Aliaksei Boika Wins 2016 European Poker Tour Malta Main Event

Poker tournaments frequently end in preflop coin flips or cooler situations. It’s not too often that a major tournament is won by an incredible hero call on the river with just ace high. Incredibly, that is precisely what in the 2016 European Poker Tour Malta €5,300 no-limit hold’em main event.

Aliaksei Boika was facing an all-in river shove from Mats Karlsson on a board of Q82K7 after check-calling the flop and getting a check through on the turn. Boika held the AJ, which he had three-bet preflop. Karlsson had just the A4 for an inferior ace-high.

After several minutes of deep thought Boika made the call, securing the pot and the title. For the win the 28-year-old poker pro from Belarus earned €355,700 ($390,772 USD) and his first major live poker tournament title.

Boika was also awarded 1,440 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his first POY score of 2016, but it alone was enough to move him into 141st place in the overall standings.

Boika came into the final day as the short stack among the remaining six players, but was able to find a double up on only the seventh hand of the day with his pocket jacks outracing Tomas Macnamara’s ace-king. From there he was able to survive to heads-up play, entering at 4-to-3 disadvantage to Karlsson. The two only battled it out for 25 hands before the exciting final hero call to seal the deal.

Karlsson, a retired 59-year-old Swede who now resides in Malta, earned €261,730 ($287,537 USD) and 1,200 POY points for his deep run.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:

Winner photo courtesy of PokerStars / Danny Maxwell.

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