Ankit Ahuja Wins European Poker Tour Cyprus Eureka Main Event

Ankit Ahuja – Photo Credit: Eloy Cabacas/Rational Intellectual Holdings

Ankit Ahuja took down the European Poker Tour Cyprus Eureka main event that concluded on Oct. 16 at the Merit Royal Hotel and Casino for $362,265. The 37-year-old Indian-born tech consultant, now based out of the Isle of Man, saw his career earnings surpass $2 million as a result. This was the sixth career win for Ahuja and his fifth score of more than six figures.

“I think this is the best win, I mean, every win is very special … You know, the more you know, you get better, you learn things. So I felt like this was just special. I didn’t have a lot of the big trophies of the PokerStars [events]. And [ran] deep in Barcelona, but couldn’t get it done,” said Ahuja right after the win to reporters at the final table. He continued, “It used to be a dream when I was learning to play poker, or coming up even when I was working with Stars. So yeah, it’s a dream come true.”

“It was tough, but that’s bound to happen in any tournament, these were hands where I couldn’t have done anything, so I didn’t make any mistakes. I was just OK with it, and still, I was glad that I had so many chips that even after I lost those hands, I still had 100 bigs after that,” Ahuja told reporters when he was asked about his tough journey during the late stages of the tournament that saw him run into a couple of coolers.

The $1,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament saw a field of 2,659 entries join the action over the course of four starting flights. Players from 74 different countries played in the tournament to give it a truly international appeal. The top 399 players all cashed for at least $1,675 in prize money. Ahuja led the final 31 players at the end of day 2, and he was third in chips when the final table was set to end day 3.

Ahuja doubled up to take the chip lead when five players remained when his AK improved to trip aces against the QQ of Andrei Vavilonskii after the chips all went in preflop. Ahuja used the benefit of A-K once again when he eliminated Roman Gadzhiev and his short-stacked K-7 in fifth place after the board bricked out.

Ahuja kept his momentum rolling when he busted Vavilonskii in fourth place to take a stranglehold of the chip lead. Ahuja then paid out back-to-back doubles to his opponents, and he got back on track when he took out Andrei Teodorescu in third place. That gave him just above a 2:1 chip advantage to start the heads-up final against Eduard Norel.

The final match lasted less than an hour, with Ahuja pushing his advantage the entire way with no major hiccups. The last hand saw Norel get all in on a five-bet shove with KJ in the hole, and Ahuja had him covered holding AK. The final board was dealt 63238, and that was it for Norel, who took home $226,500 in prize money. It was the largest score of the Romanian player’s tournament poker career.

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

The EPT Cyprus tournament series continues running Until Oct. 22 , with the $5,300 main event beginning on Oct. 16 with two starting flights. You can see the entire schedule right here.

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