Event 7: $2,000 Warm Up from the Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party has a champion and his name is Arsenii Karmatckii. The Russian player takes $310,000 for the win in his first-ever cash from North Cyprus at the Royal Diamond Hotel & Casino.
The tournament was a really successful one, with 1,046 entries smashing the prize pool of $1,924,640. It took four Day 1 flights to whittle the entries down to 177 entrants vying for a spot at the final table on Day 2. In the end, the final nine players were largely Russian players, or from Russian-speaking countries.
MPP $2,200 Warm Up Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arsenii Karmatckii | Russian Federation | $310,000 |
| 2 | Milos Skrbic | Serbia | $190,000 |
| 3 | Aleksandr Pak | Uzbekistan | $125,640 |
| 4 | Artur Martirosian | Russian Federation | $85,000 |
| 5 | Dmitry Yurasov | Russian Federation | $60,000 |
| 6 | Dmitry Vitkind | Russian Federation | $45,000 |
| 7 | Sergey Baranski | Belarus | $35,000 |
| 9 | Aleksandr Kinzhalov | Russian Federation | $25,000 |
Tale Of The Final Table
The final table started out with Pavel Plesuv running his pocket sevens into the ace-jack of your eventual winner. Karmatckii spiked a jack on the river to send Plesuv out in ninth.
Aleksandr Kinzhalov was next to go. He got in pocket tens against the ace-queen of Artur Martirosian. Martirosian hit an ace on the turn to send him fellow Russian to the rail.
Sergey Baranski did come into proceedings with the chip lead, be it slender. He ended up getting pretty short-stacked and being forced to run with a weak ace against Martirosian, who again had ace-queen and held up. The Belarusian with his first known tournament cash, not a bad effort.
Dmitry Vitkind was disappointed to go out in sixth place. He had to settle for $45,000 for his efforts after he ran king-nine into king-queen suited of our eventual runner-up, 2019 WSOP Main Event final table qualifier Milos Skrbic.
Dmitry Yurasov busted out in fifth. He did come into the day fairly short and did well to ladder to fourth. In the end, cards were not really on the Russian pro's side. He got it in flipping against Skrbic and failed to hold, sending him to the rail.
After four busts in quick order, the next one wasn't any slower, with Martirosian and Karmatckii playing the biggest pot of the tournament to that point. After an open from Karmatckii, Martirosian jammed a suited ace-eight into the suited Big Slick of your winner. His day was done in fourth position.
With three players remaining, Aleksandr Pak was by far the shortest stack. With not much wiggle room, he jammed his button with six-five off and Skrbic called with an ace and held up to set up heads-up play.
In the end, Skrbic shoved with fewer than 10 big blinds with a suited queen-three. Karmatckii called with ace-ten of the same suit and flopped an ace, all but sealing the fate of the tournament. Skrbic, who has a couple of big cashes on his resume as a player, has recorded his first cash since 2019 with this second-place finish. PokerNews caught up with your winner after his victory.
Winner's Interview
Asked how he found the final table, he responded ''Actually it was a lot of guys I know, the series is very popular among Russian players because of travel, logistical reasons, and so on. But it was funny how short the final table was'', he went on ''You don't play a lot of hands post flop so it's just push or fold, racing, with not a lot of decisions''. It was a very short stacked final table but Karmatckii played very aggressively and when he had chips, pushed them to make more, pressuring the shorter stacks (that probably had ICM implications in the forefront of their minds).
''It's the first time I've come here. It's really good [here], the food, all the dishes. It's like the Bahamas but in Europe," Karmatckii said about the venue, his relaxed demeanor and the area the tournament has been held.
Karmatckii said he plans on coming back in November, ''It's very convenient to bring funds here to play'', referring to the Luxon Pay sponsorship of the event, that allows for players from across the world to exchange funds easily to pay events, not to mention the events are run in USD buy-ins.
Finally, talking about the pressures of the final table, Karmatckii told PokerNews it wasn't about the money ''It's like a sport to me, the money did not put any pressure on me.''
That about does it for the coverage of Event #7, congratulations to your winner, Arsenii Karmatckii.
Stay tuned to PokerNews for extensive coverage of the key events at the Luxon Pay Mediterranean Poker Party live from the Royal Diamond Hotel & Casino in North Cyprus as Event #12: $5,000 Main Event starts.
