This year's EPT Cyprus Main Event saw 1,284 players register (up from 1,320 in 2023).
The second day started with 449 participants. At that moment, Viktor Ustimov was leading with a stack of 253 blinds.
In the final protocol, Viktor took 112th place ($12,020).
On the 3rd level of the day (1,000/2,500/2,500) a rare event occurred – Peter Tschernigg folded kings preflop. Boris Tabiev from Kazakhstan 3-bet with HJ, Peter in the BB cold 4-bet to 31,500, Boris shoved 132,000.
Peter fell into deep thought and asked:
– Do you have aces? I have kings.
A few more minutes passed, and Peter asked to be timed. He eventually threw, showing his cards to the entire table.
“Do you really want to know what I had?” Boris asked. Having received an affirmative answer, he showed .
Both players made it into the money, Boris was eliminated in two tables in 16th place.
The bubble burst at the end of the day. Samuel Fournier of France with 15 big blinds got it all in with QQ and couldn't beat Romania's Mihai Niste's AKs.
By the end of the day, there were 144 players left in the game (191 in the money).
Mikhail Shalamov celebrated his entry into the prizes with a quatrain poem:
$8400 in your pocket, bros
Now everyone beware of Mishka,
After all, for once there are chips
So that everyone here can learn their lesson.
Round.
Fakhretdin Mustafov (Bulgaria) finished as the chip leader, followed by Ivan Zabiyakin (Russia), future winner Oliver Weis (Germany) and Damir Zhugralin (Kazakhstan).
On the third day, the number of participants decreased from 144 to 45 people.
At the first level of the day, Mikhail Shalamov doubled up against Artur Martirosyan.
Inner 4-bet preflop and continuation bet on the flop . On the turn he pushed, Artur thought about it and called with . Mikhail showed . River was a blank.
In this hand, Artur lost half his stack and soon crashed out in 99th place ($12,020).
Inner spent most of the day in the middle of the pack, then held up in a tough all-in on the flop with KK against AJs at the TV table and finished the day with an above-average stack (69BB).
In first place was Bobby James from England (174BB), The secret to the lead was simple – just be on the right side of two huge coolers. First he was dealt against Akin Tuna from Turkey on a board . The pot was played for 200 blinds. James soon extended his lead by knocking out Russian Maksim Rogov in 62nd place ( > (60 blinds each).
Damir Zhugralin (161BB) finished the day with the second stack.
At the last level of the day, Damir exposed Fahredin Mustafov's bluff with his entire stack.
Damir opened with HJ, opponent defended BB.
On the board Fahredin bet-called the flop, check-raised the turn and pushed the river.
On the river, Damir immediately gave the dealer the last three time bank cards with the words: “Let me know when time is running out.”
When he finally threw one chip into the center, Mustafov showed , Damir had it .
On the fourth day at the 10,000/25,000/25,000 level, Mikhail Shalamov knocked out Ivan Zabiyakin and became the chip leader.
On the board Inner in the BB three-barreled all-in on the river with . Ivan on SB called all streets with , for 29th place he received $24,160.
After this distribution, Mikhail had 3,250,000.
Kirill Shcherbakov ($27,780) took 25th place. He lost the flip to Andrey Lyubovetskiy (AJs<TT), was left with a stack of less than one blind, and was soon eliminated.
Artem Lasovsky ($36,740) finished 20th. With about 10 blinds remaining, he moved all-in with KTo against Georgios Tsouloftas' AQs.
In the final hand of the day, China's Yisha Chen shoved 33 big blinds with , Andrey Lyubovetsky made the call with and determined the composition of the two final tables.
Chip counts:
In one of the first hands of the fifth day, Boris Tabiev went all-in with K7o against J7s, and the river brought a jack. For 16th place, the Kazakh player received $42,280.
Damir Zhugralin busted on the final table bubble ($73,100).
Damir opened 160,000 from the button, Oliver Weis from the SB and Anton Wigg from the BB from made the call. On the flop, Damir bet 185,000, Weis check-raised to 660,000, Wigg folded, Zhugralin paid. On the turn, Oliver check-called 550,000, and on the river, Damir announced all-in.
– GG, not a mandatory bluff, but sometimes it's possible, I'll play a couple more rounds tomorrow, – Damir wrote in Telegram.
Finalist stacks:
Anton Wigg lost a coin flip to Misha Inner and finished 6th ($208,720).
Bobby James ($271,400) went to rest in 5th place, his KQo failing to improve against Tsouloftas' AJo.
In the top 4, Inner was confidently in second place, but also lost a big pot to Tsouloftas.
Mikhail 3-bet 1,250,000 preflop and made two bets (900,000 and 2,100,000) on the flop and turn. The river was check-checked.
After this hand, Georgios became a huge chip leader.
In one of the next hands, Mikhail was on the verge of elimination, but found a pass with aces.
4th place went to Andrey Lyubovetskiy ($353,100).
Andrey defended the big blind, the flop was checked, Weis bet 550,000 on the turn, and shoved on the river. Andrey thought for a long time and made the call.
Inner made another impressive fold on the river.
Tsouloftas defended the big blind, check-called the flop, led the turn and shoved the river. Mikhail thought for a long time and folded.
After this hand, Inner worked his way up to 26 blinds, but in his final hand he shoved from the BB with , Tsouloftas on SB limp-called with .
For 3rd place, Mikhail Shalamov received $459,000.
5% of this profit went to Minton (who never won a prize in Cyprus), and he clearly fell well short.
Mikhail summed up his performance with a heartfelt post on Telegram.
"Today's funny adrenaline-emotional hangover (and the usual one is a bit of a cake), like after the New Year, a wedding or a cool birthday, when the holiday is over and you have to continue living your best, but not such a crazy life. Only here, of course, the $459k stuck to you adds a wild charm to the situation "
Oliver "sk2ll_m0dR" Weis started heads-up triple-underweight – 47 blinds to 145. At one point, his stack dropped to 20BB, but he gradually caught up with his opponent and took the lead. The lead changed hands several times, but in the end, the German's experience made a difference and after a four-hour battle, he won the prestigious trophy.
Mikalai Vaskoboinikau won his second trophy of the series in a $10,200 buy-in tournament.
Mikalai entered heads-up with a stack of 103 blinds against 42 of his opponent Krasimir Neychev from Bulgaria. Despite such a significant difference, Vaskoboinikau offered to split it equally, on the condition that he would get the trophy. Krasimir did not hesitate for a second.
The final day turned out to be successful for players from Belarus.
Vadzim Lipauka finished second in the $2,200 tournament.
In the $5k tournament, Alexander Shylko lost heads-up to the secretive Lars Kampfuss from Germany.
A few days earlier, Vadzim Godzdanker and Andrei Shpak competed for the championship in a $1k PLO tournament.
$10k Turbo Knockout Wins Top Online Reg C. Darwin2:
Lena900 made the final table of the $10k 3-Day High Roller, but finished in 8th place, a career-best result for eventual winner Ryan Mandara.
