Ilkin Amirov Takes Control In Prague

Ilkin Amirov Takes Control In Prague

Wednesday, 16 December 2015

The main event field at the Prague stop of the European Poker Tour (EPT) is now down to six with Ilkin Amirov the man to beat heading into Wednesday's finale.

The man from Azerbaijan was catapulted to the top of the chip counts thanks largely to one of the most amazing hands in the history of the EPT. Last Brit standing Chris Walker started the action by shoving from under the gun. A short-stacked Marc MacDonnell, fresh from a brutal full house over full house cooler, looked him up before Amirov followed suit. Javier Gomez subsequently moved all-in before being promptly snapped off by the Azerbaijani.

Amirov had all three of his opponents covered and tabled pocket kings, which was in excellent shape against Gomez' pocket queens, MacDonnell's pocket jacks and Walker's 8-9 suited.

Three spades on the flop gave Amirov a sweat but bricks on the turn and river gave the man from Baku a monster pot and sent his three rivals to the rail.

Scroll to 6:17:14 to watch the hand:



Gleb Tremzin is Amirov's closest challenger after he put a huge dent in the hopes of long-time leader MacDonnell with a pretty sick cooler. After pushing on an Ad-5c-9c-Ks-5h board, the Irishman tabled As5d for a full house but could only watch in despair as Tremzin turned over pocket nines for a superior boat. That five million chip pot puts the Russian firmly in contention and left MacDonnell reeling. It was all over moments later in the crazy four-way all in.

Joining Amirov and Tremzin at today’s final table are Germany's Thomas Butzhammer and Hossein Ensan alongside Bulgarian Slaven Popov and Olivier Ferraro of France. They're guaranteed a pay-day of at least €166,080 ($181,529) with the eventual champion set to pocket €921,540 ($1.01 million) while poker aficionados can watch all of the action from the Hilton Prague Hotel live via PokerStars TV.


EPT Prague Main Event Chip Counts:

1 Ilkin Amirov (Azerbaijan) - 9,965,000

2 Gleb Tremzin (Russia) - 7,785,000

3 Thomas Butzhammer (Germany) - 5,490,000

4 Slaven Popov (Bulgaria) - 3,640,000

5 Hossein Ensan (Germany) - 2,725,000

6 Olivier Ferrero (France) - 1,715,000



Tags: European Poker Tour, Prague, EPT, Hilton Prague Hotel, Ilkin Amirov, Gleb Tremzin, Chris Walker, Thomas Butzhammer, Slaven Popov, Hossein Ensan, Olivier Ferrero, Marc MacDonnell, Javier Gomez