Alexey Rybin Leads the Final Table at the bwin WPT Merit Cyprus Classic

It’s a very rare thing for a player to lead a tournament from start to finish, but that’s exactly what could happen as Alexey Rybin enters the final table with a chip lead he has not relinquished since he first took it on Day 1A.

Sergey Rybachenko, Albert Daher, Andrei Nikonov, Kayhan Tugrul and Pierre Sayegh will join Rybin as we play to find our first WPT Champion of the new season.

Here is the recap of an exciting fourth day of action.

The first player to double up in Level 20 was, predictably, the player with the shortest stack. Natalya Nikitina finding the a pair of queens to double through Kayhan Turgul and his ace-queen. It was a torrid start to the day for Turgul and it got worse when he doubled up Albert Daher in a five-bet pot with Turgul holding pocket eights and Daher holding pocket tens.

The first player to exit the competition was Baris Topkaya, and it was the chip leader Alexey Rybin who now owns that particular scalp. The pair got it in on a board of [Ks] [9d] [6c] [4d]; Topkaya held [Kc] [2c], but Rybin held [Kd] [2d] for the diamond free roll. The dealer burned and turned the river and the [Td] sent Topkaya out of the competition.

Oleg Suntsov quickly followed Topkaya out of the door. His vanquisher was Bernard Samaha and it was a simple all-in and call with Samaha holding [Jc] [6s], and Suntsov holding [Ac] [9h]. The dealer put a jack on the flop and Suntsov was out in 13th.

The rollercoaster ride of Samaha had experienced his high, but it was about to crash and burn when it experienced its low. Samaha losing a big pot against Sergey Rybachenko before exiting in a cooler against Nikonov. The board was showing [Ah] [Ts] [8h] [8d] when the pair got it in. Samaha must have thought he was good with [Qh] [8s], but Nikonov was sat holding pocket tens for the boat. The river changed nothing and Samaha was out.

(Photo: Bernard Samaha)

The level ended with Rybin in the lead with 2 million chips, but the level belonged to Nikonov who now had 1.5m.

When the 21st level started it was once again Natalya Nikitina in the spotlight, only this time for all the wrong reasons. She made her stand with ace-queen and was called by Albert Daher and his pocket tens. Daher won the flip and Nikitina was out in 11th place to present us with our unofficial final table of 10.

(Photo: Natalya Nikitina)

Three double ups before the level ended. Alexander Lahkov was hoping for an ace as he made his move with [As] [8s] only to be called by the pocket queens of Kfir Yamin. Not only did Lahkov hit his ace but he also hit runner-runner spades to improve to a flush.

Jerfi Firatli was the next player to get lucky. This time the money went in on a flop of [Qs] [Jd] [2d] with Firatli holding [Ks] [Ts] for the open ender and Nikonov holding pocket aces. The [9h] on the turn completing the draw and Nikonov had doubled up his second short stack of the day.

The level ended with 10 players remaining, Alexey Rybin was still the chip leader with 1.8m and a newly resurgent Albert Daher was the main man of the level ending on 1.2m.

The 22nd level was a turgid affair that contained three double ups. Kayhan Turgul won a flip against Kfir Yamin 99 v AK; Yamin hit a set in his flip against the luckless Andrei Nikonov 33 v AQ and Max Droege got there on the river in his flip against Jerfi Firatli KQ v AJ.

Amongst those double ups was a big hand between Rybin and Rybachenko. Rybin flopped the nut straight on [Td] [9s] [8s] and check-raised Rybachenko who duly made the call. The turn, [Qc], was checked through, but Rybin extracted 200k worth of value on a [7h] river after Rybachenko told the table he had a set and didn’t know what to do with it.

At the end of the level Rybin had extended his chip lead and we still had 10-players remaining.

The 23rd level finally saw the short stacks bust and a hand that should have created our final table but didn’t. The first player eliminated was Jerfi Firatli who had kicker trouble when he found himself all in, against Albert Daher A7 v AT. The board ensured the kicker had to play and Firatli was out.

Right behind Firatli was the WPT Prague runner up Alexander Lahkov. The big Russian got it in with [Kh] [8h] against the [As] [7d] of Kayhan Tugrul and the ace high was good enough to push Lahkov out of the contest.

(Photo: Alexander Lahkov)

The final elimination of the level belonged to Kfir Yamin. He moved all in on the button, holding pocket eights, and was called by Sergey Rybachenko and his pocket queens. Five cards later and Yamin was out.

Then we had a hand that should have ended things for the day. Alexey Rybin had Kayhan Tugrul in dire straits when the pair found themselves all in with pocket queens for Rybin and pocket jacks for Tugrul, but the board ran out [As] [5c] [4d] [2d] [3c] and the spoils were shared much to the chagrin of our chip leader.

The level ended with 7 players in the field and Alexey Rybin was still the chip leader with 2.5m chips. Daher was closing the gap on 1.8m.

It only took 45-minutes of Level 24 before we had our final table and it was the elimination of the PartyPoker qualifier, Max Droege, that led to it. First of all Droege lost the vast majority of his stack in a blind on blind all in versus Kayhan Tugrul. It was [Ad] [Td] for Droege in the small blind, and pocket eights for Tugrul in the big blind. The eights held on and Droege was down to 270k. A few orbits later and the rest of those chips would go into the middle with pocket deuces, only to run into the pocket tens of Sergey Rybachenko. The board held no surprises and the final table was set.

(Photo: Max Droege)

So that’s a wrap. You’ll next hear from us at 13:00 (local time) when we will have our final table and eventually crown our first WPT Champion of Season XII. You have two choices to watch the action tomorrow. You can join us here at the live updates, or you can watch the whole thing on the live stream with commentary from the great man Jesse May and a whole host of guests.

Final Table

Seat 1: Pierre Sayegh –349,000
Seat 2: Alexey Rybin – 2,698,000
Seat 3: Andrei Nikonov – 1,280,000
Seat 4: Sergey Rybachenko – 921,000
Seat 5: Albert Daher – 1,595,000
Seat 6: Kayhan Tugrul – 1,025,000