Home / Poker News August 2009 / EPT Kyiv – Day 1A: Demidenko leads
EPT Kyiv – Day 1A: Demidenko leads
Posted by: James Carter. - Fri, 2009-08-21 13:54
The first ever Ukrainian EPT stop got underway with loads of bells and whistles. The opening stop of the 6th season of the European poker Tour had originally been planned for Moscow, but the organizers’ plans have been upset by the legal turmoil in Russia, as a result of which poker has been declassified as a sport and has once again become subject to anti gambling laws. This way, the venue which was supposed to host the opening event became unavailable and the organizers were forced to look for a viable alternative. Because the opening “inning” of season 6 was planned to ride the wave of popularity explosion poker has seen in recent years in Russia, the organizers couldn’t stray very far. The choice fell to Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine, a country which has recently declared poker a sport.
The Kyiv Sports Palace became the host of the event, and the Ukrainian authorities welcomed the poker festival with open arms.
A grand opening ceremony was held, complete with the performances of some of Ukraine’s best known dance and music groups.
The Ukrainian Minister of Youth, Family and Culture delivered a welcome message, after which Gary Bowman, Thomas Kremser and John Duthie officially opened the green felt hostilities.
Day 1A attracted 129 players, most of whom (93 to be exact) made it through the first day of action.
Local player Mihaylo Demidenko emerged as the Day 1A chip leader, having amassed a stack of 145,125 chips. The starting stacks were all 30,000 chip ones and the starting level was a 50/100 one.
The action rolled along at a leisurely pace in the beginning, none of the players anxious to say goodbye to the green felt yet. Italy’s Luca Pagano was one of the players who attempted to take advantage of the apparent calm. He built his stack up at first but unfortunately ended up dropping it all by the day’s end to become one of the few casualties of the day.
Alex Kravchenko was among the starters too, together with John Cernuto and Nikolay Evdakov. All three of them survived Day 1A, with stacks around the 50k mark.
7 levels of play were completed on the first day of action, and the battle for the chip lead really sharpened up towards the day’s end. Arnaud Mattern was among the challengers, together with Alem Shah of Germany and Russia’s Michael Naletov.
Demidenko’s final stretch push got the better of these guys though, as he emerged from the pack on the shoulders of fellow countryman Oleksandr Ziv, who dropped a large pot to him.
The hand that decided the provisional chip leader saw a flop of 9h,Qd,4d, and Ziv took the initiative with a 10,000 chip bet. Demidenko check raised it to 20k, and Ziv decided to tag along for the ride.
The Kd on the turn and the Ac on the river were then checked by both players and Ziv turned over a pair of 9s for a set. Demidenko showed a pair of Ks for the bigger set and for the win.
