At around 14:30 on Friday, after four intensive days of poker, Connor Drinan and Dzmitry Urbanovich were the last men standing from a field of 88 entries of the European Poker Tour Malta €25,000 High Roller.
Drinan, who brought the biggest stack to the final table, had a decent lead when the final battle for the title started, however, it was Urbanovich who stood tall as the champion around 3 hours later.
Urbanovich, who most knew nothing about before winning this title, had support throughout the heads-up from the rail by fellow countryman Dominik Panka, who has both PCA and EPT High Roller titles to his name.
"He is well known in the Polish poker community," Panka said of Urbanovich. "He has won a SCOOP tournament, in the mixed games." then added, "He is very aggressive."
"This was my first EPT High Roller, maybe I was preparing myself for bigger tournaments, and this was the moment," Urbanovich said. "I was pretty lucky, got some good spots, made some bad beats for guys. Played good in certain spots and a solid game."
He added: "It wasn't easy heads-up, it lasted for three hours or something. It took me about 1.5 hours to get the lead and then I found some good spots...I can't say for sure I am more aggressive than my opponents. Sometimes, I think at the right times I am. I guess I play the same and adjust to opponents."
€25,000 Special High Roller
Entries: 88 (68 uniques; 20 re-entries)
Prize pool: €2,156,000
Places paid: 13
1 Dzmitry Urbanovich, Poland, €572,300
2 Connor Drinan, United States, €397,800
3 Daniel Dvoress, Canada, €263,000
4 Nick Petrangelo, United States, €205,900
5 Dani Stern, United States, €166,000
6 Piotr Franczak, Poland, €129,400
7 Sam Greenwood, Canada, €102,400
8 Martin Finger, Germany, €79,800
9 Ramin Hajiyev, Azerbaijan, €60,400
10 Jeff Rossiter, Australia, €46,400
11 Agshin Rasulov, Azerbaijan, €46,400
12 Andreas Eiler, Germany, €43,100
13 Philipp Gruissem, Germany, €43,100
