Alexander Lakhov Conquering Cyprus: Two WPT Titles in Two Months

For Alexander Lakhov, year of 2014 will be the one he will remember with tears of joy in corner of his eye. After he conquered a WPT title in Cyprus just couple months back in July, he returned in September and last night he added another World Poker Tour trophy to his shelf.

The $4,400 Main Event of WPT Merit Classic North Cyprus attracted total of 404 runners, creating the prize pool of $1.48 million. In addition to this, there was a $15,400 ticket to the WPT World Championship taking place at the end of the season reserved for the winner. So there were many reasons to covet the victory (as if poker players needed any additional incentives).

The six handed final table started yesterday with Lebanese Nicolas Chouity in the lead and eventual winner Lakhov in the second chip position. Igor Devkin of Russia was the first to depart, earning $62,000. He started as a severe short stack and could not find the way back despite of promising start.

He was followed out the door by Ori Miller, whose fifth place finish was good for $77,000 and well known UK pro Toby Lewis, who walked away $102,820 richer. This initiated the three handed play in which Lakhov was rather serious chips underdog, but would get to heads up nonetheless, courtesy of bad bluff gone right.

Nicolas Chouity and Dmitry Gromov got in the button vs. blind war which ended up with all the chips going in the middle on the turn, when Gromov ran his failed bluff into top pair + flush draw combo of Chouity. When cards were on their backs, Dmitry quickly discovered that his pair of Deuces was drawing to a single out or he would be reduced to next to nothing. But as luck would have it, dealer found his one outer to save the day, eliminating Chouity in the process and sending him to the cashier to pick up his hard earned $140,000.

As they say, what goes around – comes around. Gromov started the heads up with huge chip lead over Lakhov and soon was in position to end it all. Chips went in the middle as Gromov turned over pocket Rockets to be miles ahead of Lakhov’s Ace-Jack. Jack on the flop gave some hope to Alexander and those hopes turned into reality when another Jack hit the river.

After this, Lakhov seized the momentum and sometime after the hand, it was him holding Gromov’s tournament life in his hands, well ahead and on the wings of lady Luck. No Ace on the board meant that pocket Jacks of Alexander Lakhov would stand up and he claimed the first prize of $310,000 in cash together with $15,400 ticket.

Dmitry’s bounty was no small, as he picked up $215,000, but after being so close to the victory and being denied when holding pocket Aces must have left a bitter taste in his mouth. However, for someone to win others have to lose – and that’s one fact that we will not see changing in the near future.