The Russian poker player Aleksandr Merzhvinskiy climbed a big poker hill yesterday, taking down PokerStars Main Event in Sochi. The player enjoyed a juicy payday of ₽7,700,000 (approximately $133,951) and a trophy for his deep run into the event. One of the largest live poker tournament in Russia attracted a field of 699 poker hopefuls, who generated a life-changing prize pool of ₽40,681,800. Players from all over the world participated in the event, but the cards decided that the trophy and the first first-place prize will remain in the country, which kindly played host to the event.
Aleksandr Merzhvinskiy was crowned champion after tough 3-day-long poker battle. The Russian player is a newbie on the poker scene, but his career started with flying colors. Including his latest triumph, the player’s total live earnings amounted to $559,225, with a best live cash of $400,000. According to his Hendonmob career profile, Merzhvinskiy started to play poker only a year ago, but this is not the first time, in which he claims the throne.
PokerStars Sochi Main Event Coming to Closing Stage
PokerStars Sochi Main Event was held over 3 days, which offered a qualitative poker action. At the end of Day 2, the number of pretenders to the throne was reduced to only 27. Merzhvinskiy entered the last Day 3 of the event as the chip leader, riding confidently the wave to the win. The eventual winner brought a stack of 2,599,000 in chips to the final day of the event, while his nearest opponent Serafim Kovalevskiy had almost 2 times smaller stack of chips.
The steady stream of elimination was in the fast lane as it did not take long until the field was narrowed to only 9 players. All the remaining poker warriors were fiercely striving to see their names engraved in PokerStars Championship Main Event champions. Vadim Lipovka was the unfortunate soul, who just before the official final table was set.
The final table competition was also a fast-paced poker action. By the time there were only 2 players left in the poker contention, the sole contender to battle with Merzhvinskiy was the Russian player Alexsandr Denisov. They looked at the numbers considering a two-way ICM deal, but the idea was immediately scratched it off the list with options.
Even though Merzhvinskiy was holding a commanding chip advantage when the heads-up clash began, Denisov managed to catch up in no time. On the very final hand in play, the soon-to-be-crowned champion tabled [Js][Jc], while his opponent showed [6h][6d]. The [Qs][5s][5c][Ks][2d] landed on the board, securing Merzhvinskiy with the winning hand. Denisov hit the rail in 2nd place for a hefty cash prize of ₽4,700,000 or around $81,762.
