Ates Hikmet Wins LEI Main Event After ICM Deal in Heads-Up
The World Poker Tour National festival at Noah's Ark Deluxe Hotel & Spa in Bafra, Cyprus, headed into its fifth day and one of the highlights of the tournament schedule was playing down to a winner in the €770 LEI Main Event that attracted a field of 150 entries and generated a prize pool of €100,485. That prize pool slightly eclipsed its guarantee and saw over €20,000 awarded to the winner.
After two days, the field was whittled down to its final nine players, and it was Manig Loeser in the lead at that time.
However, the German struggled very early on the final day and ultimately had to settle for eighth place.
"Ah well, things like this happen," he briefly told PokerNews after his elimination and rather disappointing day at the office.
The podium was set with three players from Turkey after five hours of play, with cash game specialist Mehmet Sinan Ogan bowing out in third after playing his fifth live tournament ever. After that elimination, Ates Hikmet and Serhat Cetiner agreed on an ICM deal, with Hikmet taking home the trophy and a first-place payout of €22,336.
Yuri Kaganovich was the first player on the rail after half an hour of play. In a battle of the blinds, the Russian moved all in with the 
and Cetiner called with the 
. The board ran out 
, and Kaganovich was gone . Loeser then lost a massive preflop all in with the 
against the 
and was left very short. He doubled up once before failing to find another with the 
against the 
with an ace and seven on the flop.
Marko Banovic experienced a similar fate on the table after losing a flip with the against the 
of Cetiner, and then falling the very next hand in seventh place. Sergey Minaev followed in sixth place after a three-bet pot preflop, when it was his 
on a flop of 
that was no good versus Ogan's .
Fuat Tanindi started as one of the shortest stacks coming into the final day, and he laddered up all the way to fifth place. He even got it in ahead with the via a three-bet shove only to see Hikmet river a straight with the 
. Cetiner lost a flip to Ogan before doubling up with the 
against the 
of Yevgeniy Dudos to leave the Russian crippled. Dudos got his remaining chips in with the 
and Cetiner's as well as Hikmet's 
chopped up the pot on a king-high board.
Down to the final three players, Ogan fell behind further and then failed to improve with the 
versus Hikmet's . After that, both remaining opponents called it a day a few minutes later without playing any further hands following an ICM-deal agreement, which is reflected in the payout table below.
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (EUR) |
|---|---|---|---|
| *1 | Ates Hikmet | Turkey | 22,336 |
| *2 | Serhat Cetiner | Turkey | 20,164 |
| 3 | Mehmet Sinan Ogan | Turkey | 12,700 |
| 4 | Yevgeniy Dudos | Russia | 8,890 |
| 5 | Fuat Tanindi | Turkey | 6,440 |
| 6 | Sergey Minaev | Ukraine | 5,120 |
| 7 | Marko Banovic | Serbia | 4,100 |
| 8 | Manig Loeser | Germany | 3,265 |
| 9 | Yuri Kaganovich | Russia | 2,600 |
*Denotes a head-ups ICM deal
On Friday, Day 1a of the €2,000 partypoker WPT National Cyprus Main Event gets underway as of 1 p.m. local time, and the PokerNews Live Reporting team will be back on the floor to provide you with all the action.