EPT Open Sochi: The Thrill of Live Poker Tournaments

The EPT Open Sochi series started on September 21, 2018. The first tournament, with 703 entries and a buy-in of 18,000 rubles, was won by Alexei Ivanov, a participant in the Olympic Games in Sochi and Vancouver.

Other notable winners include Roman Nurayev, Garik Tamasyan, and Vage Martirosyan. Vitaly Avanesyan also secured a victory in a bounty tournament with the same buy-in. The main tournament, featuring a buy-in of 132,000 rubles and unlimited re-entries, began on September 25, 2018. This tournament will award three platinum packages for the Players Championship, scheduled for January on the Bahamas.

The first day of the main tournament saw 292 entries, with 94 participants advancing to the second day. Grigory Chugunov finished the first day with a stack of 689,000 chips. Other notable players who successfully navigated the first day include Denis Timofeev, Maxim Panyak, Nikolai Fal, Vadim Shlez, Andrei Danilyuk, Kirill Rodionov, Artem Vezhenkov, Denis Strebkov, and Alexander Gofman.