Seat 2: Alex Boika, 37, from Belarus, lives in Slovenia – 7,035,000
Malta and Alex Boika have always gone together well. His first reported live tournament score came on this island – a modest €3,000 payday from 15 years ago. But while a lot has changed since then, one thing has remained constant: Boika continues to thrive on this Mediterranean island.
In 2016, Boika won the EPT Main Event the last time Malta hosted the tour. It means that Boika is undefeated in EPT Main Events on the island in nine years, and is now close to recording the strongest title defence at the same venue in EPT history. Only Mike McDonald, at EPT Dortmund in 2008 and 2009, has returned to the same final table as defending champion. McDonald finished fifth in that defense; Boika has already made it to fifth as well.
Boika banked €355,700 when he took down the title in 2016, but he smashed that total in a high-stakes Triton event in Jeju this year. Thanks to that $1.3 million prize, plus a few more six-figure cashes through 2025, his total career winnings now sit close to $6 million, a mark he will break tomorrow.
But it is the run itself that might see Boika achieve something truly unprecedented in the EPT’s 21-year history. Nobody has reached the EPT top spot twice in the same live event location, let alone in two consecutive editions. Boika is now close to changing that.
Player profiles courtesy of Jan Kores/Florence Mazet/Howard Swains