Natan Chauskin - the winner

A total of 947 players turned up a couple of days ago to play the IPT Main Event, and here on a Sunday evening, only one man was left standing. Natan Chauskin defeated Govert Metaal in a comparatively short heads up battle to assert the trophy and €149,560.

Chauskin entered the day as clear chip leader and, taking that stat (alone) into account, was expected to win. Metaal came in to the overall table because the short stack so was never expected to get so far as he did, so can also be very happy with his achievement.

Asked if he was happy and expected to win, he responded with, "Yes, very, and that i came to win, and that i was sure I'D. When back in Belorussia, we were in a bar with our team and my coach, Jenya Gavrilovich, winner of EPT12 Barcelona €2k, asked me, when shooting a video, "What about this IPT Malta?" and that i said: "I WILL win it! Go there and win it evidently"! That is what happened, so I WILL say I USED TO BE just looking ahead to it."

Trophy Presentation

He went directly to say, "IT IS NOT the amount of cash that changes my life, and plus, I DO NOT play only for the money, I play to become a sportstar, because poker is a sport, where the contest is crucial thing. I WILL BE ABLE TO play the EPT Main Event tomorrow and win it too!"

The final hand saw Metaal three-bet all in with pocket fives and Chauskin call after he had raised with king-queen. The Belorussian took the lead when he turned top pair and victory was confirmed when he improved to a flush at the river.

Fortune favoured this brave man today

Meetal won the €10,000 High Roller event at EPT Campione back is Season 8 and was so just about claiming a second major trophy on tour. The €124,080 he won today tops the €110,000 he won back in 2008 and, after the tournament had ended, he had this to mention on both achievements, "THE SPHERE was harder here so this result's more valuable to me."

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Timofeev was downed first

Day 3 started with two quick eliminations and a bustout (on average) every 12 minutes inside the day, whereas today it took around two hours for the primary player to bust. Denis Timofeev, short stacked on the time, made his move with pocket fours but did not stay prior to Chauskins ace-jack. The Belorussian only took five more minutes to say another scalp and this time he didn't event need coin-flip odds to get the job done. After raising with ace-seven, he called James Grogan's shove with big slick and rivered a seven.

Grogan got his chips in good

Garp after his last hand

They say bad things are available threes and Tobias Garp will trust that sentiment. He three-bet all in with pocket sevens after Metaal -who was midway through his rush up the leader board - had raised with pocket aces. A very simple call and an ace high board later saw Garp leave stage-central. A period of consolidation followed before the second one Dutch representative on the final table, Joep Raemaekers, was given his marching orders. He moved all in with jack-eight suited from the button but Chris Brammer, and his pocket queens, lay in wait within the small blind.

Gomez couldn't gain traction today

David Gomez helped start Metaal's resurgence originally of the day and, ten minutes after Raemaekers bust, his nemesis came back to complete off the job. Metaal opened with ace-king and called the Spaniard's shove with pocket nines. The board ran ace high and just three remained.

Chris Brammer headed off to start out his Sunday session after busting third

The second period of consolidation kicked in and chips were passed across the table before Metaal, who was left short after an end of level confrontation with Chauskin, returned from break and made his second recovery of the day to without equal cost for Brammer. First he doubled his very short stack through Chauskin and then, when armed with more chips, took most of Brammer's when his pocket jacks stayed sooner than his king-queen.

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The final hand

Before heads up play began, the 2 player struck a deal that meant they were effectively playing a €20,000 heads up sit and go. Chauskin held a 13.8 million to 9.8 million lead and only extended it until he had all of the chips. He proved during the last two days that he is a fantastic front runner and has made an overly impressive begin to his live poker career.

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Updates provided by Marc Convey, with photos coming from René Velli and Tomáš Stacha.

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