Iva Lazarova Wins the MPNPT Sunny Beach Main Event for €26,900
Bulgaria's Iva Lazarova outlasted a field of 320 entrants to win the €150,000 guaranteed MPN Poker Tour Sunny Beach Main Event €550 Main Event at Platinum Casino after agreeing to three final table deals for €26,900. Lazarova made MPN Poker Tour history by becoming the tour's first-ever female Main Event champion.
Lazarova became a focal point for many in the tournament on Day 2. With 36 players remaining and 35 getting paid a minimum payout of €1,200, Lazarova's stack was down to less than one big blind. The Bulgarian quadrupled her stack on the bubble after her ace-nine managed to outgun her opponent's ace-queen with a nine spiking the turn and it appeared destiny was on her side.
After the money bubble broke, Lazarova managed to go on a run and at one point ran her stack to a second-place chip stack before losing a few pots to start the Final Day in eighth place out of the 13 remaining hopefuls.
2018 888poker LIVE Barcelona €1,100 Main Event Final Table Results
| Position | Player | Country | Prize in € | Prize in $ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Iva Lazarova | Bulgaria | €26,900 | $31,647* |
| 2 | Borislav Yosifov | Bulgaria | €24,300 | $28,589* |
| 3 | Dmitri Fomitsa | Estonia | €20,100 | $23,671* |
| 4 | Robert Bostock | United Kingdom | €15,200 | $17,892* |
| 5 | Philipp Anger | Germany | €9,000 | $10,952 |
| 6 | Simeon Spasov | Bulgaria | €7,000 | $8,242 |
| 7 | Martin Nikolov | Bulgaria | €5,300 | $6,236 |
| 8 | Galin Panayotov | Bulgaria | €3,900 | $4,589 |
| 9 | Tihomir Ochkov | Bulgaria | €3,000 | $3,530 |
*Donates a final table deals
The Final Day began with Grosvenor Poker qualifier Robert Bostock holding a substantial chip lead on the field with more than double the chips of his nearest competitor Borislav Yosifov.
Bostock benefited from a generous table draw filled with players from short stacks and strategically used his stack to eliminate the first four opponents to start the day. After Bostock eliminated Stelian Kukuchev in 10th place for €2,500, the tournament director Gerard Serra paused the action to redraw the remaining nine players for the final table which was live streamed on Twitch and Facebook.
Lazarova entered the final table with a sixth-place chip stack, while Bostock managed to extend his chip lead to have more than his three nearest competitors combined.
Bulgaria's Tihomir Ochkov (ninth - €3,000) was the first casualty at the final table after he three-bet jammed ace-eight suited and couldn't get there against Lazarova's pocket tens.
Fellow Bulgarian countrymate Galin Panayotov was the next to hit the rail in eighth place for €3,900 after he open-jammed the button with ace-seven suited and didn't improve against the pocket queens held by Yosifov.
Not too much later, Bostock eliminated Bulgaria's Martin Nikolov in seventh place for €5,300 when his pocket kings proved to be strong enough against his opponent's ace-ten.
Bulgaria's Simeon Spasov collected the sixth-place prize of €7,000 after his ace-jack wasn't good enough to best the ace-king held by Estonia's Dmitri Fomitsa.
At this point, a five-way deal was discussed but Yosifov turned it down and the action resumed. Fortunes changed after the short unscheduled break and Lazarova took the lead after she doubled up twice against Bostock.
Germany's Philipp Anger had a short-stack the entire final table. His run finally ended in fifth place for €9,000 after his pocket eights couldn't hold against Lazarova's ace-five.
A deal was once again discussed, and this time the four remaining players all agreed to split up the money and leave €8,600 extra for the winner.
After play resumed, Bostock was ousted in fourth place for €15,200 after his king-queen refused to remain strong against the king-ten held by Fomitsa.
A second deal was agreed to with the remaining three players each guaranteeing themselves an extra €1,000 a piece before Fomitsa exited the tournament in third place for €20,100.
The heads-up battle went on for several blind levels and the effective stacks of Lazarova and Yosifov became very short. The chip lead bounced around several times between the two players and they eventually agreed to one last deal to chop up the remaining money and play for the trophy they both coveted.
The tournament ended after Yosifov called off with king-seven and didn't get there and the ace-three held by Lazarova. While Yosifov was unable to hoist the trophy, his runner-up performance was worth a healthy €24,300.
Meanwhile, Lazarova was on top of the world after winning the trophy and the €26,900 top prize. She celebrated with her boyfriend Ivan Stankov, who was on her rail during the entire final two days of the event.
Next Up
Next up for the MPN Poker Tour is the €1 million guaranteed Battle of Malta €550 Main Event on October 26-31. Players can qualify online into the Main Event for pennies on the dollar at any participating MPN poker room.
