Arseniy Karmatskiy Wins 2018 European Poker Tour Sochi Main Event

Arseniy Karmatskiy has won the 2018 European Poker Tour Sochi 192,000₽ no-limit hold’em main event. The Russian poker pro defeated a field of 861 total entries to win 27,300,000₽ ($464,100 USD). This was the largest live tournament score of his career, and it brought his lifetime earnings to $786,447. He reportedly has over $2 million dollars in online tournament cashes as well.

Karmatskiy started off the final day of this event as the chip leader with seven players remaining. he quickly extended his lead by knocking out Andrey Kaygorodsev (7th – $62,019 USD), Sergey Kerzhakov (6th – $88,230 USD) and Mikhail Kovalyuk (5th – $117,696 USD). From there Viktor Shegai began to make his impact felt on the final table, winning a huge pot against Karmatskiy to take the lead, only to have Karmatskiy double back into the lead by winning a preflop race with pocket jacks against Shegai’s A-K.

Karmatskiy kept up his role as the eliminator at the final table, sending Vahe Martiroysyan (4th – $149,022 USD) and Ernest Shakarian (3rd – $198,696USD) to the rail to set up a final showdown against Shegai.

Karmatskiy began with roughly a 4-to-1 chip advantage. Shegai fought hard to try to make a comeback, but eventually, he got his last nine or so big blinds in with the J8 against Karmatskiy’s Q10. The board ran out 107676 and Karmatskiy’s tens and sevents with a queen kicker were enough to earn the pot and the title. Shegai took home $281,520 USD as the runner-up finisher.

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

Winner photo courtesy of Neil Stoddart / PokerStars.

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