Sit back, relax, and watch the big stacks eliminate themselves. Occasionally, make a move to get a few chips. But most of all, conserve your chips, and really really nurse your dead or dying stack back to life. This was Oleg Suntov‘s game plan, as he was on his way to incredibly take down the first ever Russian Poker Tour held in St. Petersburg just last week.

Upon arriving at the final table, Oleg’s stack was just a dismal 64,000 in size. To put this in perspective, the chip leader on the final table’s outset, Dimitru Gaina from Moldova, had 500K. Oleg would have to double up 3 times to have as many chips as the chip leader had.
But again, like every true underdog, he defied all odds to achieve the improbably: win it all.

Many hours, and eight eliminated players later, he rose to prominence and went home with a prize of 10,000,000 rubles (equivalent to about $300K). The winning hand was Suntov’s QQ vs Vadim Markushevsky‘s K9 all-in on a 6-9-3-5 board. Suntov covered. River came a blank (it’s kind of beautiful seeing a favorite hold up, you know), and Suntov wound up in the record books as first ever winner of the Russian Poker Tour. Congratulations to Oleg, who successfully defended his home turf.

Alex Kravchenko and Vanessa Rousso both made it fairly deep in this tournament.

Next Stop: Moscow. The event starts on February 25th. Be sure to qualify today!

More upcoming events you can qualify for playing at poker stars:
EPT Copenhagen
EPT Dortmund
LAPT Punta Del Este
EPT Monte Carlo

Qualifiers are running around the clock. Play on PokerStars, and qualify today! You too can convert a single dollar into hundreds of thousands!