Betfair Poker Live! Yalta 2012 Main Event - Andrey Bidnyuk Celebrates Victory
Andrey Bidnyuk landed the Betfair Poker Live! Yalta 2012 Main Event in September after beating Nikita Pronin heads-up to take home the first prize and the largest share of the spoils after four players on the final table agreed an amicable split of the winnings.
The Main Event was the high point of the festival which had two-starting day format, tested in Kiev a few months earlier. The players knocked out on the Day 1A could have tried their luck one more time on the day 1B for an extra buy-in. With 93 buy-ins made (several players did re-enter on the day 1B) there were 10 prizes in the event; the winner of the tournament was up for $47,815.
The so-called "BF Bounty curse", i.e. elimination of the player appointed by the Betfair at the very first day continued to haunt the main event. A legendary Russian player Sergey Rybachenko AKA Gipsy had a very good stack throughout the day, but after losing a few big posts in a row closer to the end was eliminated by his countryman Alexander Gofman in A-3 vs. A-J all-in. The winner of this hand Alexander Gofman was rewarded with a prize package to the next Betfair Poker Live! main event. As for Sergey Rybachenko, his quest for the first prize was not over yet.
The second day of Betfair Poker Live! Yalta 2012 main event was an aggressive slugfest from the very start. After six hours of uncompromising, gutsy poker only one third of 64 players saw the end of the day. Usually about half of the leaders after the first day maintain their top positions through the second one. This main event did not disrupt this pattern - six players from the top ten preserved their positions in the leading pack.
Sergey Rybachenko was among few players to venture upon making re-entry at the Day 1B and made it into the second. Unsurprisingly, Sergey was in the limelight throughout the second day. The fluctuations of his stack strongly resemble a sine curve but luckily for Rybachenko he ended the day at the peak of this curve and finished in the top ten.
With all its turns and twists the third day Betfair Poker Live! Yalta 2012 main event became a two-man show. Enver Abduraimov and Nikita Pronin stole the day completely outshining other participants. The day reached its acme when there were only two tables left. At this point many considered Sergey Rybachenko and Enver Abduraimov playing at the first table as the most probable candidates for the top positions at the final table.
Indeed, Sergey took a very good start, knocking out a few opponents, whereas Anver wrestled a huge pot from one of the leaders after the second day Ivan Ruban. All of the sudden Nikita Pronin, a virtually unknown Internet qualifier (he won a satellite on Betfair) stormed off at the second table crushing the opposition in the most convincing manner. Ironically, Sergey Rybachenko fell from his hand when Nikita hit his flush on the river facing Gipsy's two pair.
Enver Abduraimov in his turn stepped up a gear and quickly became the captain of his table. Two levels down the road Enver caught up with Nikita and by the time nine players met at the pre-final table he took the lead. A heated fight on the bubble was somewhat alleviated by the players' unanimous decision to chip in $200 each for a bubble boy. Alexander Sharov received this $2,000 extra-prize for his 11th place finish.
The final table of the main event lived up to its billing. The start of the day saw a brisk spurt by the seventh stack Andrey Bidnyuk, who doubled up against the chipleader Enver Abduraimov and then knocked out Dmitry Khahalev (8th place and $5,260) and Vladimir Martens (7th place and $7,075).
The chipleader Enver Abduraimov found himself at the other end of the spectrum in the debut of the day. In addition to the above mentioned hand with Bidnyuk in succession doubled up Oleg Lobar and Yevgeny Maslennikov. To his credit Enver turned tables by winning a huge bank from Nikita Pronin with full-house and returned into the top trio. Nikita's full-house woes continued. Just a few minutes later he ran against this strong combination again and gave up a sizable part of his stack to Andrey Bidnyuk.
Being in the zone Bidnyuk exerted a tremendous pressure on the opponents. The list of Andrey's achievements in the middle stage of the final table includes his fantastic bluff against Abduraimov and elimination of Andrey Gorokhov (6th place and $8,530) with J-J vs. A-3. By this time there was only one short stack left in the event, namely Oleg Lobur. The writing was clearly on the wall.
Indeed, Oleg finished 5th, but before his elimination a string of very important events occurred in the leading group. Nikita Pronin doubled up against Enver Abduraimov with J-J vs. A-K, whereas the latter staged a remarkable comeback after flopping a set (10-10 vs. J-J) in a hand with Yevgeny Maslennikov.
When dust settled it turned out that the leader of the event Andrey Bidnyuk was a holder of a million-chip stack whereas Yevgeny Maslennikov, Nikita Pronin and Enver Abduraimov had about 600,000 each. In this situation the quartet decided not to tempt fate and split the prize money. Interestingly enough, after the deal was sealed the players continued a grueling contest with just a trophy at stake. It is only fair that Andrey Bidnyuk, who had the biggest stack, eventually became the winner of Betfair Poker Live! Yalta 2012 main event, after defeating Nikita Pronin in the heads-up.
Final standings:
1. Andrey Bidnyuk - $47, 815 ($33,500 according to the deal)
2. Nikita Pronin - $28,900 ($24,750 according to the deal)
3. Yevgeny Maslennikov - $17,260 ($24,750 according to the deal)
4. Enver Abduraimov - $11,440 ($22,415 according to the deal)
5. Oleg Lobur - $9,985
6. Andrey Gorokhov - $8,530
7. Vladimir Martens - $7,075
8. Dmitry Khakhalev - $5,260
9. Pavel Kharlamov - $4,165
10. Roman Grigoriev - $2,710
11. Alexander Sharov - $2,000
More picutres from Betfair Poker! Yalta 2012 here, here and here
Prices quoted in copy are correct at time of publication but liable to change.
