Russian Player Wins EPT Monte Carlo Main Event Amidst Controversy

The EPT Monte Carlo Main Event attracted an astonishing 1,195 entries, which resulted in an incredible €1,000,000 top prize. As poker numbers around the globe continue to grow, it ended up being the second-largest EPT Monte Carlo Main Event in history.

Aleksandr Shevliakov of Russia ultimately won the tournament, almost doubling his career earnings, which had been just north of $1 million before this win. The IT worker, who now lives in Slovenia, considers poker a hobby despite having some solid career results.

His road to the win included a final table where eight countries were represented, ultimately climaxing in defeating Ukrainian player Kossein Kokhestani in a lengthy heads-up battle to secure the big Main Event title.

Final Table Controversy

A potential angle shoot overshadowed the 37-year-old Russian’s victory, ultimately grabbing people’s attention following this event. Russia has had its fair share of poker controversy in online circles, with Russian bot farms being exposed in a recent investigation.

The incident was shown on the PokerStars live stream of the final table, which garnered a lot of buzz on social media.

With six players remaining, Jamil Wakil from Canada raised under the gun to 270,000. Shevliakov was allegedly not paying attention and when action folded to him, tried to raise to 350,000 from the small blind, which was not a legal raise. The tournament director came over and ruled Shevliakov had to make the min-raise to 420,000.

This immediately thrust Wakil into a precarious spot because, in his mind, Shevliakov had meant to open raise from the small blind against the big blind, which means his range would be very wide. Taking that into account, Wakin jammed all in for over 30 big blinds with his queen-jack suited. But as it turned out, Shevliakov had ace-king suited and called.

This was a very consequential pot and Wakil was eliminated in sixth place for a hair under €200,000.

As he was shaking hands with the table, he did not shake hands with Shevliakov and immediately questioned him. Shevliakov maintained that it was a simple mistake while eventual third-place finisher Boris Angelov accused the Russian of having pulled off the same trick with 20 players remaining.

Wakil seemed convinced it had been a deliberate angle shoot, which is a severe breach of poker etiquette and straddles the line of cheating.

“He did it against someone else? If he didn’t tell me you just did it to someone else, I mean…”

Response

Wakil went to X where he made a long post dedicated to this incident and explained why he believed it to be an intentional angle shoot from Shevliakov and how he had been skirting the poker rules on more than one occasion throughout the stream.

He also referenced Shevliakov’s refusal to show his cards to the card reader throughout to paint the picture that the Russian was being obstinate about the rules all throughout the stream.

Shevliakov denied that he intended any angle shoot, as he insisted that it was a mistake when he was asked about it in his post win interview with PokerNews.

The EPT season will roll on with upcoming stops in Barcelona, Malta, Cyprus and will end the season in Prague which will be looking to set more records just as they did last year in the 2024 EPT Prague Main Event.