296 players from 33 countries took part in the first ever EPT Kyiv (about 80 of them PokerStars players) and created a prize pool of €1,391,200. Maxim "Decay" Lykov, 21, from Moscow, was the chip leader after both day 2 and day 3. When he reached the final table there was no doubt that he would become the last man standing. After 6 hours the final table was down to heads-up. The two remaining[...] Read more » EPT Kyiv: Maxim Lykov takes home the tournament
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Portugal
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 4827
I am sure we will hear more about this and other russian players. Its good to know poker is expanding its bigger tourneys to other countries away from tradicional and regular ones. Everybody can go there and poker rooms will sponsor their players to make a presence and turn this turneys even more special, but its always nice when "homies" take the first place.
The majority of the players were from Russia or Ukraine. So, the odds that one of them wins were pretty high. The real Russian stars (Kravchenko, Demidov) were eliminated early. Maxim Lykov...? I don't know... We need to see how he plays in a tougher tournaments and not on the home turf. But in any case, congratulations and hope that we see a rise of the new Russian star of poker.
Joined: Jan '09
Location: Argentina
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 402
Sick scores, WSOP and EPT, maybe he will run hot at WSOPE too.. I wasnt able to watch the live transmission, but the final hand was indeed a bad beat A3>AQ
Joined: May '09
Location: India
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 4873
well its good to hold regional poker tournaments, allows local players to shine in such tournaments. congrats to maxim for becoming first russian to win EPT, this win was more than he has won before combined in live tournays
