Mikhail Rudoy Becomes First Short Deck High Roller Champ on EPT
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Mikhail Rudoy battled through a turbulent final day of the €25,000 6+ Hold'em High Roller here at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona festival to win the very first short deck high roller tournament held on the tour.
Rudoy takes home €213,210 which is his biggest cash to date, beating the €77,600 he won for a 10th-place finish in the 2014 EPT Barcelona Main Event.
He defeated short deck regular Chin Wei Lim heads-up to end the 24-entry event.
€25,000 6+ Hold'em High Roller Final Table Results
| Place | Name | Country | Prize (EUR) | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mikhail Rudoy | Russia | € 213,210 | $237,064 |
| 2 | Chin Wei Lim | Malaysia | € 146,940 | $163,380 |
| 3 | Yake Wu | China | € 93,640 | $104,116 |
| 4 | Isaac Haxton | United States | € 67,710 | $75,285 |
| 5 | Mike Watson | Canada | € 54,740 | $60,864 |
"There's Lots of Action!"
"It was a really tough heads-up battle," said Rudoy after his victory. "I'm glad to get through it. I started playing short deck last year. There's lots of action.
"If you look in the PokerStars lobby there are a lot of Russian players [playing short deck]. It started to Macau so most of the Asian guys like to play this game. Over the last couple of years, Russian players have also started playing this game."
Rudoy said that he started playing short deck last year and that the game has a lot of action.
The edge is very small because the structure in this tournament is so good. There's a lot of action so it's never easy to win.
"The edge is very small because the structure in this tournament is so good. There's a lot of action so it's never easy to win. But to make my first cash in a tournament like this and to win it, I didn't even dream.
"I've played so many tournaments and sometimes you just stop believing that it's possible to cash. But I caught a very good run on the second day and it helped me to win."
Final Day
The 12 players that advanced from Day 1 were joined by a single reentry at the start of Day 2, with Australian Sam Higgs jumping back into the field.
Rudoy chipped up early, doubling through Mike Watson, with the Russian having trebled his stack by the end of the first level.
However, overnight chip leader Lim was also going well, eliminating Cary Katz and Michael Soyza in the same hand to become the first player over 1 million in chips.
Final Table and Money Bubble
Seven players made it through to the final table, knowing that just two would miss out on a min-cash of €74,740. Dario Sammartino was the winner of the very first EPT 6+ hold'em tournament back in May, but would miss out here after being eliminated by Isaac Haxton in seventh place.
Sammartino's shove was for less than five antes and, after having failed to chip up since entering at the start of the day, Higgs was in a similar predicament.
He thought he had picked up the perfect spot with pocket kings to run his stack back up, but sadly for him, he ran into the pocket aces of Mike Watson to bubble the tournament.
In the Money
Watson was next to go, cashing in his third short deck tournament this month. Both Watson and Rudoy flopped two pair, only for the Canadian to come out second best.
The three-way tussle behind chip leader Lim finally came to a head as Haxton doubled through him, promoting Yake Wu to the chip lead moments after Wu had doubled through the American.
However, no sooner had Wu tasted what it was like to lead the final four than Lim regained the chip lead, the Malaysian cracking kings to regain the top spot, and following that up with the elimination of Haxton in fourth (€67,710) to sit with over two-thirds of the chips in play.
It looked like the writing was on the wall for Rudoy at the start of three-handed play, as Wu doubled up to leave the Russian with just eight antes.
However, Rudoy tripled and then doubled up in back-to-back hands to move into second in chips. The rejuvenated Rudoy then ousted Wu in third (€93,640) to bring the tournament to heads-up.
Heads-Up Play
Just five antes separated the two opponents heading into heads-up play, but that gap soon widened in the favor of Lim after the opening exchanges.
However, after Lim called Rudoy's river shove, the Russian turned over a rivered straight to double into the lead. Moments later, Lim doubled back, rivering a straight of his own to level the stacks once more.
This time it was Rudoy's turn to open up a gap, and eventually, the big hand came. It was a classic race hold'em race: queens into ace-king. And it was Rudoy's queens that held to crown him king of the €25,000 6+ Hold'em High Roller here in Barcelona.
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Based in the United Kingdom, Will started working for PokerNews as a freelance live reporter in 2015 and joined the full-time staff in 2019. He graduated from the University of Kent in 2017 with a B.A. in German. He also holds an NCTJ Diploma in Sports Journalism.
