Mikalai Vaskaboinikau Wins $50,000 EPT Cyprus Super High Roller for $600,000

The Belarussian businessman and semi-pro player Mikalai Vaskaboinikau won the sixth title of his poker career as he took down the $50,000-entry Super High Roller event in Cyprus on the European Poker Tour. With a final table full of stars such as Adrian Mateos, Artur Martirosian and Roman Hrabec, a prizepool of $2,279,970 was divided between just six of the 47 total entries.

Huge Flip Bursts the Bubble

With just six cashing, play got to a final table before it decided which players would be paid. It came down to a coinflip for a pot of 1.3 million chips as the French player Thomas Eychenne was all-in with pre-flop against the Russian player Artur Martirosian, who held .

A flop of was good for Eychenne, as was the but the Russian spiked the river to eliminate Eychenne and put the remaining six players into profit.

The first player to lose their stack but receive payment was Canadian Jamil Wakil for $159,600 in sixth place. His final hand saw him forced to commit his stack from the small blind, and he did so blind as both Adrian Mateos and Alexander Zubov called to the river of a board before Zubov bet to push Mateos off the pot.

Zubov revealed for a rivered flush, whereupon Wakil turned over his and tossed his cards into the middle of the table.

“I had a pair.” He quipped as he left the televised table and had to walk past the trophy one of now five opponents would win.

Hrabec Shows Hustle

Alexander Zubov profited from the demise of Jamil Wakil but soon lost his own stack. Falling short, he shoved with but ran into Mateos’ and lost his stack by the turn when the board landed to complete a set for the Spaniard. Zubov slid out of the reckoning for the ‘Golden Shard’ trophy and half a million dollars at least as he busted for $205,200 in fifth place.

Mateos took a slight hit in the next hand to Hrabec after he folded trips to a cold bluff from the Czech crusher but still had a dominating stack. The Spanish multiple major winner had a pile of 5.16 million chips, with Martirosian (2.97m), Hrabec (2.48m) and the short-stacked Belarussian Mikalai Vaskaboinikau (1.15m) all trailing in his wake.

Over the next hour of play, the chips changed hands on multiple occasions in a big way and Hrabec was shorter than Vaskaboinikau when the two got the chips into the middle pre-flop. Hrabec needed to hit with against the of Vaskaboinikau but couldn’t as a board of sent him home with $262,200 in fourth place.

The Deal Decides It

With three players remaining, the action continued for over an hour before the trio paused the clock to discuss a deal. Eventually, numbers were agreed on with over $1.6 million still up for grabs. Spanish player Mateos locked up $555,758, with chip leader Mikalai Vaskaboinikau assured of a $542,120 payday, with Artur Martirosian guaranteed to take home $495,815. With Vaskaboinikau leading, the three men battled on for an extra $59,277, with the ‘Golden Shard’ trophy promised to the Belarussian come what may as part of the deal.

The deal loosened play, but it still took some time for Mateos to bust in third place. All-in with , he lost to Vaskaboinikau’s when nothing came to help either player and the latter’s king played. That gave the Belarussian a chip lead of 6.42 million against Martirosian’s 5.33m as play entered the final duel.

Eventually, Martirosian shoved for just 1.4 million chips after being whittled down by the chip leader. The Russian’s was quickly called by Vaskaboinikau with and a safe board came for the Belarussian as he bagged $601,397 to go with the trophy, meaning the winner had collected the biggest prize after all. He had wanted the trophy more than anything, however, as he told PokerNews after the event.

“Normally players play poker for money. I like to get trophies,” he said. “This is the main target for me in poker, competition and to win trophies. That was one of the top three or five events in the year – it’s a dream for a poker player to do it. It was a very big moment for me. I will never forget this moment in my life.”

Having played on the European Poker Tour for a decade, he had never won a trophy… but today correct that anomaly.

“Ten years and [I never won] even a small trophy. But now I have a big one and I can relax! Poker is something to clear your mind from business and to just enjoy the game. To feel yourself like a child and compete for something. For every father, if he gets success in something he feels proud. His family feels proud for him.”