[Removed:17] Wins the PokerStars EPT Malta €25,750 High Roller for €465,800
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The third and final day of the PokerStars European Poker Tour €25,750 High Roller started with just 6 players, all eyeing a first place prize of €465,800.
It was an international slate of players, with six different flags in use at the final table. After just under 100 hands, the blue, red and white of the flag of New Zealand waved on top as [Removed:17] was crowned the champion, defeating Ole Schemion, Mikita Badziakouski, Max Silver, Oleksii Khoroshenin and Ramin Hajiyev.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Removed:17] | New Zealand | €465,800 |
| 2 | Ramin Hajiyev | Azerbaijan | €334,400 |
| 3 | Oleksii Khoroshenin | Ukraine | €217,400 |
| 4 | Max Silver | United Kingdom | €164,030 |
| 5 | Mikita Badziakouski | Belarus | €127,400 |
| 6 | Ole Schemion | Germany | €98,740 |
| 7 | Davidi Kitai | Belgium | €78,050 |
| 8 | Patrick Leonard | United Kingdom | €60,500 |
| 9 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | €46,180 |
Ole Schemion started out as the shortest player of the 6 and was the first to go as well. He got off to a good start finding kings, but his four-bet shove found no customer in Ramin Hajiyev who folded his ace-queen suited preflop. Picking up those chips wouldn't do Schemion any good, as he ran pocket jacks into the kings of [Removed:17] minutes later. A board full of blanks resulted in Schemion getting eliminated from the €25,750 High Roller, and he hopped right into the Main Event.
Five-handed play lasted several hours as no player was eager to risk all of their chips. Mikita Badziakouski would eventually be the unlucky one, falling in 5th place after losing ace-king to Max Silver's jack-ten preflop all in.
Max Silver himself would be next to go. He lost a huge coin flip with ace-queen versus the jacks of his roommate [Removed:17] as no queens or aces appeared as community cards. That left the amicable Brit short, and he busted not much later as he ran queen-nine into the ace-ten of Oleksii Khoroshenin.
Oleksii Khoroshenin, the EPT season 10 Vienna champion who qualified for this event the night before it started, ended up making his exit in 3rd place. He got involved with pocket threes in a slowly growing pot that saw Ramin Hajiyev hit a ten on the turn with ace-ten. The two got their chips in the middle with one last card to come and Khoroshenin failed to improve to bust out.
Just like that, the event was heads-up. The two remaining players, Ramin Hajiyev and [Removed:17], had plenty of chips, though. The play was extremely deep and the rail and commentators prepared for a long heads-up battle between two great players.
It would go differently, as just three hands later it was all over. Hajiyev first lost some chips in a hand that Yan had flopped a full house in, only to run a huge bluff the next hand that would not get through. Yan flopped top pair and rivered two pair on a board with straight and flush possibilities. Ramin Hajiyev went for it pushing all in with nothing but a missed gutshot draw. Yan asked for a count, thought about it for just a bit, and said "Call" to end the tournament. Not many tournaments end with a failed big bluff, but here in Malta, exactly that was the case.
It took the rail and players some time to realize it was all over, but the applause and confetti cannon would soon follow. [Removed:17] had won the PokerStars EPT Barcelona €25,750 High Roller for €465,800, after having already won the most money in the same event during EPT Barcelona only 2 months ago.
The €25,750 High Roller is in the books, but the EPT Malta continues. You can follow the Main Event and the upcoming High Rollers all week in the PokerNews Live Reporting section.