After a thrilling thirteen-hour showdown at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel and Spa, the $2,200 Eurasian Poker Tour (EAPT) Grand Final crowned its champion from a pool of 16 hopefuls who battled it out on the final day.
Boris Kolev entered the final table as the shortest stack with just six big blinds, but after the final hand had been dealt, he held every chip in the tournament, last defeating Brazilian business owner Ueberton Cristian De Aquino.
Kolev took home the top prize of $437,000 after a heads-up deal that slightly reduced the pay difference between first and second.
Kolev’s incredible momentum in poker tournaments over the past year continued with his victory in the Grand Final. Before that, The two-time WSOP bracelet winner recently picked up his second bracelet in the Bahamas this past December and took home $424,550 for his efforts in that event. Today’s win in the Grand Final is his second-largest career tournament cash after his first bracelet win in 2021 and brings the Bulgarian pro’s career tournament winnings to just over $3,700,000.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Boris Kolev | Bulgaria | $437,000* |
| 2 | Ueberton Cristian De Aquino | Brazil | $358,000* |
| 3 | Christopher Puetz | Germany | $210,000 |
| 4 | Andrey Pateychuk | Russian Federation | $155,800 |
| 5 | Almas Umarov | Kazakhstan | $117,000 |
| 6 | Iurii Brechalov | Russian Federation | $93,500 |
| 7 | Dmitrii Levin | Russian Federation | $78,000 |
| 8 | Artsiom Lasouski | Belarus | $63,000 |
| 9 | Adrian Strobel | Germany | $45,000 |
*Denotes a heads-up deal
Final Day Highlights
The EAPT Grand Final attracted 1,565 entrants, surpassing the $2,000,000 guarantee to create a massive $3,004,800 prize pool. Andrey Pateychuk started the day with the third-largest stack but was reduced to just five big blinds in the first level after first doubling up Dmitrii Levin and then running jacks into kings to double Adrian Strobel. This major early setback would be just the beginning of a roller coaster day for the seasoned Russian pro and WPT champion. Never losing his composure, Pateychuk stole the blinds and doubled up on several occasions to ultimately enter the final table with the fourth-largest stack.
On the other side of the spectrum, Kolev lost a huge flip to Recep Aydemir a few spots before the final table and was reduced to under five big blinds. Although Kolev would outlast Aydemir, who was eliminated on the final table bubble, Kolev still hadn’t truly recovered at that point and entered the final table with all but one of his opponents having over four times as many chips.
The Final Table
Aquino entered the final table with the chip lead. Kolev and start of day chip leader Almas Umarov were at the bottom of the counts and all other players were close together in the middle of the pack. Both Umarov and Kolev were able to double up their stacks early on and it would take nearly 90 minutes for the first player to fall from the final nine.
Several times players found themselves at risk only to double up until Adrian Strobel finally became the first final table casualty. Strobel was followed out the door not long after by Artsiom Lasouski and Levin. The latter two players were both taken out by Pateychuk, who by that point held a top-three stack with six remaining after initially having his stack decimated in the first level of play.
Christopher Puetz overtook Aquino at the top of the counts after making a gutsy call with a small pocket pair to eliminate Iurii Brechalov who had four-bet shoved with ace-king and bowed out in sixth place after failing to connect with the board.
Aquino was right behind Puetz at the top of the counts after eliminating Umarov in fifth. Clearly playing for the win, Puetz called another four-bet shove with a small pocket pair shortly after, this time against Kolev. Puetz’ instincts were correct as he had caught Kolev making a move with ace-deuce but Kolev was bailed out on the river and pulled close to even with Aquino for the chip lead while Puetz was sent tumbling down the chip counts.
Kolev would then pick off a huge bluff from Pateychuk to take the chip lead for the first time since the day had begun while Pateychuk once again found himself short-stacked. Unlike the first time he was left short-stacked today, Pateychuk couldn’t recover and hit the rail in fourth place after a sickening runout that saw Aquino hit running cards to crack Pateychuk’s pocket kings and reclaim the chip lead.
Kolev seized the chip lead back from Aquino very quickly after three-handed play begun in a dramatic runout where Kolev flopped a set, Aquino turned a straight and Kolev rivered a full house. Aquino took the chip lead right back after eliminating Puetz in third place but Kolev was not far behind him going into heads-up play.
The heads-up duel between Aquino and Kolev only lasted a few hands. Aquino flopped two pair but Kolev turned a bigger two pair and got max value to claim 90% of the chips in play in one of the first hands after heads-up play had begun. Kolev finished the job in the very next hand, finally vanquishing Aquino to claim the final pot of the night, the trophy and the top prize of $437,000.