Home / Poker News August 2009 / EPY Kyiv – Day 5: Max Lykov raises trophy
EPY Kyiv – Day 5: Max Lykov raises trophy
Posted by: James Carter. - Mon, 2009-08-24 13:27
Of the 296 players who started out five days ago with high hopes, only eight returned to the Kyiv Sport Palace to decide who takes home the €330,000 first prize and the EPT Championship trophy.
Maxim Lykov had put in quite a dominating performance, having assumed the position of the chip leader on Day 2 and not having relinquished it ever since. When the dust settled at the end of the final day, it was only natural that he should be the one holding up the trophy and pocketing the prize-money.
As soon as the action got rolling around noon, players ripped into each other mercilessly, like a bunch of race-horses finally free of all restrains, eager to beat the others to the finish line. The first elimination of the day would only come by much later though. It took nearly an hour of back and forth action till Vadim Markushevski picked up a pair of Ks and decided to trust his tourney life to them. He was called immediately by Alexander Dovzhenko, who had pocket rockets and Markushevski was done in 8th place. He did pick up a €30,000 consolation prize though.
That elimination left Germany’s Torsten Tent the short stack and it only took the other players 30 minutes to gang up on him end eject him in 7th place. Lykov himself was responsible for this elimination and once rolling, he wouldn’t stop there.
Holland’s Ad Schaap was unfortunate enough to challenge Lykov next, and as his A,Q failed to catch anything on the board, he fell to the Russian’s pocket 10s in 6th place.
After Schaap’s elimination, the action once again ground to a halt. The large stacks at the table carried the bulk of the action at this point, and the short-stacks appeared content to stay out of their way and pick up a few crumbs every now and then. Lucasz Plichta, the Polish player who’d won his EPT Kyiv seat online for a handful of FPPs, eventually locked horns with Vitaly Tolokonnikov on an 8,8 vs Q,Q match up. Unfortunately for the Pole, the flop brought both an 8 and a Q to give both players sets. The turn and the river altered nothing and Plichta was done in 5th place, good enough for a €80,000 prize.
Arthur Simonyan carried his short stack through the final table masterfully, up until he was finally forced to shove on a random hand against Dovzhenko’s pocket 10s, which proved enough to end his tournament run.
After the break, the three heavyweights had no one else around to bully so they were forced to rip into each-other. Tolokonnikov became the first victim of this large stack showdown, as Lykov’s A,J got the better of his pocket 7s.
Tolokonnikov’s elimination gave Lykov wings: he bullied Dovzhenko around for a while but the eventual outcome of the heads-up confrontation was never in doubt. The final hand of the event saw Lykov’s 4,9o go up against Dovzhenko’s J,10. Dovzhenko did flop two pairs, but Lykov was way ahead by then with a set.
