The Belorussian Aliaksei Boika emerged victorious from the third and final EPT Malta Main Event, taking home the winner’s trophy as well as a cash prize amounting to €355,700. The 28-year-old player managed to beat the Mats Karlsson who was a long-time chip leader in the tournament and got the largest cash portion out of the tournament’s guaranteed prize pool estimated to €2,269,800.
On the other hand, the 59-year-old Swedish player Mats Karlsson experienced a personal downfall at the EPT Malta Main Event, especially considering the fact that the became a chip leader and remained as such for three days, and then being left as a runner-up by Boika. The latter got himself the first place in the tournament and was awarded with the tournament’s trophy and €355,700 in cash.
Aliaksei Boika commented on his victory, saying he was very excited with the fact he ranked first and even explained he was not so sure in his victory.
The sixth day of the tournament, which was actually its final day, started with a total of 468 remaining players. The winner Aliaksei Boika started the event’s final table at the bottom of the table, but he quickly managed to climb up. At this time, Mats Karlsson was doing great, after he managed to gather a pretty large stack.
Tomas Macnamara from the UK was also one of the players who had big stacks at the time, after playing great for four days. However, he was not lucky enough to reach up in the table and was eliminated soon after Dominic Panka, Xixiang Luo and Bastian Dohler left the final table.
The heads-up battle started with Mats Karlsson holding the chip lead with a stack of eight million. In comparison, Aliaksei Boika had a chip stack of 6 million at the time. However, the young Belorussian managed to beat his rival and emerged victorious from the tournament’s Main table.
With Aliaksei Boika on top of the list, the runner-up position was occupied by Mats Kalsson from Sweden who took a consolation prize of €261,730. Dmitry Yurasov from Russua got third, taking home a total of €192,650. The fourth position was occupied by Elie Saad, followed by the UK players Peter Ockenden.
Another British player – Tomas Macnamara – remained sixth. The seventh place in the ranking was taken by Bastian Dohler from Germany, and Xixiang Luo from China ranked eighth. The ninth position was occupied by Dominik Panka from Poland, who took a prize of €41,590 for his participation.
- Author
Harry Evans
