Leonid Bilokur Takes PCA $25K High Roller; Duhamel Runner-Up

Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 15 January 2012 / Leave a Comment

Leonid Bilokur hoists the winner's trophy after taking down the 2012 PCA High Roller (Photo: PokerNews)

Bilokur came from behind versus a red-hot Jonathan Duhamel to win the High Roller. This marked Duhamel's fourth final table of this year's PCA, including a win in the $5K NLH 8-max. event for which he earned $239,830.

After coming from behind heads-up versus a red-hot Jonathan Duhamel, Leonid Bilokur of Russia claimed the $25,500 buy-in High Roller event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure on Saturday, earning a handsome $1,134,930 for topping a tough field of 141 in the three-day tournament.

The final day of play began with Jason Koon the chip leader with 1.646 million, followed closely by Duhamel (1.53 million), with Nicolas Fierro and Bilokur not too far back with more than 1.1 million each.

Randy Lew began the day with the shortest stack with a shade less than 200,000. Lew managed to double a couple of times and last a few hours, but then had the misfortune of running As-Kc into Fierro's Ad-Ah. The board came queen-high, and Lew was the first elimination of the day in eighth.

Michael Telker fell shortly thereafter in seventh with Fierro the vanquisher once again. In Telker's final hand, Fierro opened with a raise with 10s-10c, Telker reshoved for almost 300,000 with Kh-Qh, and Fierro called. The flop came an intriguing Js-10d-8s, giving Fierro a set but Telker a straight draw. But the turn was the 6s and the river the 6d, and Telker was out.

Bilokur then doubled through leader Koon when his Jc-Js held up versus Koon's As-Kh, giving Bilokur the lead with almost 2.6 million and knocking Koon back to second with 1.66 million.

Next it was Govert Metaal open-shoving his short stack of 272,000 from under the gun, getting a call from Duhamel on the button. Fierro then reraised all in from the small blind, forcing a fold from Duhamel. Fierro had Kh-Kd and Metaal Ad-2d. The community cards came Qc-Qs-6d-7s-Jh, and they were down to five.

They reached the dinner break, with Bilokur having increased his advantage to 3.365 million, while Duhamel had moved into second with almost 1.9 million. Meanwhile, Isaac Haxton, Koon, and Fierro were all hovering between 650k-800k.

Fierro would be eliminated in fifth shortly after the break after running pocket deuces into Haxton's pair of tens. Then Koon would be knocked out by Duhamel when his Ad-4h failed to improve against Duhamel's Kc-Kh. Haxton would then hit the rail in third after his Kd-Qd failed to connect versus Duhamel's Ac-Js, and just two remained.

Thanks to those last couple of knockouts, Duhamel had pushed out to a commanding lead to start heads-up play with 5.43 million to Bilokur's 1.96 million. But after about an hour of poker Bilokur had chipped back to even things, then built up a better than 3-to-1 chip advantage of his own.

Then came a hand in which Duhamel opened with a 2x raise to 120,000 from the button, then Bilokur made it 325,000 to go. Duhamel reraised all in for his last 1.68 million total, and Bilokur called.

Duhamel had Kd-4h and Bilokur Ad-7c. The flop came 9d-As-Js, pairing Bilokur's ace, and the Jh on the turn meant the river Ac was no matter. The Russian Bilokur had earned his biggest career payday by a longshot, his previous best being a win at a 2010 EPT Berlin event worth €174,000.

Meanwhile Duhamel capped an especially successful week-and-a-half in the Bahamas, a nice start to 2012 after having endured that scary home invasion and robbery at the end of last year. Duhamel made his fourth final table of the series in this event, following a fourth-place finish in the $100K Super High Roller, a fifth-place in the $5K NLH Turbo, and a victory in the $5K NLH 8-max. event worth $239,830.

2012 PCA $25K High Roller final table payouts:
1st: Leonid Bilokur -- $1,134,930
2nd: Jonathan Duhamel -- $634,550
3rd: Isaac Haxton -- $380,730
4th: Jason Koon -- $271,560
5th: Nicolas Fierro -- $217,560
6th: Govert Metaal -- $181,300
7th: Michael Telker -- $145,040
8th: Randy Lew -- $108,780

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