Today we follow the path of Ilya Anatskiy and Pavel Pleshuv at the final table of the WCOOP $10,300 Bounty tournament, played September 15-16, 2024.
The PokerStars tournament had 73 entries, 9 prizes. The prizes for first and second places were $86,137 each. The winner also received $122,500 for knockouts, the second place winner got significantly less – $28,750. The 9th place paid not much more than the buy-in – $11,701.
Final Table Stacks and Composition:
Johannes "Jepser8" Straver (Austria) – 66.5 bb
Almaz "Alister307" Zhdanov (Belarus) – 57.9 bb
Pavel "silentm0de" Pleshuv (Moldova) – 40.8 bb
David "MissOracle" Yan (New Zealand) – 35.2 bb
Talal "raidalot" Shakerchi (United Kingdom) – 31.6 bb
Ilya "Leqenden" Anatski (Belarus) – 25.9 bb
Alisson "heyalisson" Pekazevic (Brazil) – 14.1 bb
Garik "Garrin4e" Yaroshevsky (Slovenia) – 8.98 bb
Alex "I Attack95" Kulev (Bulgaria) – 8.18 bb
Seating arrangement:
Legend's first play was an open-raise from the cutoff with A7o into Pavel's big blind, who defended J4s. On the flop Pavel had a rainbow with a backdoor flush draw, and the Belarusian player didn't even make a continuation bet.
Thorn – . Both check. River – . Pavel puts 1 blind into the pot at 5.67, Legend raises to 5.67 with a straight. Pavel thinks about it and calls on a lower combination! After this hand, their stacks are almost equal.
In the next hand, David Yan opens from UTG with . Pavel has two tens in the small blind, he decides to play them by calling. Almaz Zhdanov also comes in in the big blind with . Flop – , everyone checks. Turn – , the players in the blinds check, Yan bets 2.33bb into a 7.77bb pot. Pleschuv folds – he’s down the minimum. Zhdanov calls with top pair. River – The players check and split the pot.
Then Shakerchi and Yan are dealt a cooler, but instead of going all in preflop, they play a complicated postflop:
Yan calls preflop, makes a small continuation bet on the flop, checks less than a third of the pot on the turn, and gets called. Shakerchi considers a donk bet on the river, but ultimately checks, and Yan, of course, checks back. A surprisingly small pot for such a rigged hand!
At the new level, Almaz makes a min-raise from the middle with , and Leqenden defends the big blind with . On the flop there follows a continuation bet of 1.86 bb into a pot of 5.63 bb, and Ilya with third pair shows intransigence – call.
Turn – , both check. River – , the straight boards continue to be dealt. Leqenden checks and folds to a 2/3 pot bet. He has 23bb left.
In the next hand, Almaz min-raises again, this time with – a player with a big bounty and six blinds in his stack sits in the big blind. Leqenden with calls from the small blind. The flop is again seen by two people: . Almaz decides not to make a continuation bet.
Turn (6.13bb): . Leqenden attacks with a bet of 4 big blinds, Almaz folds.
Soon after, Shakerchi is given a cooler again, this time against Straver:
Preflop: raise – 3-bet – call
Straver calls.
Turn (19.6bb):
Talal bets 12.1bb, leaving 15 behind. Straver shows amazing composure and just calls.
River (43.9 bb):
Straver checks, Shakerchi checks back – perhaps the completed flush saved him from elimination.
Garik Yaroshevsky, who has long suffered from an ultra-short stack, is dealt a playable hand:
He goes all in. Leqenden, of course, pushes, is left one-on-one, and earns a knockout.
In the next hand, he attacks the chip leader's big blind from an early position.
Straver called a quarter-pot continuation bet on the flop with his backdoor flush draw very quickly, and luck smiled on him on the turn. The Austrian called Anatski's second barrel.
River – , both check very quickly. Our player has 25 bb left.
The open push works, but it's funny that if he called, 76s would be slightly ahead.
