The EPT is limping back into motion. More and more jurisdictions are seeing their coronavirus spikes falling away and everyone is anxious to get money moving through the economy again. Some governments are permitting businesses to open their doors and cardplayers to play cards.
This week the EPT Sochi event kicked off with its ₽77,000 (about $1,000) buy-in National event. The winner, Anatoliy Zyrin, ultimately took down ₽6.7 million ($85,695) for his first-place finish.
The Russian pro was hot off the back of Sochi’s smaller event, the Sochi Poker Festival - Autumn Edition where he cashed three times. This included a 4th place finish in the ₽105,000 + ₽15,000 High Roller event for just over ₽1 million.
Zyrin’s biggest win was a $359,000 first-place finish in a Cypriot event. But his highest-profile win was taking the $1,500 Omaha Mixed Event bracelet at the 2019 WSOP in Vegas.
PokerStars Russia posted a photo of the final table to their Twitter account with a caption that translates as: "The best remaining in the EPT National fighting for ₽6,686,400. Including WSOP champion Anatoly Zyrin. Can he manage to win the coveted PokerStars title?"
Turns out he can.
Europe back on tour
Sochi, Russia’s biggest leisure spot and the host of the 2014 winter Olympics, sits on the edge of the Black Sea. Above it rises a range of hills full of old Russian Orthodox monasteries and glitzy modern hotels. The Casino Sochi is poised on a mountain above these, surrounded by hotels and high enough to get plenty of snow in winter.
Like most tourist destinations, COVID hit the area hard, so the local casino has been advertising energetically for the prestigious EPT event it is hosting. This series' crammed schedule manages to squeeze 25 events in between the 5th of October and the 11th of October — when the main event will be taking place.
The National event was the first high-stakes event of the series and attracted 302 players. Those entries, plus the 206 re-buys made for a prize pool of ₽ 34,493,200 ($ 442,074).
Though staff members wore masks, players were not required to and for the most part, appeared to opt not to.
A French Twitter account posted photos of the event with a caption that translates as: “A few pictures of EPT Sochi, which is currently happening in Russia. The rules do not impose masks on the players.”
Play continues over the weekend with the EPT main event. The first flight gets underway today.
Final table results
1st – Anatoliy Zyrin – ₽6,686,400 ($85,695)
2nd – Almat Idrisov – ₽4,195,800 ($53,774)
3rd – Yuriy Brechalov – ₽3,003,000 ($38,487)
4th – Sergey Kharchenkov – ₽2,341,500 ($30,009)
5th – Mikhail Zamyatin – ₽1,836,800($23,541)
6th – Kirill Denisenko – ₽1,442,700 ($18,490)
7th – Oleg Breshkov – ₽1,077,300 ($13,807)
8th – Damir Gabdullin – ₽746,200 ($9,563)
9th – Anatoly Filonenko – ₽589,400 ($7,554)
Featured image source: Twitter
