After nine days of poker action, the S19 WPTDeepStacks Sochi Festival has concluded on Saturday, August 14. The final day of the festival, which was hosted in cooperation with partypoker LIVE and Poker Club Management at the stunning Casino Sochi in the Krasnaya Polyana region, saw the conclusion of the flagship ₽119,000 Main Event. Furthermore, the WPT Closer played down to a winner and two Bounty Side Events concluded the series, which contained a total of 13 trophy events.
The WPT.com team takes a closer look at what happened on the final table of the Main Event and provides a brief summary of the final Side Event results along with the overall stats of the festival in Sochi.
Maksim Skripkin
Maksim Skripkin Wins ₽119,000 Main Event
Six players from Russia were aiming to keep the trophy on home soil in the pinnacle event of the entire series. Out of a field of 413 entries in the ₽119,000 Main Event, the biggest slice of the ₽42,432,670 (~$576,815) prize pool was up for grabs. Maksim Skripkin entered the final table with a comfortable lead and eventually lifted the trophy for the winner shots. However, it wasn’t an easy ride by any means for the local, who has been playing poker for 12 years.
It didn’t take long to whittle down the field of contenders as Mustafa Biz succumbed to a short stack when Narek Arsenyan rivered a flush. Arsenyan had been the shortest stack heading into the final day but quickly jumped into third place after a red-hot start into the live-streamed showdown. Arsenyan also knocked out well-known online grinder Artem Vezhenkov when kings held up against ace-king. The second level also included the eliminations of Vitaliy Li and Artsiom Prostak to cut the initial line-up in half.
What followed was a four-handed stalemate that lasted for more than three hours. Yuriy Salikaev escaped from elimination three times but eventually had to settle for fourth place. For Arsenyan, a ballsy move with a gutshot sealed his fate as Vitaliy Pankov looked him up with top pair and the straight blocker.
The heads-up play saw the lead switch back and forth. Skripkin ended up at risk for most of the chips in play and was in need of luck with ace-queen versus ace-king. He spiked a queen on the turn and was able to close out the victory soon after. Runner-up Pankov secured one of the biggest cashes of his live poker career and took home ₽5,670,000 / $77,076. For the latest WPTDeepStacks Main Event champion Skripkin, the top prize of ₽8,400,000 / $114,187 was the biggest recorded cash so far.
Final Result 2021 WPTDS Sochi Main Event
1st Place: Maksim Skripkin (Russia) – ₽8,400,000 / $114,187
2nd Place: Vitaliy Pankov (Russia) – ₽5,670,000 / $77,076
3rd Place: Narek Arsenyan (Russia) – ₽4,165,000 / $56,618
4th Place Yuriy Salikaev (Russia) – ₽3,115,000 / $42,344
5th Place: Artsiom Prostak (Belarus) – ₽2,350,600 / $31,953
6th Place: Vitaliy Li (Russia) – ₽1,792,000 / $24,360
7th Place: Artem Vezhenkov (Russia) – ₽1,382,570 / $18,794
8th Place: Mustafa Biz (Turkey) – ₽1,078,000 / $14,654
Event #9 WPT Closer
Several notables ended the festival on a high note after Event #9 WPT Closer ended with a four-way deal. The ₽77,000 buy-in drew a total of 192 entries and 48 players returned to their seats to battle for a share of the ₽12,768,000 (~$173,564) prize pool. Only the top 26 spots were paid and among those to come up short of the money were notables such as Vladislav Naumov, Andrey Danilyuk, Garik Tamasyan, WPT Champions Club member Dmitry Gromov, and Georgiy Filippovich. Alexandr Shelukhin was eliminated on the money bubble to lock up a min-cash of ₽115,500 (~$1,570) for all 26 remaining contenders.
En route to the final table, Eduard Barsegyan, Nikolay Fal, Sergey Chudapal, Andrey Litvinov, Lidiya Belyaeva, and Daria Krashennikova headed to the payout desk. After the elimination of Ivan Kalintsev in fifth place, a deal was cut between the final four and they left money up top for the eventual winner. Pavel Kovalenko was the first one to depart thereafter and Nikita Kuznetsov once more narrowly missed out on a trophy during the festival. Ultimately, another big name in Konstantin Generalov ended as the runner-up and Denis Vitchenko earned the top prize worth ₽2,712,500 (~$36,873).
