communiqué et résultat
MAXIM LYKOV WINS FIRST POKERSTARS
EUROPEAN POKER TOUR EVENT IN UKRAINE
Kyiv, Ukraine, August 23, 2009: Maxim Lykov became the first Russian to win a PokerStars European Poker Tour event when he took down the ¤5,000 EPT Kyiv tournament today for a first prize of ¤330,000.
The first event of season six of the EPT attracted nearly 300 players to the Kyiv Sports Palace in the heart of the Ukraine capital., including nearly 80 PokerStars players. It was the first time the EPT has been held in the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Lykov, known as “Decay” online, was also the first EPT champion to lead the tournament three days in a row and then go on to win. Afterwards he said: “When I had the chip lead on Days 2 and 3, I really felt quite confident that I would make the final table. I am very proud to win this. Ukraine and Russia are very close so I feel I have won for both countries. It was a hard contest but I did believe I could do it ,and I was very focused.”
Lykov’s EPT win brings his tournament earnings this summer to over ¤600,000. In June, the 21-year-old Muscovite came third in the 5k NLHE shootout at the World Series for $145,000. He now plans to play as many EPTs as possible including the forthcoming EPT Barcelona event in September and the EPT London Poker Festival.
EPT Kyiv was the largest poker tournament ever held in the Commonwealth of Independent States . The 296 competitors, hailing from 33 countries, created a total prize pool of ¤1,391,200.
A wealth of stars competed in Kyiv including Team PokerStars Pros Ivan Demidov, Alex Kravchenko, Luca Pagano, Dario Minieri as well as Vlad Zhuba, the first member of the new Team PokerStars Ukraine Pro and Team PokerStars Argentina Pro Leo Fernandez. Other pros taking part included Gus Hansen, Shaun Deeb, Cristiano Blanco, John Kabbaj,
Final table/payouts:
Name Country PokerStars status ¤
1 Maxim Lykov Russia ¤330,000
2 Alex Dovzhenko Ukraine ¤220,000
3 Vitaly Tolokonnikov Russia ¤140,000
4 Arthur Simonyan Russia ¤100,000
5 Lucasz Plichta Poland ¤80,000
6 Adrian Schaap Holland ¤60,000
7 Torsten Tent Germany ¤45,000
8 Vadim Markushevski Belarus ¤30,000