Maksim Sekretarev Wins the 2021 WPT Russia Main Event (₽11,996,600/$160,694)

A new World Poker Tour Main Event champion has been crowned at the stunning Casino Sochi in the Krasnaya Polyana region. The third WPT festival in Sochi saw 251 entries for the ₽245,000/$3,328 Main Event and the top 32 finishers shared a portion of the ₽54,247,551/$726,832 price pool.

After a short-lived final table, 19-year-old Maksim Sekretarev went wire-to-wire and will see his name etched in the Mike Sexton WPT Champions Cup. It is a dream come true for Sekretarev, who entered the Main Event with just a handful of results which he all achieved at Casino Sochi. The biggest payday until now was a ₽287,700 score, just marginally bigger than the ₽245,000 price tag for the flagship tournament of the festival.

In fewer than four hours on the final day, Sekretarev made the first recorded victory of his live poker career count, as he claims the top prize of ₽11,996,600/$160,694. He dominated the action not just on the final table but also the two preceding days, as his aggressive playing style regularly turned into a roller coaster ride.

Sekretarev finished Day 1c with 77,400, nearly two times the starting stack. Once all survivors combined for Day 2, he was only trailing Vladimir Bozinovic on the overall leaderboard. It was then on Day 3 when he really took the spotlight and soared to an early big stack. But it didn’t go without a hitch, as he was even at the risk of elimination before ending the penultimate tournament day with the biggest stack.

The final table summary reveals that Sekretarev knocked out each of his opponents in some three and a half hours. His aggressive approach was not without setbacks as he even became the shortest stack among the final three contenders. However, a crucial coin flip with ace-queen against the pocket jacks of Ravil Khamatgareev paved the way to victory. The queen appeared on the flop to give Sekretarev a healthy lead over Andrey Volkov. A few hands later, it was all over when king-queen held against ten-eight suited in a preflop all-in contest.

Volkov wasn’t unhappy about his runner-up finish, as he admitted in the brief interview with the Russian media after the end of the tournament. On Day 3, Volkov was down to just three big blinds and he was also one of the shorter stacks heading into the final table. Volkov even had a miracle escape with three players remaining when ten-nine suited hit running cards to a straight to beat the flopped set of kings of Sekretarev.

“Before the final six, I would have been happy to just ladder up to fourth place, so finishing second is an amazing result,” Volkov said. His consolation prize is worth ₽7,998,200/$107,135, which isn’t shabby at all for a few days of work.

2013 WPT Baden champion Bozinovic had to settle for fourth place as he fell victim to Sekretarev’s hot run. Very early on, the Serbian raise-folded pocket tens and became one of the shortest stacks thereafter. He still laddered up two spots thanks to the efforts of wrecking ball Sekretarev, who then claimed his chips with king-five versus king-jack thanks to a wheel on the river.

As the tides changed back and forth, Sekretarev pulled back into the top spot and knocked out his final two opponents in the span of five hands.

Final Result WPT Russia 2021 Main Event

1st Place: Maksim Sekretarev (Russia) – ₽11,996,600/$160,694
2nd Place: Andrey Volkov (Russia) – (₽7,998,200/$107,135)
3rd Place: Ravil Khamatgareev (Russia – (₽5,840,450/$78,232)
4th Place: Vladimir Bozinovic (Serbia) – (₽4,325,650/$57,942)
5th Place: Vanush Mnatsakanyan (Russia) – (₽3,249,750/$43,530)
6th Place: Sergey Bobrik (Russia) – (₽2,477,300/$33,183)