Another Russian player has just scooped a gold bracelet from the 2016 WSOP after Viatcheslav Ortynskiy topped the field of the $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Six-Handed a few days ago. Andrey Zaichenko, a sales and marketing executive and occasional poker player from Moscow, Russia, emerged victorious late on Wednesday in the $1,500 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) and was awarded his first Series gold piece and $117,947 in prize money.
Zaichenko commented that over the past three years he has played mainly Limit poker variants. The player further explained that Limit poker has gradually become the preferred format for cash games in his home country and that this has resulted in Russian players performing better in the WSOP.
Zaichenko emerged as the winner out of a field of 358 entries. The $1,500 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) event generated an overall prize pool of $483,300, distributing payouts to the top 54 finishers.
Three days and nights were needed for a victor to be determined. Day 3 of the tournament kicked off with 9 remaining players seated at two tables. Jameson Painter led the final 9 with 715,000 in chips. As for the eventual winner, he was the middle stack at that point.
Apart from Zaichenko, there was another Russian at the official eight-handed final table, four US players, an Israeli participant, and a Ukrainian. However, it was namely Painter who proved to be the greatest obstacle for the tournament’s champion. The two players faced each other in what turned out to be an extremely tough heads-up duel.
The two finalists exchanged the chip lead several times until the last hand in play was dealt. With Painter being all in, Zaichenko drew two on the first draw and his opponent drew four. The Russian then stood pat as Painter drew two on the second draw. Zaichenko once again stood pat while Painter drew one on the final draw and left it face down.
The Russian player tabled [9x][8x][7x][6x][4x] for a nine-eight low. Painter tabled [6x][5x][4x][3x]. An [8x]
or a [9x]
would have drawn the player live. However, his last card down was a [6x] for a pair. His payout from the tournament amounted to $72,878.
Guy Hareuveni from Israel took 3rd place for $46,992. Alexsandr Vinskii, the other Russian at the final table, finished 4th for a payout of $31,099. Adam Spiegelberg from Las Vegas, Nevada was paid $21,139 for finishing 5th.
Ukrainian Andrii Nadieliaiev took 6th place in the event, good for $14,769. Andrew Kelsall from Tampa, Florida scooped $10,614 of the entire prize pool for finishing 7th. Daniel Zack from Princeton, New Jersey rounded out the final table for $10,614.
