September 14 2011, Donnie Peters

The PokerStars.net Russian Poker Series Kiev Main Event was held fro Sept. 7 through 10 at the Kreschatyk Poker Club. The $2,500 Main Event attracted 322 entrants created a prize pool of $718,000. Oleg Prokhorov conquered the field to take home the victory, defeating Vadim Ostomaty heads up for the win.

On Day 2 of the tournament, 193 players returned to action. Dmitry Gromov proved to be the man to catch coming into the day with 174,700. He was followed by Aitmatov Maksat, Ostomaty, Andrew Pateychuk and Kirill Rodionov.

Gromov didn’t have such a good day on the felt and only went on to finish Day 2 with 95,500. That was good enough for 34th place overall, out of the 40 players that made it through to Day 3. Ostomaty had a much better day and built his stack to 784,500 to take the chip lead into Day 3. Pateychuk also did well and finished Day 2 in third place with 570,500.

Four of the 40 players who returned for Day 3 went home empty handed because only 36 places were paid out in the Main Event. Out of those returning, Team PokerStars Pro Alex Kravchenko was the most notable. He returned in 12th place overall with a stack of 277,500.

On one notable hand, Kravchenko was able to double up. This happened during the 6,000/12,000 blind level. George Georgie raised and Kravchenko called to see the flop come down . After Georgie bet 40,000, Kravchenko raised to 130,000. Georgie made the call and the fell on the turn. Georgie fired all-in for 270,000. Kravchenko called and tabled for a set of sevens. Georgie held the for a pair and a straight draw. The river kept Kravchenko’s hand best and he doubled up.

At the end of the day, only nine players remained for the final table. Here’s how they stacked up.

With plenty of money up for grabs, and $182,000 going to first place, the final table was set to be a battle, however, it didn’t take long for the first player to be eliminated.

Falling in ninth place was Andrew Pateychuk. Although he got the last of his money in with pocket aces, they failed to hold against Levan Karmanishvili’s two tens after a ten flopped and the board bricked from there. Then in eighth place, Yuri Skorzeny was eliminated, followed by Martin Dietrich in seventh and Kravchenko in sixth.

Kravchenko was the most notable player to make the final table and was eliminated after shoving all-in with and running into Anton Ponomarev’s . Although the flop provided a sweat with the falling to give Kravchenko a club flush draw, the turn and river couldn’t give him the suckout he needed to stay alive.

After Kravchenko hit the rail, Paul Lee fell in fifth place, Levan Karmanishvili in fourth. Before play got down to heads up, the final three players made a deal where Ostomaty and Ponomarev took $135,000 each and Prokhorov earned $94,000. Ponomarev then exited in third, which set the stage for a heads-up match between Prokhorov and Ostomaty. The title and an extra $8,000 was up for grabs for first place.

When the heads-up duel began, Ostomaty held a big chip lead with 8.45 million in chips to Prokhorov’s 1.15 million. On the final hand, Ostomaty raised to 380,000 and Prokhorov reraised to 1.5 million. Ostomaty made the call to see the flop come down . This is where the money went in with Ostomaty holding for a pair of eights to Prokhorov’s for a little better pair of nines. The turn brought the to give Prokhorov an unbeatable set of nines and had Ostomaty drawing dead. The river completed the board with the and it was all over.

For winning the event, Prokhorov took home a total of $102,000 and the RPS Kiev title.

You can find details and photos of the event, at RU.PokerNews.com.

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September 07 2011, Barry Carter

Download PokerStars this month and earn 150 VPPs before September 21 to participate in three exclusive freerolls, with a combined value of $20,000

Right now the 2011 World Championship of Online Poker is taking place, the biggest online poker festival of the year, at PokerStars. If the $30,000,000 guaranteed prize pool wasn’t tempting enough, how about the fact that if you have joined PokerStars through PokerNews, you will also be able to qualify for $20,000 in exclusive freerolls?

Playing in just a handful of WCOOP events will make you eligible for our exclusive freeroll series between September 26 – 30. Not only do these freerolls have a combined prize pool of $20,000, the field sizes will be very small compared to the usual tournaments on PokerStars, because it is only open to PokerNews referred PokerStars players.

Freeroll #1: $5,500
September 26, 1330 EDT (1830 BST)
Tourney ID#434772771

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September 28, 1330 EDT (1830 BST)
Tourney ID#434772772

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September 30, 1330 EDT (1830 BST)
Tourney ID#434772773

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To play in this freeroll series, you need to download PokerStars through PokerNews using marketing code “POKERNEWS.COM.” Existing PokerNews referred PokerStars players are welcome to participate.

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