chips in play three-handed.
And after Daniil Gavrilov bust in third place after an extended short-stacked three-handed battle, Radzivonau rode the wave of the big stack to victory shortly after 2 a.m. local time.