Pavel Shirshikov from Russian Federation emerged as the ultimate winner at The PokerStars Championship Sochi Main Event, which attracted an impressive field of 387 players. After a 6-day of the massive action, St Petersburg-based Pavel Shirshikov won the PokerStars Championship event. Shirshikov won the top prize of RUB 29,100,000 (about $514,893) for wonderful performance.
Shirshikov dominated the event almost all the way and finally he defeated Vladimir Troyanovskiy in the heads-up to take down the main event title. He took the tournament chip lead with 32 players left on the Day 4 and maintained it even on the Day 5, bagging the second largest stack on the final day.
On final day, he eliminated all except one player on the final table. Talking about his grand victory, he said, “My friends were believing in me more than I was believing in myself. I had a very nervous day.”
Final Table Recap
The first elimination from the final table came in the form of the short stack Timur Bubnov from Russia. He went out when his top pair ran into the two pair of Vladimir Troyanovskiy. Up next, it was Lavrentiy Ni who moved all-in with pocket eights, and was called by the Ace-Queen of Shirshikov.The flop was all diamonds and Shirshikov holding Ace of diamonds, four of diamonds on the turn won the hand to eliminate Ni in 5th place. A few hands later, he went on to eliminate Dmitry Vitkind. Both players got involved in a big pot with Shirshikov holding pocket Kings against Vitkind’s aces. Finally, Vitkind’s aces were cracked, as the board delivered a king on the turn to give Shirshikov the hand.
After Vitkind finished in 4th place, it was Iranian pro Seyed Ghavam who went out 3rd place, leaving Shirshikov and Troyanovskiy in heads-up game. The heads-up battle started with Shirshikov leading in chips and he went on to increase his lead further. Shirshikov got a great start by chipping up in the initial few hands. He finally found a breakthrough and Troyanovskiy’s stack fell to around 20 big blind.
After getting even shorter stack, Troyanovskiy managed to chop a pot when five diamonds ran out on the board. Up next, he doubled after rivering three-outer, before finally succumbing at the hands of his countryman. Shirshikov finally took down the main event title for a whopping RUB 29,100,000.
A Look at Final Table Results & Payouts:
| 1 | Pavel Shirshikov | Russian Federation | RUB 29,100,000 | $514,893 |
| 2 | Vladimir Troyanovskiy | Russian Federation | RUB 18,450,000 | $326,453 |
| 3 | Seyed Ghavam | Iran | RUB 13,335,000 | $235,948 |
| 4 | Dmitry Vitkind | Russian Federation | RUB 10,785,000 | $190,829 |
| 5 | Lavrentiy Ni | Kazahkstan | RUB 8,535,000 | $151,017 |
| 6 | Timur Bubnov | Russian Federation | RUB 6,570,000 | $116,249 |
| 7 | Daniyar Aubakirov | Kazakhstan | RUB 4,890,000 | $86,523 |
| 8 | Nadar Kakhmazov | Russian Federation | RUB 3,540,000 | $62,636 |