Mikita Badziakouski Wins 2020 World Poker Tour World Online Championships $25,000 High Roller

Mikita Badziakouski dominated the final table of the 2020 World Poker Tour World Online Championships $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em high roller event, beating out several of his fellow top tournament players in the world down the stretch to capture the title and the top prize of $1,062,730.

This was the 28-year-old Belarusian poker pro’s eighth recorded score of a million dollars or more. The victory brought his career earnings to $30,098,691, which meant that he surpassed Phil Ivey ($29,757,424) to climb into 11th place on poker’s all-time money list.

Badziakouski entered the final day of this high-stakes tournament as the chip leader among the last seven players. American rising star Ali Imsirovic was the shortest stack when play began, and was ultimately the first to hit the virtual rail. Imsirovic got all-in preflop in a classic race situation, with his AK looking to outrun the JJ of Daniel Rezaei. The pocket pair prevailed and Imsirovic took home $155,060 as the seventh-place finisher.

Aleksei Barkov was the next to fall. He shoved his last 16 big blinds with K5 after it folded to him in the small blind. 2019 World Series of Poker Europe main event winner Alexandros Kolonias called with 66 from the big blind to put Barkov at risk. The sixes remained the best hand after the five community cards were dealt, and Barkov was eliminated in sixth place ($197,667).

Daniel Rezaei’s run in this event came to an end when his 66 lost to American high roller regular Jason Koon’s KQ. The board ran out J88J9 to counterfeit Rezaei’s pair. He was awarded $259,979 for his fifth-place showing.

Badziakouski had been extending his lead early at the final table despite not earning any of the final blows that eliminated the first three players. He finally scored his first knockout with 99. He raised min-raised to 140,000 preflop from the button and Mark Demirjian called holding J10 out of the big blind. The 1098 flop saw Demirjian check and Badziakouski bet 140,000. Demirjian check-raised all-in for 1.7 million with his top pair and open-ended straight draw. Badziakouski quickly called with his middle set and the turn brought the K. Demirjian was in need of a queen or seven on the river, but instead the K paired the board to give Badziakouski a winning full house. Demirjian earned $380,652 as the fourth-place finisher.

Three-handed action began with Badziakouski sitting on 172 big blinds, while Kolonias had 81 big blinds and Koon had 31 big blinds. Badziakouski weilded his chip advantage ruthlesslely, continually putting maximum pressure on the two shorter stacks as they tried to outmanuever each other in order to survive to the final two. The three battled it out for more than 2.5 hours before the decisive hand was dealt. Badziakouski picked up AA on the button and min-raised to 240,000. Kolonias looked down at 33 in the big blind and three-bet all-in for 1.8 million. Badziakouski snap called and the board ran out K2104. Kolonias was sent home in third place, earning $549,794 for his strong showing.

With that Badziakouski entered heads-up play with 18.3 million of the roughly 20 million chips in play. The final two players quickly agreed to a deal which saw Koon awarded $810,869 as the runner-up while Badziakouski locked up $1,062,730. The cash saw Koon’s career tournament earnings surpass the $32 million mark. He remains in ninth place on the all-time money list.

Here is a look at the payouts awarded at the final table:

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