From January 14 to 23, a grandiose live poker series PokerMatch UA Millions Grand Opening took place in Kiev.
Over 10 days at the Premier Palace Hotel Kyiv, athletes from different countries competed for more than 19,500,000 UAH in prize money. Traditionally, poker players from the USA, Israel, Georgia, Belarus, Norway, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany and other countries fought for trophies and prize money along with Ukrainian poker masters. However, this time the event of the poker room was attended by special guests - the owner of the King's casino and a regular participant in expensive cash games Leon Tsoukernik, as well as world poker star, EPT champion Bertrand ElkY Grospellier.
Together with the VIP guests, the Leon's Challenge tournament was organized, in which the famous businessman and poker fan Leon Tsoukernik, ElkY, Garik Yaroshevsky, Alexey Kravchuk and other poker pros and amateur athletes played. The prize fund of the tournament amounted to almost 4.5 million hryvnia, and the winner took 1.7 million hryvnia.
Leon Tsoukernik enjoyed talking with opponents at the tables and went all-ins with a smile. As a result, he made 3 entries in his nominal tournament, did not go to the prizes, but promised to play more. “I really enjoyed the tournament, thanks to everyone who attended. People went to the series from all over the world, and this is very valuable, ”Leon comments.
Since its market expansion, the PokerMatch brand has been delivering key messages across the board that sports poker is a mind sport, aiming to bring sports poker into the Olympic category.
Our views are shared by the best poker players in the world. By attending events and competing in PokerMatch's sports poker series, big-name players help get the message across to a larger audience. Leon Tsoukernik said: “Tournament poker is a sport that helps me in real life. For me, this is my year of meditation, after which I am ready to make informed decisions.
PokerMatch Ukraine CEO Viktor Kirichenko commented on the importance of such offline series for online poker.
“Online and offline poker are closely related. Online players can try out live games, while live-only players can find out about interesting online events. And this, of course, goes in favor of the online room. In addition, such events expand the community of players, and this is exactly what PokerMatch Ukraine strives to do. After all, sports poker is more than just a game. It's a lifestyle," he said.
The powerful final chord of the series was the PokerMatch UA Millions Main Event. The game at the final table could be watched live. The finalists fought for more than six hours, and the winner was Sergey Popovich, a successful regular of the PokerMatch brand, who became a millionaire in one evening.
Every day at the site of the series, poker players participated with pleasure in promotions and contests from the PokerMatch brand and received gifts. It was a wonderful 10 days of poker festival.