In the next pot, Pleshuv defends the blind with against the chip leader's min-raise. Flop: . Straver bets 1.82bb into a 5.5bb pot, and Pavel folds a match without a redraw. The opponent had – you can’t even call it a bluff.
Almaz Zhdanov does something unusual:
He only has 12% all-in – is the bounty really worth it? Kulev hits an eight and takes the main pot, and Pekazewicz gets the side pot.
Shakerchi with the second stack from the end finds a surprising open fold:
Pavel opens from an early position , Ilya defends BB with . Flop check. On the turn Ilya bets a third of the pot and gets called. The river is Ilya tries to get more with a bet of half the bank, and again successfully: the distrustful Pavel calls again!
The chip leader min-raises in the BB Shakerchi. The British multi-millionaire has 13 blinds and AKs – it’s time to call! We won’t judge him, because Tatal got paid in full with 98% equity:
There was an all-in and a call, and the creative Talal had 30 blinds.
Pavel, left with one of the shortest stacks, defends the BB and snaps back at the continuation bet of the watering chip leader:
After some thought, Straver goes all-in, and our player is forced to surrender.
In the next hand he gets the first action in the small blind, goes all-in with KQo and beats Zhdanov's dominated QTs – a double up!
Leqenden opens Q8o from the middle for no apparent reason – perhaps counting on the fact that Ian, sitting in the BB with a 20-blind stack, finds it difficult to play postflop with short-handed players at the table. However, he calls (of course, his cards are stronger), but, unlike Ilya, he misses the flop and surrenders to a standard small continuation bet on the board .
In the next hand, Kulev raises KQo from UTG and puts five blinds on Pekazevic's all-in. The Brazilian shows AJo, but suffers from a queen on the flop and is eliminated in 8th place.
Pavel defends the BB against the chip leader and looks at one of the best possible flops:
There is a check-raise to 3.17bb. Straver calls. The turn is . Pavel puts 4.2bb into the 11.7 pot, leaving himself with about ten blinds. The Austrian moves all-in, gets called, and doesn't improve. He's still way ahead with almost 70 blinds, but Pleshuv moves into second place with 39bb.
In an attempt to immediately develop his success, Pavel dives from the small blind under a new raise from Straver and attacks the missed continuation bet, betting the turn (33%) and the river:
Johannes thinks for a long time – and folds!
A new clash between the same players turns out to be even more productive:
Pavel made a min-raise preflop, made a continuation bet of a quarter of the pot on the flop and missed the betting on the turn. On the river, after some thought, Straver settled on a sizing of 3/4 of the pot – 6.3 bb. In response, Pavel unashamedly turned it up to 21 bb! The opponent quickly made a call and saw unpleasant news.
Having become a leader, Pavel began to expand his range, but was immediately called to account by his comrade:
At the end of the first hour of the final table, the third elimination occurred: Yan knocked out Kulev, AQs>KJs, all-in preflop.
Pavel barrels and pushes Yan:
The New Zealander easily took down a quarter of the pot on the flop, but preferred to retreat to a larger bet on the turn.
On the same round, Leqenden makes the first limp at the final table – he leads from the button with QTo. Pavel checks from the BB and on the flop Spiritually loads a third of the bank with . Ilya throws it out.
Straver bluffs Yan:
Preflop, the Austrian 3-bet 6bb against a 2bb raise, the flop was checked, on the turn – a check and a delayed continuation bet of a little more than half the pot. On the river, David thought for a long time, but not very productively.
Threesome of Russian-speaking participants:
Zhdanov calls.
Turn (13.5bb):
Everything is checked.
River (13.5bb):
Again, everything checks. Legenden bet the flop with no equity and, of course, the pot is going to him at showdown. Experienced aurists would have easily predicted the winner at this stage.
Pavel goes under the former chip leader's raise and punishes him for checking the flop:
Straver folds.
Legendary with defends BB against Pavel and check-calls two streets on the board (Sizings are standard, small on the flop and half the pot on the turn). Nasty river prompts both to check, and Legenden wins against .
