Aleksey Badulin is the New WPT Russia Main Event Champion!

By Lisa Yiasemides

At the start of the day 12 players returned, each with hopes of taking down the WPT Russia Main Event here at the beautiful Casino Sochi. By the end of it all, when the dust had settled, Aleksey Badulin (pictured) was the one who had realised that hope. He goes home with the title, his name etched on the WPT trophy and walks away 232,250 CU* better off as a result after defeating Vlada Stojanovic heads up.

Speaking to WPT.com after his win, Badulin was “really happy” as well as feeling surprisingly “calm.” Though he doesn’t have any plans to celebrate immediately, Badulin will celebrate with friends and family when he returns home to Moscow. With a Tournament of Champions seat also part of the winner’s package, it will be a good time to start working on his US visa application. The tournament takes place in Vegas at the end of the season.

The action was hot from the start and Mikhail Sokolovskiy was the first casualty, busting in 12th place (16,500 CU). He was joined at the rail by Anatoly Filatov (pictured) an hour later. The partypoker Team Pro had dwindled in the counts in the preceding level and moved all in with jack-ten but Roman Timergazin had him dominated with pocket-jacks. Filatov takes home 20,500 CU for his 11th place finish.

Shortly after, Viktor Ustimov (20,500 CU) and Dmitriy Ponomarev (25,500 CU) fell in 10th and 9th places respectively, which confirmed the final eight. Vladimir Lappo battled hard but couldn’t progress any further after getting it in with pocket-queens against Stojanovic’s pocket-tens. A ten on the river sent the chips to Stojanovic, and Lappo netted 32,000 CU for his result.

Next to leave was Egor Voitusenko in 7th. He also got it in good with king-queen suited to Stojanovic’s king-jack, but the runner-up was running hot and made a pair of jacks on the board. Voitusenko walked away with 41,000 CU. Timergazin joined him at the rail next, when he lost a flip against Ernest Shakaryan, taking 53,500 CU for 6th place.

Sergey Kharlamov exited in 5th place in yet another final-table outdraw, after his pocket-jacks were cracked by Badulin’s ace-eight. He can console himself with 70,000 CU for his efforts. Vahe Martirosyan (pictured) came unstuck after making a move with four-deuce suited after Badulin limped pocket-kings blind versus blind. Martirosyan won 91,000 CU for making it to 4th place.

Then there were three and Shakaryan narrowly missed out on a heads up spot when he ran king-queen into Badulin’s pocket-kings. Shakaryan had a great run, managing to ladder up to 120,607 CU despite starting the day as the shortest stack.

With two left, Stojanovic (pictured) was slightly ahead in chips. That lead quickly diminished after a series of losses, with Stojanovic with the worst of it in almost every hand. Stojanovic put up a valiant effort, even managing to avoid elimination on multiple occasions by executing some impressive folds. He is rewarded with 165,000 CU for finishing as runner up.

Congratulations go to Badulin on becoming the latest WPT Russia Main Event champion on a fantastic run and incredible result. All there is left to say is goodbye until next time.

WPT UK photos courtesy of Tomas Stacha.

* 1 Casino Unit = ₽70