Russian Poker Tour Debut a Success

The Poker Stars Russian Poker Tour’s debut has been hailed a success with 201 entrants who anted up the $5,000 entry fee directly or via satellite to be a part of the inaugural event.  The resulting prize pool was a large one of roughly $1 million US with over $300,000 or 10 million Russian Rubles for the first place winner.  Several well-known international poker players were in attendance including Russian star and 2008 breakout players Ivan Demidov as well as fellow Team Poker Stars pro Vanessa Roussu and Alex Kravchenko.  

The final table got under way with Russians occupying seven of the nine spots at the table.  As the day began, everyone was looking to the chip leader, Moldava’s Dmitru Gaina. Oleg Suntsov, the early short stack, quickly doubled up twice, jumping into contention while eliminating several others at the same time.  The title however, came down to a heads up battle between Suntsov and Belarussian Vadim Markushevsky though Suntsov had the chip lead going into heads up play.  The hand that decided the title wound up going Suntsov’s way after the chips were put all in after the turn.  The board showed a very unassuming 6-9-3-5 with Markushevsky holding K-9 giving him the top pair and Suntsov holding Q-Q for the lead.  Suntsov’s queens held up against a deuce on the river, giving him the title of Champion.  The Poker Stars Russian Poker Tour moves on to Moscow for its second stop with the main event getting under way February 25.

The final table results of the Poker Stars Russian Poker Tour St. Petersburg are listed below:

1. Oleg Suntsov – 10,616,000
2. Vadim Markushevsky – 5,469,000
3. Alexander Pantukhin – 3,217,000
4. Sergey Solntsev – 2,380,000
5. Bulat Bikmetov – 1,930,000
6. Sergey Popuk – 1,608,000
7. Anatoly Ozhenilok – 1,287,000
8. Dimitru Gaina – 965,000
9. Evgeny Zaytsev – 643,000