Poker is one of the games in which no matter how good you are, sometimes you can spiral down from a leading position to elimination within a matter of seconds. However, this was not what happened to New Zealand’s David Yan last night. Quite the contrary, the player emerged victorious in the EPT Season 13 Malta €25,750 High Roller to win a second major poker title within less than a month and add €465,800 to his poker bankroll.
Yan is admittedly one of the young players of great poker skills and huge potential. Despite his tender age, he is only 23 years old, the New Zealander has accumulated winnings of more than $3 million over the span of his poker career. It was only earlier this month when Yan won the WSOP International Circuit Berlin €1,650 Main Event for a gold ring and first-place prize of €124,635. Earlier this year, the young player finished runner up in another major EPT High Roller tournament. He took 2nd place in the EPT Season 13 Barcelona €25,500 No-Limit Hold’em for his career largest cash of €704,755.
The EPT Malta €25,750 High Roller was played over three days (October 21-23). As events of this kind usually do, this one, too, gathered together some of the world’s best recognized high rollers. The tournament saw drastic changes of playing speed from players leaving in quick succession to slow, sometimes too slow, action. The six-handed final table, which was played on Sunday, was no different. It kicked off with a player leaving soon after cards were thrown in the air and then it took two and a half hours of play before another one hit the rail.
Yan began that final stage of the tournament as the chip leader. To say that he did not have some hard time throughout Day 3 would be a lie. After all, the player had some seasoned EPT regulars and high rollers as his opponents. Yet, the €25,750 High Roller final table took only five hours of play before the name of the winner was determined and Yan posed with the tournament trophy with the legendary PokerStars’ spade on it.
Former tennis player turned poker regular Ramin Hajiyev from Azerbaijan was Yan’s heads-up opponent. Two-handed play started with Hajiyev holding the chip advantage. Yan eventually took a slight lead over his last remaining opponent, but they were generally almost equal in stacks throughout heads-up play and at the time of the final hand for the night and the event as a whole.
The hand was played with Hajiyev first opening to 55,000 and Yan three-betting to 185,000. Hajiyev then four-bet to 395,000 and Yan called. The board ran out [Jh][10d][5h] on the flop. Yan checked to see his opponent bet 340,000. The New Zealander then called. The [7d] appeared on the turn. Both players checked in anticipation for the river, which showed [Qh]. Hajiyev moved all in for 850,000 and Yan called, tabling [Qc][10c] for two pair. Hajiyev showed [9h][6d], thus hitting the rail in 2nd place for €334,400.
Oleksii Khoroshenin from Ukraine finished 3rd in the event for €217,400. Max Silver from the UK collected €164,030 for a fourth-place finish. Mikita Badziakouski from Belarus finished 5th, good for €127,400. Ole Schemion rounded out the international final table of seasoned high roller players to scoop a €98,740 payout.
An overall of 65 entries took part in the highest buy-in event to be running within the EPT Season 13 Malta festival. They generated a prize pool of €1,592,500, with the money going to the top 9 finishers.
