2019 PokerStars.es EPT Barcelona

€25,000 6+ No-Limit Hold'em (Short Deck)
Day: 2
Event Info

2019 PokerStars.es EPT Barcelona

Final Results
Winner
Mikhail Rudoy
Winning Hand
qq
Prize
€213,210
Event Info
Buy-in
€25,000
Prize Pool
€576,240
Entries
24
Level Info
Level
21
Blinds
0 / 0
Ante
0

Mikhail Rudoy Wins First-Ever European Poker Tour €25,000 6+ Hold'em High Roller

Level 21
€25,000 6+ Hold'em High Roller Champion Mikhail Rudoy
€25,000 6+ Hold'em High Roller Champion Mikhail Rudoy

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 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 tenth-place finish in the 2014 EPT Barcelona Main Event.

He defeated short deck regular Chin Wei Lim heads-up. Lim takes home €146,940.

Results

PlaceNameCountryPrize (EUR)Prize (USD)
1Mikhail RudoyRussia€ 213,210$237,064
2Chin Wei LimMalaysia€ 146,940$163,380
3Yake WuChina€ 93,640$104,116
4Isaac HaxtonUnited States€ 67,710$75,285
5Mike WatsonCanada€ 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. 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 re-entry 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 a million in chips.

Chin Wei Lim
Chin Wei Lim

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 big blinds 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 he ran into the pocket aces of Mike Watson to bubble the tournament.

Sam Higgs
Bubble Boy Sam Higgs

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 Wu to the chip lead moments after Yake Wu had doubled through the American.

However, no sooner had Wu tasted what it was like to lead the final four, 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 four blinds.

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.

Yake Wu
Yake Wu

Heads-Up Play

Just three big blinds separated the two opponents heading into heads-up play, but that gap soon widened in the favour 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, almost inevitably, the big hand came. It was a classic 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.

Chin Wei Lim_Mikhail Rudoy
Chin Wei Lim and Mikhail Rudoy shake hands after the final hand

Tags: Cary KatzChin Wei LimDario SammartinoIsaac HaxtonJochanan FlinkMichael SoyzaMike WatsonMikhail RudoySam GreenwoodSam HiggsYake Wu