Main Event
Day 3 Completed
2017 PokerStars Championship Sochi
Main Event
Day: 3
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2017 PokerStars Championship Sochi
Buy-in
318,000 RUB
Prize Pool
150,000,000 RUB
Entries
387
Level
28
Blinds
40,000 / 80,000
Ante
10,000
Shirshikov Soars to the Top on Day 3; ElkY, Moneymaker and Troyanovskiy All Through
Level 17
: 3,000/6,000, 1,000 ante
Day 3 of the 2017 PokerStars Championship Sochi RUB 318,000 Main Event saw 82 players out of a 387-entry strong field return to the tables of the Sochi Casino and Resort, Krasnaya Polyana, and the money bubble burst during the four levels before the field was thinned out further. At the end of level 17, only 30 players remained and Pavel Shirshikov claimed the lead after pipping 2017 WPT Amsterdam Daniyar Aubakirov champion for the top spot just when the last hands of the day were announced.
Shirshikov bagged up 1,604,000 with Aubakirov as the next best (1,018,000) in second, and they are the only two players above one million in chips, while High Roller regular Vladimir Troyanovskiy follows in third place (807,000). The 30-year-old Shirshikov is mainly a cash game player only has two live results thus far, both coming from the partypoker Million festival here in Sochi back in March 2017, and he is guaranteed to crush his best live cash of $1,874.
Both PokerStars Team pros made it through and are still in contention for the lion's share of the 150,000,000 RUB prize pool. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier bagged up a big stack with (763,000) and Chris Moneymaker scored a late double with aces versus nines to claim 289,000 for Day 4.
Other notables and big stacks that bagged up today include Timur Bubnov (734,000), Alexander Lakhov (572,000), Seyed Ghavam (538,000), Dmitry Vitkind (430,000), Jonas Lauck (334,000), Dmitry Chop (300,000), and Mikhail Rudoy (197,000).
When action resumed in two different tournament areas, the early eliminations came at a quick pace. Among those to run out of chips in the first level were Mikhail Soltanov, Dmitriy Motorov and Abraham Passet. The latter lost a race with ace-king against the pocket queens of Gaby Livshitz.
Others that missed out on the money were Konstantin Tolokno, Vladimir Demenkov, Vladimir Dobrovolskiy, Daniil Kiselev and Nacho Barbero. As for Barbero, he was gone two spots shy of a cash in Sochi when his ace-king suited faced the pocket jacks of Daniyar Aubakirov and another jack appeared right in the window. The bubble burst soon after and it was Roman Seleznev who ran out of chips on the feature table to become the bubble boy. Down to just over three big blinds, he shoved with ace-king and initial raiser Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier called with eight-nine to spike a nine on the flop.
Among those to share the min-cash of 735,000 RUB were Aram Vartevanyan, Day 1a chip leader Andrei Shkerin, Vahe Martirosyan, Maxim Lykov and PokerStars qualifier Jörg Böhme. Lykov busted in a massive setup with kings against the aces of eventual end-of-day chip leader Pavel Shirshikov. Böhme's top pair with king-queen suited on a king-high flop failed to hold up against ElkY's bottom pair and flush draw, as another spade immediately hit on the turn.
A big surprise was the elimination of 1b chip leader and American poker pro Jason Wheeler in 33rd place for 885,000 RUB. Wheeler was cruising through the day and even claimed the stacks of three opponents in a row before it all came to a crashing end in the last level of the night. On a king-high turn, he got it in with ace-king for top pair and top kicker only to see Pavel Shirshikov snap-call with pocket jacks for middle set. Wheeler was drawing dead and quickly left the tournament area.
Gaby Livshitz and Dmitry Nikitin followed him to the rail during the last five hands and that wrapped up Day 3 with just 30 hopefuls still in contention. They will return tomorrow at 12 p.m. local time for level 18 and blinds of 4,000/8,000 with a running ante of 1,000. The goal of Day 4 is to either play five levels of 90 minutes each or until the last 16 players and two tables remain, the latter scenario is far more likely.
Main Event Day 4 Seat Draw
| Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Jonas Lauck | Germany | 334,000 |
| 1 | 2 | Yehor Filipenko | Ukraine | 101,000 |
| 1 | 3 | Yurii Zdanovskyi | Ukraine | 160,000 |
| 1 | 4 | Dmitry Vitkind | Russian Federation | 430,000 |
| 1 | 5 | Dmitry Chop | Russian Federation | 300,000 |
| 1 | 6 | Anton Gililov | Russian Federation | 421,000 |
| 1 | 7 | Mikhail Rudoy | Russian Federation | 197,000 |
| 1 | 8 | Lavrentiy Ni | Kazakhstan | 107,000 |
| 2 | 1 | Alexander Lakhov | Russian Federation | 572,000 |
| 2 | 2 | Vitaliy Li | Russian Federation | 303,000 |
| 2 | 3 | Artsiom Zhadinsky | Belarus | 205,000 |
| 2 | 5 | Timur Bubnov | Russian Federation | 734,000 |
| 2 | 6 | Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier | France | 763,000 |
| 2 | 7 | Denis Pavlenko | Uzbekistan | 188,000 |
| 2 | 8 | Mikalai Vaskaboinikau | Belarus | 58,000 |
| 3 | 1 | Oleg Chebotarev | Russian Federation | 435,000 |
| 3 | 2 | Artem Savchenko | Russian Federation | 246,000 |
| 3 | 3 | Nadar Kakhmazov | Russian Federation | 500,000 |
| 3 | 4 | Seyed Ghavam | Iran | 538,000 |
| 3 | 5 | Ruslan Voitovich | Russian Federation | 135,000 |
| 3 | 6 | Junya Yamada | Japan | 306,000 |
| 3 | 7 | Vladimir Troyanovskiy | Russian Federation | 807,000 |
| 3 | 8 | Chris Moneymaker | USA | 289,000 |
| 4 | 1 | Said Butba | Russian Federation | 141,000 |
| 4 | 2 | Daniyar Aubakirov | Kazakhstan | 1,018,000 |
| 4 | 3 | Oleg Lipkin | Russian Federation | 155,000 |
| 4 | 5 | Mikhail Galitski | Russian Federation | 171,000 |
| 4 | 6 | Ulrich Jungen | Switzerland | 170,000 |
| 4 | 7 | Dmitrii Grinenko | Russian Federation | 159,000 |
| 4 | 8 | Pavel Shirshikov | Russian Federation | 1,604,000 |
The PokerNews live reporting team will be there to cover all the action, as three days remain to crown the first-ever PokerStars Championship Main Event winner on Russian soil.
