Tuesday, May 19, 2009

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Lunkin wins Russian Poker Tour Moscow

Another win for Vitaly Lunkin.

By PokerListings.com

Vitaly Lunkin took down the PokerStars Russian Poker Tour Moscow title this weekend, defeating an all-Russian final table.

The backgammon player and Renju champion snatched the $445,709 first-place prize from a final table that included Team PokerStars Pros and WSOP Main Event final tablists Alexander Kravchenko and Ivan Demidov.

Lunkin, a Full Tilt Pro, was one of the short stacks coming into the final nine but managed to turn things around rather quickly, going into heads-up with Vyacheslav Goryachev holding a massive chip lead.

In the end, his pair of tens held against Goryachev's ace-six to book the win in front of a raucous crowd at Moscow's Renaissance Hotel.

A total of 206 players put up the $7,000 buy-in for the event. The top 27 were paid.

The former manager of a dietary supplement company, Lunkin has been a fixture in the burgeoning Russian poker scene over the past five years and won a WSOP bracelet in a $1,500 NLHE event in 2008.

Born and raised in Moscow, he now works as a professional poker trainer and coach for Poker Moscow.

With the win, Lunkin moves over the $1 million mark in career tournament earnings.

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