Vahe Martirosyan Starts Final Day in Pole Position; Dmitriy Ponomarev Returns in Close Second

By Lisa Yiasemides

Vahe Martirosyan (pictured) bagged himself 3,255,000 in chips by the end of Day 3 of the Main Event. Starting the Day fourth in the counts, he remained near the top for the first half of the day, until a mammoth clash with WPT Champions Club member Matas Cimbolas catapulted him skywards.

Martirosyan held pocket-queens in his hand and had limped blind vs blind against Cimbolas who had ace-three in the hole. Martirosyan check-raised the flop and Cimbolas called to improve his pair of threes to two pair. Martirosyan check-called a big bet at this point and recovered the hand when he hit a set on the river. With his hand disguised, he moved all in and Cimbolas called, which saw his campaign come to an abrupt end.

Cimbolas was one of 15 online qualifiers who joined the field today. Anatoly Filatov was another, though the partypoker Ambassador fared much better and takes through a very healthy 1,965,000. He starts in fourth spot, just behind Dmitriy Ponomarev (3,065,000) and Vlada Stojanovic (2,415,000) in second and third.

Filatov (pictured) was also helped on his way by a huge hand clash with last week’s WPTDeepStacks Berlin winner Daniel Szymanski. Unfortunately for Szymanski he moved all in on the turn when Filatov had already hit the nut flush and was down to fumes afterwards. He hit the rail a couple of hands later.

It was a star-studded day and many big names fell by the wayside during the 10 hours of play, in which 69 starters were reduced to 12, here at Casino Sochi.

Vitaly Lunkin, Andrey Zaichenko, Alexander Denisov, Anatoly Zyrin, Dmitry Yurasov, WPT High Roller Champion Garik Tamasyan, Maxim Lykov and Vadzim Lipauka were just some of notables who failed to progress. Last woman standing, Natalia Nikitina (pictured) had a deep run too, until she lost a flip on the feature table to bust in 20th place.

Tomorrow they will be back to do it all again. With 60-minute levels on the clock until heads up is reached. Blinds resume at Level 27 (25,000-50,000 50,000 big blind ante).

Poker may be an unpredictable game at times, but one thing is guaranteed: by the end of tomorrow, a new champion will be crowned. Not only will they go home 232,250 CU* better off, but their name will also be etched on the WPT trophy as well as gaining entry into the exclusive WPT Champions Club.

The stream will also be live tomorrow, airing 30 minutes after the 12 pm start time. Full coverage from the live updates team awaits you then.

WPT UK photos courtesy of Tomas Stacha.

*1 Casino Unit = ₽70