Badziakouski, Eibinger chop heads-up, but Badziakouski officially wins
Event #6: $10,300 NLHE 8-Max High Roller produced the most compelling final table seen yet at the 2020 EPT Online series at PokerStars. Wednesday's final day action wrapped up with the official champion decided over three-hands of all-in preflop blind action between the final two players.
Mikita 'fish2013' Baziakouski emerged as the winner of the $10,300 High Roller, coming away with $222,453 and the EPT championship trophy. Badziakouski and second-place finisher Matthias 'iambest2' Eibinger (2nd - $221,564) came away with almost identical prize money per the terms of a deal agreed to by the final two players.
Badziakouski and Eibinger agreed to an almost even chop when the tournament went heads-up, leaving $10,000 and the EPT trophy for the winner. The two high-stakes tournament regulars agreed to go all-in blind preflop every hand until a champion was determined.
That process took three hands, with Badziakouski winning two of the three. The final hand saw Badziakouski's 9❤️2♣ win out over Eibinger's 7♣4♣ on the A♣4❤️3♦️K♠Q♠ runout.
Badziakouski adds a European Poker Tour championship to a resume that includes nearly $28.5 million in live tournament earnings. The Belarusian poker superstar sits at No. 13 on the Hendon Mob all-time tournament earnings list.
Final table action
Other top finishers among the loaded final table lineup included Christian 'WATnlos' Rudolph (3rd - $148,058). Rudolph entered three-handed play as the shortest stack among the final three players. Rudolph (40 big blinds) still had plenty of chips to play with in the battle of three of the world's top players but was looking up at Badziakouski (56 big blinds) and Eibinger (170 big blinds).
Rudolph's tournament run came to an end at the hands of Eibinger, with Rudolph getting all of his remaining 38 big blinds in the middle preflop against the bigger stack of Eibinger. Rudolph's A♣J♠ got the worst of it against Eibinger's A♠Q♣, with Eibinger ending up with the superior spade flush on the T♠7♠6♠2♣5♠ runout.
'hello_totti' (4th - $113,673) placed as the fourth player to end up with a six-figure payday from the EPT Online $10,300 High Roller final table. 'hello_totti' played as the only unknown player (as far as real names) among the final nine players.
The remainder of the final table lineup left as about as tough of a field as imaginable. Daniel 'SmilleThHero' Smiljkovic (5th - $87,724) came up just a few sports short of winning back-to-back EPT Online events. Smiljkovic took down Event #7: $2,100 NLHE 8-Max PKO Tuesday for a $113,490 payday.
Mike 'SirWatts' Watson (6th - $67,006) ran to the final table as yet another of the world's top players. Watson stands as the No. 4 ranked online player in the world according to PocketFives and has earned more than $20 million in combined online and live tournament earnings.
Also finishing in the final nine were Bert 'girafganger7' Stevens (7th - $51,445), and Timothy 'Tim0thee' Adams (8th - $39,498) and Conor '1_conor_b_1' Beresford (9th - $33,035).
Event #6: $10,300 NLHE 8-Max High Roller was the only EPT Online event to play to a conclusion on Wednesday, Day 4 of the festival schedule. Coming up Thursday is the conclusion of Event #1: $1,050 NLHE Arena Championship, as well as four other tournaments.
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