Denis Vitchenko
Top Five Finishers Event #9 WPT Closer:
| Position | Player | Country | Prize (in Rubles) | Prize (in USD) |
| 1 | Denis Vitchenko | Russia | ₽2,712,500 | $36,873 |
| 2 | Konstantin Generalov | Russia | ₽1,503,600 | $20,439 |
| 3 | Nikita Kuznetsov | Russia | ₽1,540,000 | $20,934 |
| 4 | Pavel Kovalenko | Russia | ₽1,644,300 | $22,352 |
| 5 | Ivan Kalintsev | Russia | ₽829,500 | $11,276 |
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Event #12 Bounty Hunter and Event #13 Omaha Bounty
Besides the conclusion of the Main Event and the WPT Closer, two Bounty Events wrapped up the festival in Sochi. Both tournaments featured a buy-in of ₽40,800 (~$609) with two-thirds of the entry fee going towards the cash pool and one-third to the bounty pool.
The Hold’em variant drew a total of 75 unique players and 26 re-entries, which created a prize pool of ₽2,686,600 (~$36,521). Only the top 13 spots were paid a portion of the cash pool and Aleksandr Kovalev ended up as the bubble boy. Notable finishers in the money were Andrey Glushkov, Roman Kudryashov, Garik Tamasyan, and Arkadiy Stekolshchikov. Ildar Mustafin was defeated in heads-up by Denis Matson, who walked away with a cash prize of ₽347,900.
Top Five Finishers Event #12 Bounty Hunter
| Position | Player | Country | Prize (in Rubles) | Prize (in USD) |
| 1 | Denis Matson | Russia | ₽347,900 | $4,729 |
| 2 | Ildar Mustafin | Russia | ₽238,000 | $3,235 |
| 3 | Arkadiy Stekolshchikov | Russia | ₽165,900 | $2,255 |
| 4 | Garik Tamasyan | Armenia | ₽121,800 | $1,656 |
| 5 | Vladislav Saprykin | Russia | ₽88,200 | $1,199 |
In the Omaha variant, 32 unique players re-entered 20 times to create a field of 52 entries for a total prize pool of ₽1,383,200 (~$18,803). The top seven finishers earned a portion of the cash pool and High Roller third-place finisher Aleksandr Denisov this time ended up in second place. Pavel Shiryaev scored the final knockout and claimed the last trophy of the festival along with the top prize of ₽206,500 (~$2,807).
Final Result Event #13 Omaha Bounty:
| Position | Player | Country | Prize (in Rubles) | Prize (in USD) |
| 1 | Pavel Shiryaev | Russia | ₽206,500 | $2,807 |
| 2 | Aleksandr Denisov | Russia | ₽144,200 | $1,960 |
| 3 | Vladislav Ivanov | Russia | ₽101,500 | $1,380 |
| 4 | Ivan Tukmachev | Russia | ₽75,250 | $1,023 |
| 5 | Andrey Danilyuk | Russia | ₽54,250 | $737 |
| 6 | Ruslan Nikolaev | Russia | ₽40,600 | $552 |
| 7 | Maksim Davidov | Russia | ₽32,900 | $447 |
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Throughout the entire festival, more than 1,800 entries were recorded across the 13 trophy events. The S19 WPTDeepStacks Sochi Festival generated a total prize pool of more than $1.5 million and the most important figures can be found below.
S19 WPTDeepStacks Sochi Festival Stats
As previously mentioned, the very first WPTDeepStacks festival in Sochi ran for nine days in total. During that period, 13 trophies were awarded and the schedule was accompanied by several satellites. All but one of the winners hailed from Russia, only Aren Bezhanyan from Armenia was able to break through the deadlock and was joined on the final table by his brother.
Festival Dates: August 6 – 14, 2021
Festival Duration: Nine Days
Number of Trophy Events: 13
Entries across all Trophy Events: 1,849
Prize Pools across all Trophy Events: ₽111,360,060 (~$1,513,791)
Largest Individual Field: ₽119,000 Main Event (413 Entries)
Largest Individual Prize Pool: ₽119,000 Main Event – ₽42,432,670 (~$576,815)