Yury Gulyy was there from the start and his son Andrey also entered the mix early on. He raised to 250 on the button and Arash Khosravi defended his big blind. The flop came and both players checked. Khosravi bet the turn for 200 and was called before making it another 250 to go after the river.
Gulyy called both streets and then nodded when Kohsravi showed for trips deuces. "That's nice, a chip race in level one," Gulyy joked after he had lost all his T-25 chips in the encounter.
The flop was with 3,000 already in the pot. Fiodar Skrunda was in the big blind and he checked it to Arman Atshemyan (from Armenia) who bet 2,000.
Fiodar Skrunda mulled it over for a short while before raising to 6,000 and then staring off to the side. Atshemyan looked a bit put out by this check-raise but after some thought he raised back to 10,000.
It was Skrunda’s turn to look unhappy but he nevertheless called the bet.
The turn card was the and a temporary truce was called between the two players as they checked it. The river was the and Skrunda checked for a final time.
Atshemyan bet 6,000 and grinned at his opponent. He was met with a grin in return and a reluctant call. Atshemyan showed the which beat the of Skrunda.
On a three-way flop of , Jonas Lauck checked out of the small blind and Stanislav Prikhodko did so from the big blind. Artem Noritsyn bet 525 from under the gun and Lauck called, Prikhodko folded. The turn saw Lauck check-call another bet worth 900 before the river was checked.
Lauck showed and had the better kicker against Noritsyn's .
A pot of 5,100 emerged until the and Andreas Walter checked out of the small blind. His sole opponent from under the gun bet 1,975 and Walter called before checking the river. The opponent checked behind and Walter turned over for aces and fours with a dry "surprise" as additional comment.
Team PokerStars Pro Aditya Agarwal from India is at the tables bright and early and looking focused.
Evgeny Platonov, a Russian PokerStars qualifier, opened the action for 250 from the cut-off and got a stare from Agarwai who then called from the button. The small blind came along as well.
The flop was and a continuation bet of 250 from Platonov picked up the pot.
Maxim Panyak was on the final table of the last PokerStars Championship in Monte-Carlo and eventually finished 4th. The Russian then took down the RUB 3,400,000 first prize (approx. $59,820) after beating an 116-entry field in the RUB 132,000 PokerStars National High Roller trophy here in the Sochi Casino and Resort, Krasnaya Polyana. Panyak also almost scooped another trophy last night and came 2nd in a Hyper Side Event, and was there right at the start when cards got underway for Day 1b.
With 107 players registered to play the Main Event before the start of play and 131 as “Shuffle up and Deal.” Was announced, the majority have satellited in, looking to turn a few dollars into a big score in roubles.
They are a mixture of PokerStars qualifiers and live satellite winners who have won luxury packages to this spectacular mountain resort.
Players have come from all over the world from as far afield as Japan, Israel and the UK for the first PokerStars Championship Sochi Festival.