End of Day Chip Counts (full)
Level 17
: 3,000/6,000, 1,000 ante
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,604,000 | 1,000 |
|
1,018,000 | -262,000 |
|
807,000 | 57,000 |
|
763,000 | 113,000 |
|
734,000 | -1,000 |
|
572,000 | 71,000 |
|
538,000 | 58,000 |
|
500,000 | -25,000 |
|
435,000 | 35,000 |
|
430,000 | -90,000 |
|
421,000 | -139,000 |
|
334,000 | -67,000 |
|
306,000 | -1,000 |
|
303,000 | 143,000 |
|
300,000 | |
|
289,000 | -1,000 |
|
246,000 | -24,000 |
|
205,000 | -164,000 |
|
197,000 | -197,000 |
|
188,000 | -12,000 |
|
171,000 | 19,000 |
|
170,000 | -10,000 |
|
|
160,000 | -10,000 |
|
159,000 | 29,000 |
|
|
155,000 | -25,000 |
Hand Analysis: Chris Moneymaker Finds the Right Call
Level 17
: 3,000/6,000, 1,000 ante
Bubnov Busts Nikitin
Level 17
: 3,000/6,000, 1,000 ante
Dmitry Nikitin was moved to the feature table and got involved into a hand right away. Said Butba raised and Timur Bubnov in the hijack as well as Nikitin in the cutoff called.
On the 
flop, Butba continued for 17,000 and Bubnov called. Nikitin shoved for 136,000 and that forced out Butba, while Bubnov called.
Dmitry Nikitin: 
Timur Bubnov: 
Neither the 
turn nor the 
river changed anything and Nikitin headed to the rail in 31st place.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
735,000 | 208,000 |
|
|
Busted |
Moneymaker Doubles Through Troyanovskiy
Level 17
: 3,000/6,000, 1,000 ante
Vladimir Troyanovskiy opened for 15,000 and it folded round to Chris Moneymaker in the big blind who raised small.
Troyanovskiy splashed enough chips to cover Moneymaker’s remaining stack and he almost beat him into the pot with a call.
Troyanovskiy showed 
and Moneymaker 
.
The board ran out 
giving Moneymaker a double up and a bite from Troyanovskiy’s stack.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
750,000 | -120,000 |
|
|
290,000 | 120,000 |
Five More Hands For the Night
Level 17
: 3,000/6,000, 1,000 ante
The clock has been paused and each table will play five more hands before bagging for Day 4.
Butba Shoves Into Bubnov
Level 17
: 3,000/6,000, 1,000 ante
In a battle of the blinds over on the feature table, Said Butba bet a flop of 
for 15,000 and Timur Bubnov raised to 34,000. Butba moved all in for 110,000 and Bubnov took more than two minutes of consideration before folding the face up. Butba flashed the 
and raked in the pot without showdown.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
527,000 | 211,000 |
|
178,000 | 10,000 |
Savchenko Sends Livshitz to the Rail
Level 17
: 3,000/6,000, 1,000 ante
Artem Savchenko raised from the cutoff and short stack Gaby Livshitz shoved for less than 50,000 from one seat over on the button. All players behind them folded and Savchenko called it off.
Artem Savchenko: 
Gaby Livshitz: 
The board ran out 
and Livshitz headed to the rail in 32nd place.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
270,000 | -40,000 |
|
Busted |
Pavel Shirshikov New Chip Leader; Wheeler Out
Level 17
: 3,000/6,000, 1,000 ante
The largest pot of the tournament just went down. It was a monster.
Pavel Shirshikov opened to 13,000 from under-the-gun. Jason Wheeler three-bet to 46,000 on the button. Shirshikov four-bet to 118,000 and Wheeler went into the tank. Eventually making the call. The flop came 
, and Shirshikov continued with a bet of 65,000. Wheeler called.
The 
fell on the turn and things escalated quickly. Shirshikov fired out again, this time for 140,000. Wheeler took just a moment before raising all-in. Shirshikov snap-called.
Wheeler: 
Shirshikov:
Shirshikov had flopped a set of jacks, leaving Wheeler drawing dead. The inconsequential completed the board on the river and Wheeler exited the tournament floor in 33rd place, good for RUB 885,000 (approx. USD$ 15,659)
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
1,603,000 | 773,000 |
|
Busted |