Alexey Rybin Wins bwin WPT Merit Cyprus Classic! ($258,000)

Congratulations to Alexey Rybin who has just been crowned the bwin WPT Merit Cyprus Classic champion after eliminating Albert Daher in a short, shrift heads up encounter.

Not only has Alexey Rybin won the title, joined the WPT Champions Club and won a $25k seat to the WPT Championships; but he did so after going wire-to-wire as the chip leader on every single day he played; a feat that has not been accomplished since Kevin Saul did the same thing at the Bellagio Cup back in 2008.

Despite his dominance coming into the final table, Rybin will be the first to admit that he didn’t have it his own way today. Andrei Nikonov and Albert Daher played fantastically well, and Rybin was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time, but isn’t that what poker is all about?

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Just a single elimination in the first level of the day, and it was the short stack Pierre Sayegh who finished in sixth position. He saw his opportunity to squeeze with [Ac] [9c] and was called by Albert Daher who held pocket sevens. The lucky number sevens held up and one man from Beirut had eliminated another.

Daher didn’t have long to celebrate as Sergey Rybachenko took a chunk from him in a big double up for the Russian. Rybachenko moving all in with pocket sixes, and Daher made the dubious call with ace-nine off-suit. Once again the pocket pair held and suddenly Daher was the short stack.

The man of the level was Andrei Nikonov, who didn’t lose a pot of note, as he used his positional advantage to chip up almost on par with the leader Alexey Rybin.

The 25th Level saw Alexey Rybin lose the chip lead for the first time since Day 1A and it was Nikonov who stepped up to the plate and put on that particular crown. A six bet pot involving Nikonov and Rybachenko forcing the Russian to back down to hand Nikonov a sumptuous lead.

Just a few hands later and the mighty Russian was out and it was under the most unfortunate circumstances. Rybachenko getting it in with pocket kings against the ace king of the short stack Daher.

“One time…I haven’t used one yet,” said Daher.

It worked. The ace on the river crippling the Russian and Daher would find pocket kings himself to eliminate Rybachenko after he moved all in with pocket tens just a few hands later.

The 26th level saw Rybin moving all in for the first time since Day 1A as the once dominant force started to get short. Then he doubled up through Kayhan Tugrul in a hand that would prove to be the demise from the man from Turkey. It was ace king for Rybin, ace ten for Tugrul and as Rybin moved up to 1.7m chips, Tugrul was down to 380k. Just a few short hands later and Rybin would turn a set of threes to eliminate Tugrul in fourth place after he moved all in with queen jack.

The level ended with an interesting hand between Daher and Rybin. It was a three bet pot on a flop of [9h] [6h] [4s] when the aggressor – Rybin – slid 275k across the felt only to be raised by Daher who made it 625k. Rybin asked to see the hand after folding and Daher duly obliged – [Qd] [2d] for the bluff – and as the trio headed to the break Daher must have been feeling pretty good about himself.

Albert Daher was the quickest out of the traps in the 27th Level when he took a big chunk of change from Andrei Nikonov. It’s not often that the Russian loses a pot of significance, but when Daher turned a set of sixes in a pot worth 3 million you could say that was significant. You can read about the finer details right here.

Daher and Nikonov were going at it tooth and nail, and the one man who was loving life was Alexey Rybin. Then, right on cue, Rybin found ace-king on the button, moved all in, and received a willing caller in Daher who was holding ace-five in the big blind. Just like that the three of them were neck and neck.

After a short break we resumed for Level 28 and it was Andrei Nikonov who was eliminated in third place. Alexey Rybin opening on the button, Nikonov three-betting from the small blind, Rybin moved all in and Nikonov called. It was a cooler with the ace queen of Rybin soon to beat the ace-jack of Nikonov and we were heads up with Albert Daher facing Rybin for the title.

The heads up encounter didn’t last long and it was Rybin who would take the commanding lead. The pot was already huge when Rybin moved all in on a board of [Ad] [Kh] [Jh] [2d], Daher made the call Rybin showed ace king and Daher threw his hand into the muck in frustration despite there being one more card to come.

When the smoke cleared Daher was left with just 315,000 chips and despite doubling up twice was still facing a 6:1 chip disadvantage when the chips went into the middle for the third and final time. It was [As] [5h] for Rybin, [Ks] [9c] for Daher, and the [Ah] on the flop handing Rybin the title as he finished what he started back on Day 1A.

Have a look at Rybin’s interview with Jesse May just after the victory.