Europeans Shine in Kiev and Macau

Last weekend saw great success for the European poker contingent across the globe in two highly prestigious events.

First of all, the premier stop of this season’s PokerStars.com European Poker Tour, which was held in the Kyiv Sports Palace, Ukraine, was won by 21-year-old Maxim “Decay” Lykov from Russia.

This was the the first time that an EPT had taken place in the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the €5,000 buy-in event was also the largest poker tournament it had ever seen. This was also the first time a Russian won an EPT.

Lykov is now €330,000 richer for beating a total field of 296 including top class players such as Luca Pagano, Dario Minieri, and Gus Hansen for the largest slice of the €1,391,200 prize pool.

Lykov said, “When I had the chip lead on Days 2 and 3, I really felt quite confident that I would make the final table. I am very proud to win this. Ukraine and Russia are very close so I feel I have won for both countries. It was a hard contest but I did believe I could do it, and I was very focused.”

Here are the final table results and payouts:

1st Maxim Lykov (Russia) €330,000
2nd Alex Dovzhenko (Ukraine) €220,000
3rd Vitaly Tolokonnikov (Russia) €140,000
4th Arthur Simonyan (Russia) €100,000
5th Lucasz Plichta (Poland) €80,000
6th Adrian Schaap (Holland) €60,000
7th Torsten Tent (Germany) €45,000
8th Vadim Markushevski (Belarus) €30,000

Lykov also came third in the World Series of Poker $5,000 no-limit hold’em shootout event for $145,000. He intends on playing the entire EPT circuit including the upcoming Barcelona and London stops.

Secondly, on the other side of the world, another young man is celebrating his own success. Twenty-three-year-old Frenchman, Adrien “zlatan35” Allain, became the 2009 Asian Poker Tour Macau main event champion after beating a field, and final table, top-heavy with pros.

Allain said, “I’m overwhelmed, this is so wonderful. I qualified for this tournament through a $5 lottery tournament on PKR and end up beating all these top players. Vive La France!”

The young gun, who qualified on PKR for $5, beat Inwook Choi from Korea heads up when Choi pushed with A-Q, and Allain, who had him dominated in chips, called with A-3 and hit a 3 on the flop, knocking him out.

With a buy-in of HK$34,400 and a 326-strong field, the total prize pool was HK$10,919,040, including the HK$3,035,000 first place.

Here are the final table results and payouts:

1st Adrien Allain (France) HK$3,035,000
2nd Inwook Choi (Korea) HK$1,660,000
3rd JC Tran (USA) HK$117,470
4th David Steicke (Hong Kong) HK$91,378
5th Chris Chau (Hong Kong)HK$65,279
6th Michael Woo (Hong Kong)HK$52,223
7th Christer Hallberg (Sweden) HK$39,167
8th Winifred Yu (Hong Kong) HK$26,112
9th Casey Kastle (Slovenia) HK$16,966

It is also worth noting that this was the third consecutive Asian Poker Tour final table appearance for Casey Kastle.

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