It has been a good run of late for Polish poker professional Tomasz Brzezinski. Two months ago at the European Poker Tour Main Event in Barcelona, Brzezinski battled for the championship before coming up short in finishing fourth (with a €493,250 check to console him for his loss). This time around at the EPT Malta and on his adopted home ground, Brzezinski would go the extra distance in taking his first major tournament poker championship, defeating Mykhailo Ostash of Ukraine in what was a lengthy heads-up battle.
Unique Situation at Final Table
The EPT Malta tournament had not been seen on the circuit schedule since 2016, so Casino Malta put their best foot forward. The players seemed to appreciate the return to the Mediterranean island, with the Main Event of the festival drawing in 898 entries to build a €4.355 million prize pool. With five players left at the final table when it continued Sunday, Ostash led the way, but there were several interesting stories behind him.
In 2016, Aliaksei Boika came to the EPT Malta and made a name for himself in the game, winning that title to etch his name into EPT history. Since the EPT Malta has not been contested since 2016, Boika was technically the defending champion and looking to become the first player in EPT history to defend said title. Then there was the story of Brzezinski, who became only the eleventh player in the history of the EPT to make back-to-back final tables on the circuit after finishing fourth in Barcelona. Along with Adria Calonge and EPT veteran Tom-Aksel Bedell, the final five had business to conclude in determining the champion.
Every player was guaranteed €200,550 for coming back on Sunday, but it was the €760,000 up top that everyone wanted to lay their hands on. Bedell, coming off the short stack, chipped up nicely in the initial action. It was Ostash, the start-of-day chip leader, who made the most noise, cracking the ten-million mark in chips only moments into the proceedings.
The players would finish off the level and start another one before the first departure. As the short stack, Bedell had to make some moves, but he got his final chips in on a cooler. Moving all in for about a million chips from the button, Ostash decided to look him up from the big blind, and the cards were turned up.
Ostash (big blind): pocket treys
Bedell (button): pocket deuces
It might have been an interesting question if Bedell had more chips what action Ostash would have taken but, in the end, it was a domination situation from Ostash over Bedell. Once the flop came down 4-K-3 to give Ostash a set, all he had to do was fade runner-runner deuces to take the hand; when the turn came with a Queen, that sealed the hand and sent Bedell, who first competed on the EPT back in 2010, to the rail in fifth place.
This seemed to open the action on the table. Boika’s run at a repeat championship ended cruelly, his pocket Kings defeated by Ostash’s flopped set of fives. Boika left in fourth place and Ostash rocketed up to 18.7 million in chips, leaving his two opponents, Brzezinski and Calonge, trying to figure out how to stop the Ukrainian’s momentum. Brzezinski would be the one who would rise to try to stop Ostash, knocking off Calonge in third and taking over the chip lead when his pocket tens stood against Calonge’s K-5 to send the tournament to heads-up action.
Lengthy Battle Leads to Deal
At the start of heads-up action, Brzezinski held a decent lead (16.95 million to ten million) over Ostash. They would play through the remainder of the level, with Ostash drawing nearly even with Brzezinski during that play, before taking a break. During that break, the duo came to terms with a deal, with each player earning €603,098. They would leave the Main Event championship trophy and €28,534 on the table to play for, and there was plenty of play left in the men.
Brzezinski would jump out and extend his lead within thirty minutes of the resumption of play, but Ostash was not going to go without a fight. Over the next two hours, Ostash would climb back into the tournament and took the lead at one point after Brzezinski missed on a double gut shot straight draw after Ostash flopped two pair. That lead was short-lived, however, as Brzezinski would get the graces of the poker gods in getting a runner-runner flush to retake the lead.
Over the five-hour fight, Ostash would double up more than a dozen times, but the end would eventually come for the valiant Ukrainian. After outpipping Ostash (A-J versus A-10) to leave him with crumbs, Brzezinski would put the coup de grâce to Ostash when Brzezinski’s unimpressive 10-4 was good enough to beat Ostash’s 5-4 on a Q-10-J-4-6 runout to give the Malta resident a championship on his home ground in the EPT Malta Main Event and become the latest champion on the European Poker Tour.
1. Tomasz Brzezinski (Poland), €631,632*
2. Mykhailo Ostash (Ukraine), €603,058*
3. Adria Calonge (Spain), €339,000
4. Aliaksei Boika (Belarus), €260,750
5. Tom-Aksel Bedell (Norway), €200,550
6. Toni Kaukua (Finland), €154,250**
7. Ben Heath (United Kingdom), €118,650**
8. Juan Pardo (Spain), €91,250**
* – indicates final table deal
** – eliminated on Saturday evening, part of the official EPT final table