At the start of a new level, Straver with AKo and Yan with two tens go all-in pre-flop. The tens win, Yan, who had been sitting quietly, becomes the new chip leader, and Straver is left with only five blinds. In the next hand, the same players face each other again, A8o>A7o, and Johannes Straver is eliminated in 6th place.
In exactly the next hand, Pavel opens in the cutoff with AJo and gets shoved all-in for 14 blinds by Almaz with AQo. A quick call, a quick jack on the flop, and the Russian, playing under the Belarusian flag, leaves the tournament in 5th place.
Stacks in the top 4:
David Yan – 72.9 bb
Pavel Pleshuv – 51.1 bb
Ilya Anatski – 43.4 bb
Talal Shakerchi – 13 bb
Short stack ninja Shakerchi continues his way and with a 12bb stack he defends the BB by calling with . They put the flop . On the Brit's check, Pavel puts in one blind. Call. Turn – .
After all, postflop with – a double-edged sword! The businessman flies out, and for the next hour or so only professionals sort things out at the table.
Amazing call from Yan:
Preflop, Pavel simply called the raise, and on the flop he paid a continuation bet of half the pot. The turn was checked. It is not entirely clear, but it is very interesting what hand the New Zealander gave him, who decided to hero call the river.
Legend's conservative check-raise fold:
Preflop, Yan attacked with a 3.5bb raise, a small check-raise on the flop looks quite unusual. Ilya chose not to get involved.
At the end of the second hour, the New Zealander, not for the first time, performs a re-steal on his entire stack:
Legenden decides to call and is rewarded with a nine on the flop. David Yan is in third place, which earns him just over $86,000.
Heads-up stacks: Anatski – 85.5 bb, Pleszow – 60.5 bb.
The first minutes are spent under Pavel's dictation – he opens two bluff barrels of the opponent, including one overbet, on top pair without a kicker, and even successfully bluffs himself:
Ilya snaps back in a 3-bet pot:
Pavel calls. Turn both check and the river falls – two checks again, and luck is on Legenden’s side, who wins a huge pot by the standards of this final table – 41 bb.
Soon an even bigger pot is being played. Ilya limp-calls with .
Flop (7.24bb):
Pavel bets 4.78bb. Call.
Turn (16.8 bb):
Second barrel – 8.4bb. Call again.
River (33.6 bb):
On repeat, Pavel goes all-in 17bb. Ilya thinks for a long time – and makes a call! But loses ! The final stacks are closing in again.
Unexpectedly, the limped pot turns out to be important, in which, in addition, the flop was checked, and on the turn there was only a 2/3 bet (from Legenden) and a call:
The size of the opponent's bet impresses Legend, and he folds the second nuts!
The Belarusian's lead becomes more solid after the next 3-bet pot:
Pavel called the 3-bet and continuation bet, but another barrel on the turn was beyond his strength.
Pavel raises with , gets called. On the flop both check. Turn – , and Ilya suddenly – on an ace! – overbets the raiser: 5.11 bb into a 4.44 bb pot. Pavel calls with the third match.
River (14.7 bb):
Ilya thinks about it and makes another small overbet – 16.8 bb. With two pairs, Pavel almost immediately calls, but this combination is not enough.
The cooler is completely dead after the break:
Legend pushes and doubles his opponent on a blank river. The lead passes to Pavel. On a roll, he plays a limp-call with Q5o, floats the flop with one overcard and steals the pot on the turn:
The guys are playing beautifully, you want to watch this match more. If it were pot-limit hold'em, the match could have dragged on, but...
Legenden wins and leaves his opponent with 15 blinds.
After the blinds grow at a new level, Pavel's stack falls below 10bb. The all-in game begins. It goes with varying success, the short stack manages to win a couple of comparisons, but another coin flip ends in Ilya's favor:
Winning this WCOOP tournament earned Ilya Anatskiy over $200,000. Congratulations on this major success! Even if it's not as big as the one he won a couple of days ago:
