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A total of 37 entries were made in the 2023 European Poker Tour Monte Carlo €100,000 buy-in super high roller event, creating a prize pool worth more than $3.8 million. After three days of nosebleed tournament action, Bulgarian poker pro Alex Kulev emerged victorious with the title and the top prize of $1,108,827.
“Doing this and doing it here… I’m very grateful and delighted,” Kulev told PokerStars reporters after coming out on top.
This was Kulev’s first live victory and his first seven-figure payday. He now has nearly $3 million in recorded tournament earnings. While Kulev may be less established than some of the players he contended with at this final table, he has plenty of experience battling with the best online, where is best known as ‘FutureofMe’.
“I played against players who I learn from and respect. But I feel that they’re my peers, so I can compete with them,” Kulev said of his opponents in this event.
This was Kulev’s fourth live final-table finish of the year. With 1,051 Card Player Player of the Year points and nearly $1.5 million in POY earnings, he now sits in 134th place in the 2023 POY race standings presented by Global Poker.
Only the top six finishers made the money in this event. Seven players returned to the Salle des Etoiles in Monaco, with one destined to hit the rail empty-handed. Santhosh Suvarna was ultimately knocked out on the bubble when his pocket nines lost a preflop race to the A-J suited of four-time bracelet winner and defending champion of this event, Adrian Mateos.
Orpen Kisacikoglu (6th – $268,891) ran A-Q into the A-K suited of Mikita Badziakouski, who made a flush by the river to narrow the field to five. Mateos soon followed when he called off his last handful of blinds with K-3 facing a small-blind shove from Ben Heath. Heath had A-9, and when the board improved neither player, Heath’s superior high card earned him the pot. Mateos took home $345,717 as the fifth-place finisher, growing his career earnings to $33.9 million.
Artur Martirosian got the remainder of his short stack in with A-8 leading the K-3 of Heath, but the board brought multiple kings and jacks to give heath kings full and the pot. Martirosian was awarded $441,696 for his fourth-place showing.
Kulev scored his first elimination of the day when his K-5 suited beat out the Q-9 of Heath, who was left short after Kulev picked off a bluff attempt. Kulev flopped a pair of fives and held from there to end Heath’s run in third place ($595,348). The bracelet winner from the UK now has more than $16 million in career earnings to his name.
With that, Kulev entered heads-up play against bracelet winner Mikita Badziakouski at a slight chip disadvantage. The two struck a deal that redistributed the remaining prize money, ensuring they both locked up seven-figure paydays while setting aside around $46,000 and the title to play for.
Badziakouski extended his lead initially, pulling out to roughly a 2:1 advantage before Kulev won a big pot with a rivered pair of aces besting Badziakouski’s flopped pair of kings to turn the tables. In the final hand, Kulev min-raised on the button with A
10 and
Badziakouski shoved for 3,075,000 from the big blind with A
J
. Kulev quickly called and the board ran out A
53310, with Kulev riveting the better two pair to secure the title. Badziakouski took home the $1,080,543
he negotiated in the deal, bringing his lifetime earnings to nearly $42.3 million in the process.
Here is a look at the payouts and POy points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Alex Kulev | $1,108,827 | 480 |
| 2 | Mikita Badziakouski | $1,080,543 | 400 |
| 3 | Ben Heath | $595,348 | 320 |
| 4 | Artur Martirosian | $441,696 | 240 |
| 5 | Adrian Mateos | $345,717 | 200 |
| 6 | Orpen Kisacikoglu | $268,891 | 160 |
Photo credits: Manuel Kovsca, Eloy Cabacas / Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd.
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