Mikita Badziakouski Wins European Poker Tour Monte Carlo €25,000 High Roller

Mikita Badziakouski has won the 2023 European Poker Tour Monte Carlo €25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em high roller event, outlasting a 211-entry field to earn $1,003,705 as the champion. Incredibly, this was only the 13th-largest score of the Belarusian poker pro’s career.

The victory saw the 31-year-old increase his lifetime live earnings to more than $43.3 million. He remains in eighth place on poker’s all-time money list, but is now just $61,289 behind seventh-ranked Jason Koon.

This was Badziakouski’s first title won in 2023, with four total final-table finishes. With 2,080 Card Player Player of the Year points and more than $2.6 million in to-date POY earnings, Badziakouski now sits in a tie with Thomas Eychenne for 32nd place in the POY standings sponsored by Global Poker.

The top 31 finishers made the money in this event, which ran over the course of three days at the Salle des Étoiles inside Sporting Monte Carlo. Heading into the final day there were 21 contenders remaining, with Dominykas Mikolaitis on top of the leaderboard and Badziakouski in third chip position. Mikolaitis ended up finishing ninth, falling just short of the official final table, while Badziakouski had moved into the chip lead.

Igor Yaroshevskyy (8th – $164,085) was the first to fall, with his K-J running into the pocket queens of Enrico Camosci. Roman Samoylov (7th – $196,880) soon followed, with his Q-10 losing to the K-J of bracelet winner Daniel Dvoress. Samoylov hit two pair, but Dvoress flopped a straight and held from there to narrow the field to six.

Despite earning that knockout, Dvoress was ultimately the next player to his the rail. He bet the majority of his stack on the river, and then folded to a shove to leave himself with a single 5,000 chip while the blinds sat at 25,000-50,000 with a 50,000 ante. He was soon all-in with K-8 facing two opponents. The A-6 suited of Badziakouski, for a pair of aces, was the best hand at showdown and Dvoress was eliminated in sixth place ($236,256). The Canadian poker pro now has nearly $26 million in career tournament earnings.

Felipe Ketzer’s run in this event came to an end when his A-10 clashed with the A-Q of Badziakouski. Both players made trip aces, but Ketzer’s lower kicker saw him sent packing in fifth place ($302,489).

The next big preflop confrontation saw Steve O’Dwyer get all-in with pocket tens trailing the pocket aces of a surging Badziakouski. The bigger pair held up and O’Dwyer earned $393,225 as the fourth-place finisher. The score grew his career earnings to just shy of $36.4 million, good for 14th place on the money list.

Camosci committed most of his stack preflop with pocket nines. He called off the rest on a jack-high flop, only to find that Badziakouski held pocket jacks for top set. The turn gave Camosci a backdoor gutshot straight draw, but a blank on the river ended his run in third place ($511,193).

Heads-up play began with Badziakouski holding roughly a 4:1 chip lead over bracelet winner Ben Heath. The early action saw Heath nearly pull even before backsliding a bit. He then found a double up with top pair holding against a combo draw for Badziakouski, moving into the lead as a result. Badziakouski was able to pull back in front in time for an ICM chop deal to be agreed upon. Heath locked up $857,143, while Badziakouski secured $1,003,705. The final two then played an all-in flip to determine the final placements. Badziakouski’s 32 came out on top, besting the 54 of Heath after a KK386 runout.

Heath increased his career earnings to $16.9 million with this deep run. He also climbed into 29th place in the 2023 POY standings, with five final-table finishes and nearly $2.4 million in POY earnings so far.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Photo credit: Manuel Kovsca / Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd.