Betfair Poker Live! Tallinn - Krzysztof Zajac wins the main event

Betfair Poker LIVE / Editor / 12 April 2010 / Leave a Comment

The final table of Betfair Poker Live! Tallinn started with the minute of silence to mourn death of Polish president and Lech Kaczynski and 95 others, who perished with him in an air crash in Russia.

That start of the day was very tough for the shorts stacks. Within an hour of play the tournament lost Włodzimierz Kaiser (8th place and €2,869), Ekaterina Rimskaya-Korsakova (7th place and €3,246) and Ilya Nikiforov (6th place and €3,624). The only short stack who made a good use of this situation was Slaven Popov. The Bulgarian doubled up through Nikivorov and became one of contenders for the first prize. Popov went all in with 6-7 suited, the Russian called with A-K. The flop 8-10-9 gave Slaven straight, whereas Ilya was virtually drawing dead. The turn and river were inconsequential.

However, it was chip leader Lari Sihvo who had most reasons to repine on his unhappy lot. The Esonian player Dmitri Gerasimovits caught a straight in a hand against the Finn and skillfully slow-played his nuts. Lari paid on every street and lost a huge part of his stack.

The ex-chip leader Lari Sihvo could not recover from a huge loss to Dmitri Gerasimovits and pretty soon hit the rail as well. Sivho moved all-in with J-5 and was called by Krzysztof Zajac who held A-5. The board did not help the Finn who had to say goodbye (5th place and (€4,303). It looks like after losing a huge pot to Gerasimovits Lari resigned himself to inevitable.

With only four players left the pace of the game suddenly picked up. Kare Kaukomaa who had worked miracles of vitality in the previous day, started putting constant pressure on his opponents by opening with raises virtually every hand played. Having won several all-ins from behind the Finn even found himself leading the pack at some point. "Easy come, easy go" they say. Kaukomaa lost his "feel of danger" and got knocked out in just two hands. His "unsinkable ship" finally wrecked (4th place and €6,492).

Naturally, Kare Kaukomaa was not the only person to be in spotlight at this stage of the final table. A Polish player Krzysztof Zajac could not boast of his luck in all-ins as but constantly outplayed the opponents in complicated post flop encounters. Luckily for him, capricious Lady Fortune smiled upon Krzysztof in the most important hand and the largest pot at that point of the tournament. The Pole won a classical coin-flip all-in A-K vs. J-J in a hand with Dmitri Gerasimovits and took the lead.

The Estonian player did not manage to get over after this hard blow. Dmitri fell the victim to Slaven Popov who instantly called his all-in with A-J. Gerasimovets showed 10-9 suited hoping for the best. The flop came 3-3-J, 9 on the turn gave Gerasimovets hopes for winning a huge pot, but an ace on the river tip the scales to the Popov's favor. The Estonian finished third and received €9,890 for his strong performance.

Left tête-à-tête Slaven Popov and Krzysztof Zajac quickly sealed a deal. The opponents decided to split most of the prize money and to play just for €2,000 and the title. The heads-up didn't last very long. After losing several hands without showdown Slaven attempted to turn tables around by going all-in with K-3. Unfortunately for him Krzysztof snap called with 8-8. The flop 6-2-K revived the intrigue but after an 8 on the turn and a blank card on the river it was all over. Krzysztof Zajac came as the winner of the main event and received €18 061; Slaven Popov has nothing to complain after adding €16,061 to his bankroll. Our congratulations to Krzysztof Zajac with his well-deserved victory!