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Mikalai Vaskaboinikau claimed the title in the $50,500 Onyx High Roller Championship at the Merit Royal Diamond Hotel Casino & Spa, topping an 18-entry field that built an $864,000 prize pool. The Belarusian defeated Russia’s Alexey Borovkov in heads-up play to secure the $450,000 top prize.
Vaskaboinikau’s run almost never happened, as he registered with only about two minutes remaining before late registration closed. Shortly after sitting down, he suffered an early setback when an underpair he had triple-barreled ran into a backdoor Broadway from Aleksejs Ponakovs, leaving him with a badly depleted stack.
He recovered by doubling through Rob Yong with a flopped flush and later eliminated Zorlu Er in fifth place with ace-queen, setting up a tense four-handed money bubble. Mikita Badziakouski, who had built a commanding stack earlier in the day, saw his fortunes reverse quickly and was eliminated in fourth by Yong, missing the money.
With the bubble burst, action moved fast. Vaskaboinikau got his chips in dominated against Yong before turning the tables, later sending him out in third place with ace-ten against king-nine after pairing his ten.
In heads-up play against Borovkov, Vaskaboinikau built an early lead before his opponent briefly closed the gap. He continued chipping away until Borovkov was forced to shove king-six, running into Vaskaboinikau’s ace-eight. An ace on the flop and another on the river sealed the title with trip aces.
Vaskaboinikau, who said he plays only a handful of series each year, called the win his final missing trophy on the circuit and credited his supportive but “unprofessional” rail of friends for the celebration.
