Cyprus in August is hot, and we don’t just mean the 100+ degree heat. While the island’s Merit Royal Diamond has been playing host to a new poker series — the inaugural Onyx Super High Roller Series — elsewhere on the island a much older, more established poker tour has been taking place.
The World Poker Tour (WPT) has been visiting Cyprus since 2009, with this year’s event being held at the Chamada Prestige Hotel & Spa. It was there that Georgia’s Ilia Kitsbabashvili added a considerable amount to his existing tournament earnings of just over $25K.
The $3,500 event drew a huge 775 entries, creating a prizepool of over $2.4M, over three starting flights. Day 2 thinned the field down to just 70, led by Uladzimir Zhyharau of Belarus, who retained his lead throughout Day 3 to enter the final day’s play with the chip lead.
Yet it would be Kitsbabashvili who would ultimately be last man standing, taking down the $401,100 first prize — a big step up from his previous recorded career-best score of $7,765, one of only nine cashes in his tournament resume prior to this series. The win rockets Kitsbabashvili up the Georgian all-time money list, from 71st to 2nd.
Chip leader Zhyharau is first to fall
For a time it seemed the ‘last man standing’ might for once prove to be ‘last woman standing’. Russia’s Elena Litviniuk made the final day with hopes alive of becoming only the third woman to win a WPT Main Event after Ema Zajmović and Van Nguyen, in 2017 and 2008 respectively.
Litviniuk made the official final table of six after Ignacio Sole was eliminated in 7th ($63K), with Ilia Kitsbabashvili, Nikolai Zhadanov, Rafal Chmura, James Mahone and Uladzimir Zhyharau rounding out the final half-dozen. Chmura held the lead as the tournament entered its last chapter, holding close to 9M chips, while Zhadanov was the short stack with just over 2M.
A level into six-handed play, and Mahone would take the lead after an audacious shove which saw Chmura fold a set. With blinds at 100K/200K/200K, Mahone opened from the hijack for a touch more than the minimum, 425K, holding 
. Chmura, with 
on the button, called to see a flop of 
and making a set of 8s.
Chmura bet out for around half pot, Mahone called and the turn brought the 
. Chmura led again for just over 1M chips, only for Mahone to come over the top with a shove for his stack of 7M. Sensing a straight — that wasn’t there — Chmura folded his set.
The first of the six players to be eliminated would be Uladzimir Zhyharau, a level later, when the man who had led for so much of the tourney found himself down to his last 15 big blinds. Zhyharau open-jammed from the hijack with 
, and ran into the 
of Mahone in the cutoff, who raised to isolate. The board brought no help, and Zhyharau was out in 6th with $82K.
Aces cracked to send Litviniuk out
Just three hands after Zhyharau’s exit, the next player would fall. With a short stack of just 4 big blinds, Nikolai Zhadanov had done well to ladder-up as a result of Zhyharau’s bust-out, and found a hand with which to make a stand.
The Russian had 
and got his chips in preflop versus the of Mahone. A ten dropped on the flop, and the board of 
was no friend to pocket nines. Zhadanov was out in 5th for $107K.
Elena Litviniuk was next to fall, the last remaining woman in the field coming out the wrong side of a bad beat delivered by Chmura. Litviniuk had pocket aces and min-raised from the cutoff, successfully inducing a shove from Chmura in the big blind and calling quickly for her remaining stack of 18 bigs.
Chmura had only a measly pair of deuces, but that would be enough to KO the aces once the flop brought a third one. The board of 
saw the set become a full house, and Litviniuk’s aces were well and truly cracked. She took $142K for her run to 4th.
Aces cracked again!
It would take some time, and plenty of ups and downs among the three remaining stacks, for the next player to hit the bricks, and when the moment came it was Rafal Chmura who paid the price. And once again, it would be a case of pocket aces getting cruelly cracked.
With blinds up to 250K/500K/500K, Chmura was down to his last 8 big blinds when he raised to 1M from the button holding . Looking to get some chips in the pot and some value for his premium pair, Chmura was likely wary of betting too much and scaring off his opponents. He might now wish he had done.
Kitsbabashvili called Chmura’s raise, defending his big blind holding 
and flopping a nicely concealed straight draw on the 
board. With Chmura having only 3M behind, Kitsbabashvili set the man from Slovakia all-in — a bet he quickly called.
Kitsbabashvili was looking for an eight or a three to make his straight, but got neither. Instead, the and 
dropped to fill his backdoor flush. Chmura was sent to the payout desk with a bad beat story and a ticket for $190K.
Kitsbabashvili converts lead to win
That left Georgia’s Kitsbabashvili with a chip advantage of 48 to 14.5 big blinds over Mahone. It was a lead that would grow in the early rounds of heads-up play, as both players exhibited aggression and multiple all-ins, but Kitsbabashvili’s weighty stack saw him take the majority of small pots to extend his lead.
It would not take long for both players to be dealt cards good enough to get it in with. Mahone, on the button, looked down at 
and sent in his last 4.3M in chips. Kitsbabashvili had the suited 
and made the call to put the UK’s Mahone at risk.
The flop immediately brought light at the end of the tunnel for Kitsbabashvili as the 
fell, giving him an overpair to Mahone’s pocket fives. The and changed nothing, and Kitsbabashvili banked the biggest score of his career to date with an impressive $400,100 — including a $10,400 seat in the WPT World Championship this December. Mahone picked up $255,000 for his impressive runner-up finish.
WPT Cyprus Championship — final table results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ilia Kitsbabashvili |
$401,100 |
| 2 | James Mahone |
$255,000 |
| 3 | Rafal Chmura |
$190,000 |
| 4 | Elena Litviniuk |
$142,000 |
| 5 | Nikolai Zhadanov |
$107,000 |
| 6 | Uladzimir Zhyharau |
$82,000 |
Images courtesy of World poker Tour.
