After three days of intense play, the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) Cyprus 2024 $50,000 Super High Roller played down to a winner on Tuesday at the Merit Royal Premium Hotel Spa & Casino. The event garnered a field of 47 entries to generate a prize pool of $2,279,970, with only six places paid and $786,570 for the eventual winner. The entirety of the final table streamed live on the PokerStars YouTube channel and remains available for those who missed the action.
When the final hand was dealt, Belarusian Mikalai Vaskaboinikau held all the chips and claimed his first-ever PokerStars EPT trophy. The first-place prize money he won, however, came at a reduced number after the final three combatants agreed to split up the remaining prize pool, while also setting aside a percentage to play for.
Chasing Mateos
Spain's Adrian Mateos held a commanding chip lead to start proceedings at the final table with over 100BBs to work with. Mateos' rampant lead came courtesy of a huge spin-up on Day 2 after starting on one of the shortest stacks. The closest of his competitors, Czech Republic's Roman Hrabec, began with a stack of 53BBs – only slightly more than half the size of Mateos'. Rounding out the top half of the chip counts was Russia's Artur Martirosian, who started play with 45BBs. Martirosian knows what it takes to hoist an EPT trophy thanks to his Main Event win in Sochi back in 2021.
The bottom half of the chip counts saw three players in need of a spin up, with each of them starting the final table holding less than 15BBs. Both Russia's Alexander Zubov and Vaskaboinikau began with 13BBs apiece, while Canada's Jamil Wakil took on short stack duties with only 9BBs.
Wakil and Zubov exit early
After blinding down to just 6BBs, Wakil found 
in the UTG position and committed the majority of his stack, leaving just 1BB behind. The action folded around to Mateos, who elected to flat with 
before the blinds both folded. On the 
flop, Wakil checked to his opponent. Mateos, ever the edge-seeker, bet out for 95,000 – a custom sizing that allowed him to extract value while also, effectively, tightening the ICM handcuffs around his opponents' wrists, if only for a couple of hands. Wakil made the call, leaving himself only a single 5,000 chip, and the two players then checked the remaining action to showdown, with Mateos' ace-high holding remaining best the whole way.
The very next hand, Wakil was forced all-in from the big blind but managed to quadruple his stack after making a pair against Martirosian's queen-high holding. Wakil was then forced all-in from the small blind on the following hand with 
. Mateos' raise with 
was defended by Zubov in the big blind with 
and the two players checked down to the river on the 
runout. Having made his flush, the Russian sought value from Mateos but found none. Zubov turned over the winner to rake in the much-needed chip infusion while Wakil headed for the payout desk to collect his sixth-place earnings.
Zubov, having secured one pay ladder already, looked to make it two when he re-shoved from the small blind with 
against Vaskaboinikau's open jam. Unfortunately for the Russian, his holding was pipped by Vaskaboinikau's and the 
runout offered no improvement. With only crumbs left in his stack, Zubov was then forced all-in from the big blind on the next orbit and his 
failed to improve against Mateos' 
.
Hrabec bust-out leads to deal discussions
Hrabec found himself on the bottom end of the card distribution at the final table and struggled to pick up meaningful pots. After blinding down to around the 10BB mark, Hrabec committed the majority of his stack from the button with 
, only to see Vaskaboinikau request the remainder with an all-in from the big blind. Hrabec would need to connect with the runout to continue his quest for EPT glory, but the 
flop kept his hand second-best. The turn added wheel outs to his go with his over cards, but the river wasn't the one he needed and Hrabec's run ended in a fourth-place finish.
After nearly an hour of three-handed play, Mateos, Martirosian, and Vaskaboinikau agreed to pause play in order to discuss potential numbers for a deal. Having taken the chip lead at this point, Vaskaboinikau was in a position to take the lion's share of the remaining prize pool, but his focus was on negotiating for the trophy. The Belarusian businessman even went as far as to offer Mateos and Martirosian a piece of his ICM-calculated payout to lay claim to the trophy.
Eventually, the players agreed to set aside 10% of the remaining cash ($59,277) to play for winner-take-all style, with Vaskaboinikau giving both Mateos and Martirosian an additional $35,000 from his winnings to secure the trophy. As it turns out, the $70,000 price point assigned to and paid for by Vaskaboinikau to ensure the trophy returned to Belarus was made a moot point as he went on to eliminate both of his remaining opponents.
Deal made, playing for glory
Mateos exited in third after he moved all-in with 
when facing a button open from Vaskaboinikau. Unfortunately for the Spaniard, his opponent snap-called with 
and the 
runout failed to improve his holding, ending his run.
Following a short break, Martirosian and Vaskaboinikau returned to battle it out for the $59,277 remaining. With a solid chip lead to start heads-up play, Vaskaboinikau favored a high-variance style of play and had an early chance to end the fight, but Martirosian survived to score a full double and take the chip lead.
Then, the Russian had an opportunity of his own to win it all when Vaskaboinikau moved all-in with 
over his raise. Martirosian held and, all of a sudden, was one clean runout away from victory. The 
flop looked safe enough, but there's always a sweat, and the turn offered up plenty of outs for Vaskaboinikau. The 
river completed his flush to crack Martirosian's aces and the Belarusian scooped in a massive pot to take an overwhelming chip lead.
Just a few hands later, Martirosian moved all-in with 
and Vaskaboinikau made the call with 
. The flop paired Martirosian, but further improvement was needed to stay alive and the 
turn and 
river weren't the cards he was looking for.
In his winner's interview, Vaskaboinikau said, "It's a very special event for me because I played a lot of high rollers and super high rollers on PokerStars series, but never won. So, for me, a special moment, especially that I can get the trophy because this was the main target."
EPT Cyprus 2024 $50,000 Super High Roller final table results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mikilai Vaskaboinikau | Belarus | $601,397* |
| 2 | Artur Martirosian | Russia | $495,815* |
| 3 | Adrian Mateos | Spain | $555,758* |
| 4 | Roman Hrabec | Czech Republic | $262,200 |
| 5 | Alexander Zubov | Russia | $205,200 |
| 6 | Jamil Wakil | Canada | $159,600 |
*denotes deal
Images Courtesy of Danny Maxwell/Rational Intellectual Holdings Limited
