For the second time this year, World Poker Tour teamed up with Poker Club Management in the capital city of Georgia, Tbilisi. Europe-bet.com Poker Room welcomed players from all over the world for the nine-day long WPT National Georgia festival highlighted by the $1,000 buy-in Main Event.
All events, including the Main Event, doubled and in some cases even tripled all the original guarantees. The overall festival guarantee of $200,000 nearly reached $500,000, thanks to the “rake-free” offer for participants.
Main Event increased 56 entries from earlier in 2015, generating a $243,000 prize pool. Valentin Smilenko made his live tournament debut in Georgia and captured the top prize, earning $57,180, the crystal WPT National Main Event trophy.
Both Revaz Gudzhabidze (runner-up) and Valentin Smilenko started their final table among the chip leaders. There was no big surprise, when they met in heads up, but match only lasted 15 minutes. Revaz pushed all preflop with Q-10, and Valentin called with a dominating A-Q. The board showed 3-8-Q-4-J, concluding the 13 hours-long final day.
“At the final table I was lucky with my seat, as I had the better position over my main opponent. I met him in the heads-up and was lucky that cooler was brought out,” said Smilenko after the win.
Final Table Standings
| Rank | Name | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Valentin Smilenko | Ukraine | $57,180 |
| 2 | Revaz Gudzhabidze | Georgia | $40,120 |
| 3 | Kakhi Sabauri | Georgia | $25,805 |
| 4 | Levan Khurtsidze | Georgia | $19,100 |
| 5 | Alexey Golodyaev | Russia | $14,335 |
| 6 | Rafail Sarkisov | Russia | $11,470 |
| 7 | Levan Mamadze | Georgia | $9,255 |
| 8 | Vitaly Demyanenko | Russia | $7,630 |
| 9 | Tuzari Dzukari | Russia | $5,710 |
Every side event increased in entrants from the June festival: the $500 buy-in WPT Caucasus Open Poker Tournament doubled from 73 to 150; the $100 buy-in WPT Turbo Deep Stack doubled from 42 to 94; and the $250 buy-in WPT Georgia Poker Championship increased from 184 to 291. Organizers expect only improvement in the future festivals.
The WPT players party took place in a new venue, Buddha bar, located right in the center of Tbilisi. Buddha bar is a stylish lounge bar that accommodated players with a live band performance, DJ set, free drinks, and snacks. At the end of the evening, Poker Club Management introduced their song about poker, while bar staff cut co-branded WPT cake prepared by festival sponsors from Europe-bet.com
Other off-the-felt activities included a pre-festival karaoke party; visit of the traditional Georgian SPA and old capital of Georgia, Mtskheta town. Additionally, right under the poker room, in the players lounge, participants could enjoy Kinect games, table football, darts and other entertainment activities day and night long.
Whoever missed the Georgian festival, but would like to try a new poker destination, is welcome to partypoker sponsored WPT National Kazakhstan, November 20 – 30. The full list of the National events is available here.
In December, players from all over the world are welcome to the capital city of Czech Republic, Prague, for the WPT Main Tour stop hosted by King’s Casino located in the five-star Corinthia Hotel, November 29 – December 6.
Official high resolution photos of the Europe-bet.com WPT National Georgia are available on Flickr.