Chemistry Student Dragos Trofimov Wins the PokerStars Festival London High Roller for £73,990

For anyone who thought the poker dream was over, think again, because 24-year old Moldovan chemistry student Dragos Trofimov has just proved that some hard work and online practice can be parlayed into huge live wins, taking down the PokerStars London Festival High Roller for £73,990 – with a bonus $30,000 Platinum Pass package to the 2019 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

Co-incidentally, young Trofimov had just returned from the Paradise Island venue, having won a Main Event package to play there, and decided London would be a cool next stop on his poker adventures – telling reporters when he survived the Hippodrome Casino event’s money bubble:

"It's been a long time since I had a cash. I'm just happy to be in the money!"

There was more – much more – to come for the young man who had passed his exams earlier than expected, allowing him to "play a lot of poker since the summer, mostly online to train a bit and learn some stuff," explaining that:

"I started to play poker around three years ago, played for one year, and then took a one year break as I'm still a student and had university exams and stuff.”

The 142 entries, coupled with 22 re-entries, had produced a prizefund of £318,160 ($442,750) for the £2200 buy-in High Roller – and the big field would cause the tournament to run to an extra day, the final eight eventually being decided late on Wednesday night.

That final table included some very experienced pros, England’s other motormouth Luke Schwartz in the mix, as was Italy’s WPT and WSOP Circuit winner Sergio Castelluccio, with a European mix which had Lithuania, Spain, France and Greece all vying for top honours.

As the live updates noted, ‘start-of-play chip leader Jonathan Wong's day ‘went from bad to worse, and he found himself out in sixth’ followed soon afterwards by Luke Schwartz who ‘got it in with the A♦9♣ versus Trofimov's 8♦8♣, and the snowmen held up’, Schwartz out in 4th.

Castellucio took care of Spain’s Jordi Torner and claim his spot in the heads-up match for the title, but he simply couldn’t stop the young Moldovan – Trofimov grinding out the win which will see him take his Platinum Pass all the way back to the Bahamas next January – a spot in the $25k and pretty much all expenses covered.

"This is very cool. A huge huge thing for me”, said the victor of his bonus.

“To be able to go back to the Bahamas again next year...it's magic. Really. This is a dream come true,"…

…explaining also that:

"I mostly play tournaments online, anything up to $55, and on Sundays the Big $109 and the Sunday Million. I mostly try and stick to smaller stuff for now, but after this win who knows!"

Final Table Results:

* The winner also received a Platinum Pass worth $30,000