Ivelin Kolev Wins WPT Prime Cyprus Championship

Bulgarian poker player Ivelin Kolev became the champion of the $1,100 buy-in WPT Prime Cyprus Championship, played at the Chamada Prestige Hotel & Casino. He won $171,600 in the tournament, which ended on Monday.

Kolev was far from the chip lead when he sat down at the live-streamed final table. At the start of Day 3, the biggest stack belonged to Said Tahar. Andreas Christodoulo was the only player who could come close to that stack. Chips changed hands often at the table.

The first player out was Ismail Yagci, who started with a short stack and received $19,300 for eighth place. Sergiu Cornea then left the table in seventh ($24,800), Bora Kurtulus in sixth ($32,000) and Johan Storakers in fifth ($42,500). Christodoulo, who had started the day strong, finished fourth and his prize was $56,000.

Kolev took the lead at the three-handed table and eliminated Joseph El Khoury in a hand where he went in a 60/40 favorite, leaving him in third place. El Khoury won $74,000. Kolev started heads-up play with a chip lead of roughly seven to one. In the final hand, Kolev's straight beat Tahar's top pair. Tahar received $100,000 for second place.

Kolev had won a tournament at the PokerStars EPT Barcelona in August for $44,570. With this title, he also secured a seat worth $10,400 to the WPT World Championship, to be played at Wynn Las Vegas in December.