button in SafariLevel: 11
Blinds: 800/1,600
Ante: 200
2017 PokerStars Festival Sochi
Main Event
Day: 1b
Players Left 1 / 699
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Level 10
: 600/1,200, 200 ante
In his own words, Igor Kurganov has enjoyed the “most densely good 3-4 months of poker” in the last five years, at least in terms of winning tournaments.
After his WSOP bracelet victory in the $10,000 Tag Team Championship alongside girlfriend Liv Boeree, finished second in an Aria $25k and took down the PSC Barcelona Super High Roller for more than €1m.
Speaking to us on break in the PokerStars Festival Sochi Main Event he explained that the bracelet was a “fairy tale with even more fairy dust on top”
“I didn’t think I cared much about a bracelet before. This one was really special though. It was really nice to win it with Liv.
“After I won I tried to capitalise on everyone being happy for Liv and I by jumping in Day 1 of the One Drop. I got a beer, which I wasn’t really drinking, but I made out like I was splashing about.”
Whatever his plan was, it worked. Kurganov survived Day 1 of the One Drop on one bullet and ended up cashing.
This is Kurganov’s second trip to Russia in five months, coming for the PokerStars Championship held here earlier this year. He reaffirms the commonly held belief that Russians are crazy about poker.
“From what I see, even before PokerStars came to Russia, Russians are one of the top three countries at most of the European events. This festival is no exception; we already had over 1,300 entries in the Megastack, and there looks to be 600-700 in the Main Event.
“Russians definitely love poker, and the players here range from the most recreational pure poker-loving players, to the absolute top poker players that exist in the world.”
Kurganov says that becoming a PokerStars Team Pro in February has enabled him to see a behind the scenes view on many parts of the PokerStars process.
“When I started playing poker I wanted to be a PokerStars Pro. I decided that I was going to play great and get good results and then become a Team Pro. But then Black Friday happened and it didn’t look like Team Pros were going to be added or didn’t see like that was going to be a possibility.
“I did have some disagreements with how Stars was running things at the time, especially in 2015, but in 2016 just by being around some of the meetings Liv was in I got to know some people, some changes that had been made within the company.
“I got to see that there is a lot of genuine care for poker. Just some of the conversations I’m allowed to have these days are great.“
With 2018 quickly approaching, Kurganov already has plans for the New Year.
“Over the last few months I’ve been spending a lot of time on non-poker endeavours, but less at the expense of poker but more at the expense of sleep! I’ll definitely be playing a bunch in 2018, and I’m looking forward to it.
“People are coming up with new events and they’re still exciting. There are also more big buy-in events this year than there were in previous years. I know Stars are going to be putting in way more effort and money into the poker economy, starting with the PCA.
“They have a crazy amount of qualifiers; a pretty awesome amount especially considering it’s going to be a 10k. I think more effort is going to be put into the poker economy by these companies, which is going to be better for the players.”
Level 10
: 600/1,200, 200 ante
Close to 20 players hit the rail during this level and they are down to 139 from a field of 286.
Day 1a finished with 94 players so today is likely to see a few more than that bag up a stack.
Level 10
: 600/1,200, 200 ante
Liv Boeree had a bit of a cooler first hand today but is fighting back and is sitting on above starting stack.
Level: 10
Blinds: 600/1,200
Ante: 200
Level 9
: 500/1,000, 100 ante
Players are on their final 15-minute break of the day.
Level 9
: 500/1,000, 100 ante
Kirill Andreichuk moved all in under the gun for around 30,000 and it folded to Sergei Popov on the button who called with a similar stack.
Popov turned over 
and Andreichuk showed his 
.
The board ran out 
.
A queen on the flop eventually ended Andreichuk’s tournament.
Level 9
: 500/1,000, 100 ante
Tonight at the Sochi Casino and Resort set among the beautiful mountains of Gorky Gorod, PokerStars and Playboy are set to co-host the Player's Party with a spectacular evening’s entertainment.
The party kicks off at 9 p.m. with a drinks and canapes reception and a Casino Lottery.
At 10 p.m. Playboy activities will begin and are due to last around an hour.
At 11 p.m Alekseev will perform a 45-minnute set. He may not be a familiar name in the west but Alekseev is a very famous pop star in his native Ukraine, where he made the semi-final of Ukraine’s "Voice of the Country” and is a huge star in Russia. His song, “Drunken Sun” topped the charts and has over 30 million views on YouTube.
Level 9
: 500/1,000, 100 ante
There were already a lot of chip in the middle preflop and with the dealer fanning 
Dmitrii Kopyl had moved all in and the decision was on Aleksandr Kuzmin who had slightly fewer chips that Kopyl. Eventually though he steeled himself and called to see the good news.
Kopyl: 
Kuzmin:
Kuzmin had to dodge six cards over the last two streets and with the turn 
and river 
completing the board he did just that to get a big double up.
Kopyl was left with 2,000 and was eliminated shortly after.
Level: 9
Blinds: 500/1,000
Ante: 100
