Mikalai Vaskaboinikau Wins Latest Super High Roller in Northern Cyprus

The $50,000-entry Super High Roller event that took place this week on the European Poker Tour Cyprus was a big one. With a prizepool of $2,279,970, the Belarussian Mikalai Vaskaboinikau edged out players such as Adrian Mateos, Artur Martirosian and Roman Hrabec as he finally claimed an EPT trophy after 10 years of trying. In fact, he almost did it twice.

Eychenne Busts on the Bubble

A total of 47 entries meant just six players would make a profit in the $50,000-entry EPT Cyprus Super High Roller, with the final table reached before the money bubble burst. When seven players left, just one more player needed to leave to burst the bubble, and it was the Frenchman Thomas Eychenne who would cash for nothing, losing an entry worth $50,000 with no return on his investment.

All-in with pocket queens, he lost to the Russian player Artur Martirosian’s ace-king when a painful board of 6-4-3-4-K paired up the player with more chips on the river. That put all six players still at the table in profit, and soon, their number was reduced to five.

Canadian player Jamil Wakil cashed for $159,600 in sixth place when his pocket deuces lost to Alexander Zubov’s seven-five of spades after a board of Q-9-8-7-K came with three spades to give the Russian an unnecessary flush after he had already paired his seven on the turn.

Zubov Drops to Zero

With five left, it was the man who took out Wakil who exited himself. Dropping to the short stack position among the remaining players, Zubov moved all-in with jack-four to steal a pot but was called by the pocket fives of Adrian Mateos. A board of 9-8-3-5-T saw the Spanish end matters by the turn as he completed a set of fives and the Russian Zubov cashed for a score of $205,200 in fifth place.

Despite winning that hand, Mateos didn’t hold his stack for too long. Very soon after reducing the field to four, he folded trips to the stone-cold bluff by Roman Hrabec. Mateos still had a strong lead with 5.16 million chips, but the hand allowed Martirosian (2.97m), Hrabec (2.48m) and even the eventual winner Mikalai Vaskaboinikau (1.15m) to get within range when a call might have made the latter stages very different.

A long period of play took place where the chip lead moved around the table several times before Roman Hrabec found himself short-stacked and at risk. All-in with ace-ten, Hrabec lost to the pocket eights of Vaskaboinikau when a five-high board sent the Czech player home with $262,200 in fourth place.

Just three players remained and after a short period where each player had the momentum, the blinds were big enough to prompt deal discussions. Eventually, under the stewardship of award-winning tournament director Toby Stone, over $1.6 million was divided as follows:

Adrian Mateos – $555,758,

Mikalai Vaskaboinikau – $542,120

Artur Martirosian – $495,815

The Deal Decides It

“Poker is something to clear your mind from business and to just enjoy the game.”

As the Belarussian Vaskaboinikau was leading at the time of the deal, he bagged the Golden Shard trophy for himself as part of the agreement, with just $59,277 on the line. All three are professionals, however, and competition was fierce for the value-added extra five-figure sum.

Mateos busted in third place when his ace-three lost to Vaskaboinikau’s ace-king which gave the Belarussian 6.42 million chips to battle Martirosian’s stack of 5.33m.

The Russian Martirosian drifted down to just under 1.5 million chips and shoved with ace-deuce. Called by Vaskaboinikau with pocket fours, the Belarussian’s pocket pair to earn him a total prize fund of $601,397 and the most priceless thing of all – the trophy.

“Normally, players play poker for money. I like to get trophies,” he told PokerNews. “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.”

Vaskaboinikau had competed in EPT events for 10 years without ever winning a trophy – the exact reason he locked it up in the deal, only to win it outright after the deal anyhow.

“Ten years and [I never won] even a small trophy,” he admitted. “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.”

After achieving a lifelong ambition, Mikalai Vaskaboinikau can finally put an EPT trophy on the mantelpiece at home. If his children ever ask him how he won he can start with the word ‘twice’.