Mikalai Vaskaboinikau almost wasn’t even supposed to be in the $50,500 Onyx High Roller Championship at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa. With late registration about to close, the Belarusian discovered he had around two minutes left to enter and made a dash to get himself into the biggest buy-in of the Onyx High Roller Series.
Not long after taking his seat in the 18-entry field that created a $864,000 prize pool, he was already making plans with his friends for what they could do once he busted. Instead, fortune had other ideas. Vaskaboinikau survived that rocky start, navigated through a horrid $164,000 money bubble, and eventually beat the boss, then Alexey Borovkov heads-up to lift the trophy and $450,000 top prize.
“For me actually, it’s not a day in the office,” Vaskaboinikau said afterward. “I don’t play a lot, maybe four or five series per year. So that’s why first place and a trophy for me is always an amazing achievement.”
Vaskaboinikau had already collected trophies from most of the stops he plays, but there was one missing.
“I have almost all the trophies of all poker series, but one I didn’t achieve yet,” he said. “So today is the time… Mission completed.”
$50,500 High Roller Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mikalai Vaskaboinikau | Belarus | $450,000 |
| 2 | Alexey Borovkov | Russian Federation | $250,000 |
| 3 | Rob Yong | United Kingdom | $164,000 |
Vaskaboinikau Battles Into the Money
Vaskaboinikau’s road to the title got off to a nightmare start, as he triple-barreled an underpair into Aleksejs Ponakovs, who backdoored Broadway to take a chunk out of Vaskaboinikau’s stack and send him plummeting down the counts.
Austria’s Thomas Alfred Mayer was the first player out the door, before Ponakovs, Artur Martirosian and Manuel Fritz followed him to the rail as the field quickly dropped down to five, and the bubble approached.
Vaskaboinikau found the revitalisation his stack needed when he doubled through Rob Yong by flopping a flush, before making the table a little more spacious as his ace-queen held up to send Zorlu Er to the rail in fifth, sending the tournament on to the huge money bubble.
With just four left and only three getting paid, nobody wanted to be the one walking away empty-handed. The unfortunate player would leave with nothing, while simply surviving one more spot guaranteed a $164,000 payday, which was more than three times the buy-in.
At that point, Mikita Badziakouski looked like the least likely candidate to suffer that fate, and it probably hadn’t even crossed the mind of TheHendonMob‘s fourth-ranked player on the all-time money list. Having started the day as one of the shorter stacks, Badziakouski had gone the other way and steamrolled his way to the top, with the fuel from pocket rockets against queens helping send him there.
But poker can turn nasty very quickly, and Badziakouski’s sunny day in Northern Cyprus soon changed to a gloomy one he will want to forget. First, using his massive stack to apply pressure, he shoved ace-nine, but Yong, who was the player least fazed by bubbling, called with two tens and took the chip lead.
Things then went from bad to worse for Badziakouski, and it was his countrymate Vaskaboinikau who was next to take a bite from his stack. Badziakouski jammed king-high in the small blind, and Vaskaboinikau snapped with ace-jack in the big blind. Neither player connected with the board, leaving Vaskaboinikau with the best hand and Badziakouski with just a handful of big blinds, right at rock bottom.
Yong then played the Onyx Club bouncer, ejecting Badziakouski from the venue as the bubble boy. Badziakouski had moved in with king-high again, but this time lost out to Yong’s pair of eights on the flop. With the elimination of the Belarusian number one, Vaskaboinikau, Yong and start-of-day chip leader Borovkov could finally breathe a little easier, with all three officially in the money.
Vaskaboinikau Ends It
With the torment of the bubble finally gone, the three players wasted no time getting their chips into the middle. Yong doubled Borovkov before trying his luck against Vaskaboinikau, but he got it in dominated, leaving the Onyx Club owner with crumbs.
Yong managed to survive one all-in, but the Grim Reaper of the rail was waiting for him the second time his chips went into the middle. Vaskaboinikau again had him in bad shape, this time with ace-ten versus king-nine, and paired his ten to send Yong out in third for $164,000.
That left Russia’s cash game wizard, Borovkov, as the final obstacle for Vaskaboinikau. Vaskaboinikau started with a big lead, but Borovkov managed to close the gap early by doubling. Vaskaboinikau quickly went to work with a pickaxe, though, hacking away at Borovkov until he was again in the danger zone.
Eventually, Borovkov was left short enough to shove king-six, and Vaskaboinikau couldn’t have called much quicker after looking down at ace-eight. An ace on the flop left Borovkov needing a miracle, before another on the river gave Vaskaboinikau trips and the title.
For a man who had almost missed registration entirely and was already making plans with his friends after getting short early on Day 1, Vaskaboinikau had somehow turned it all into a $450,000 payday.
Vaskaboinikau had his friends there to enjoy the moment with him, although he was quick to poke some fun at the credentials of his rail when asked about his support team.
“Professional supporting team, you know, all professionals,” Vaskaboinikau joked. “One is a dancer, another is a singer.”
The newly crowned champion was also full of praise for the Merit Royal Diamond, which he has been coming to for more than a decade. Along with the poker, the sea and everything else on offer, Vaskaboinikau pointed out one particular perk that even a man $450,000 richer could appreciate.
“Food for free. You need to save some money in life, you know.”
