Denys Shafikov Becomes First WPT Russia Champ to Tune of $254,400
The second World Poker Tour champion of 2019 has been crowned, and he's also the first to earn the right to call himself a WPT Russia winner.
Denys Shafikov of Ukraine topped the Russia-heavy field of 503 entries at Casino Sochi in the ₽198,000 (~$3,000) Main Event to win 240,000 casino credits, which amounts to around $255,000 in prize money. It's the second-biggest score for Shafikov, who now sits right around $1 million in live cashes.
WPT Russia Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Home Country | Prize | Prize in USD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Denys Shafikov | Ukraine | 240,000 | $254,400* |
| 2 | Aleksey Gortikov | Russia | 161,000 | $170,660 |
| 3 | Yauhen Kontush | -- | 104,117 | $110,364 |
| 4 | Nikolay Fal | Russia | 75,000 | $79,500 |
| 5 | Mikhail Galitskiy | Russia | 59,000 | $62,540 |
| 6 | Oleg Pavlyuchuk | Russia | 48,000 | $50,880 |
*includes $15,000 WPT Tournament of Champions seat
The event, part of an ongoing partnership with partypoker, featured three live Day 1s and an online Day 1, although the latter only drew 17 of the entries. Pedro Oliveira, Anatoly Filatov, Konstantin Maslak, Konstantin Puchkov and Aleksandr Denisov were some of those cashing in the 63 paid places but missing out on the final table.
Shafikov built up a monster stack on the penultimate day of the tournament and had over a third of the chips in play nine-handed, according to the live updates.
Final Table Action
Nikolay Fal was the shortest stack at the final table of six with only about 15 big blinds, but he was also one of the most experienced there with over $900,000 in cashes. He managed to ladder up twice, first when Oleg Pavlyuchuk ran eights into Aleksey Gortikov's nines and then again when Mikhail Galitskiy jammed jack-nine suited on his last 11 big blinds and couldn't get there against Shafikov's fives.
Fal finally got caught when he ripped in K♣10♠ for around 10 bigs and Shafikov woke up with the A♥K♦. That left the Ukrainian in total command with 9 million of about 15 million in play.
It would be some time before another elimination, but eventually Yauhen Kontush got coolered with nines against Gortikov's jacks blind versus blind.
Gortikov was still down big heads up, but he got ace-king against ace-queen in his favor almost immediately to give himself a shot by doubling to 6.4 million at 60,000/120,000/120,000. Gortikov worked himself into the lead at one point, with the match eventually lasting almost 50 hands.
Finally, sitting with about 30 big blinds, Gortikov reshoved in the big blind with A♣7♣. Unfortunately for him, Shafikov had opened with nines and he turned a nine to seal the deal without even having to sweat a river card.
