For many years, Cyprus has been a sought-after destination among poker players, especially the local Merit Crystal Cove Casino. In addition to its domestic series, this year it already hosted the luxurious Triton series, but in October it will also host the EPT series for the first time in its history.
The main domestic series in Cyprus include the Western, Classic and Retro themed festivals, but the last one took place in the past few days. The packed tournament and cash game action culminated in the $3,300 buy-in Main Event, which was paid out a total of 1,233 times, producing a $3,375,480 prize pool for players.
The four-day event gradually moved the tournament to ITM, where rewards awaited the best 143 players. Subsequently, it was possible to form 28 participants for the last, final day, which brought demanding 11 hours of poker action. You could also watch it live via a live stream from the TV table:
After the formation of the final table, we could still watch two well-known names in the game - the Ukrainian representative Ruslan Volkov, but the most famous name was clearly the Polish player Dominik Panka, who has one WSOP bracelet and also the EPT Main Event title. Unfortunately, both players retired in quick succession in seventh and sixth place.
The tournament gradually worked its way up to the final heads-up, in which the Russian Oleg Netaliev went with an advantage of almost 3:1 against the Serbian player Darko Svesko. The horror heads-up for Netaliev did not even last half an hour, during which Svesko won every single game and gradually dealt with the last opponent.
"I feel amazing!" said Svesko a few minutes after lifting the trophy. "Playing here in Cyprus for the first time and winning right away is literally a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The final table was literally a rollercoaster, I'm all the better for how it turned out." As the champion, Svesko took home the aforementioned trophy and a lifetime prize worth $567,000.
Final results:
- Darko Svesko (SRB) – 567,000$
- Oleg Netaliev (RUS) – 417,900$
- Michel Atallah (LEB) – 257,900$
- Nenad Dukic (SRB) – 191,100$
- David Hu (NET) – 142,400$
- Ruslan Volkov (UKR) – 115,100$
- Dominik Panka (POL) – 95,900$
- Thomas Eychenne (FRA) – 76,300$
- Ara Melkisetian (LEB) – 56,700$
Source: PokerNews, YouTube
