Urbanovich Continues to Dominate EPT Malta; Wins Record Fourth Event
In the history of the European Poker Tour, no player has ever won four events at a festival. That changed on Friday night when Poland's Dzmitry Urbanovich took down the €220 No-Limit Crazy Pineapple event for his fourth win at the EPT Malta festival.
The 19 year old began his historic run by topping a field of 88 entries to win the €25,000 High Roller for €572,300, and then followed that up by winning the €1,000 No-Limit Deepstack Turbo Big Ante for €32,500.
"See you soon," Urbanovich joked with official EPT photographer Neil Stoddart after that win. It actually proved true too as the very next day he beat Jack Salter heads up to win the €5,000 No-Limit Turbo event for €110,000.
In the crazy pineapple event, which attracted 56 entries and created a prize pool of €10,864, Urbanovich defeated Team PokerStars Pro Marcin Horecki in heads-up play to capture the title and €3,260, a modest amount that no doubt took backseat to the record.
According to the PokerStars Blog, Horecki began heads-up play with a nearly 2-1 chip lead, but with blinds at 12,000/24,000 anything could happen. Indeed it did as Urbanovich, who was playing crazy pineapple for the first time, managed to take over the lead, and then in the final hand of the tournament, Horecki was all in, the flop came out 
, and both players discarded one of their three cards.
Urbanovich showed the 
for a flush draw, while Horecki held the 
for a pair. The 
turn paired Urbanovich, but he needed more help to win the pot. He found it too when the 
river have him the flush. Horecki had to settle for €2,350 while Urbanovich immediately rushed off to register the €1,100 triple stud event.
"The man is clearly on a mission to win everything he possibly has time for because immediately after snagging that victory, he jumped in another event," PokerStars touted after his latest win. "It seems that where there’s a trophy, then Urbanovich will be somewhere nearby."
It's also worth nothing that Urbanovich finished runner-up in the €1,100 Limit Stud Championships for €6,680. If it wasn't for John Thrower, the winner of that event, Urbanovich would have five EPT Malta titles on his résumé.
Event #59 €220 NL Crazy Pineapple Turbo
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| €200 + €20 | 56 | €10,864 |
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dzmitry Urbanovich | Poland | €3,260 |
| 2 | Marcin Horecki | Poland | €2,350 |
| 3 | Marco Wendt | Germany | €1,520 |
| 4 | Daniel Effendy | Germany | €1,160 |
| 5 | Dariusz Paszkiewicz | Poland | €890 |
| 6 | Timothee Colcher | France | €695 |
| 7 | Roy Pedersen | Norway | €554 |
| 8 | Dominic Cyrill Vogel | Swaziland | €435 |
Prior to his unprecedented run at the EPT Malta, Urbanovich's biggest cash had been €31,950 for a third-place finish in the 2014 EPT Barcelona Event #39: €1,100 No-Limit Hold'em Turbo. He also took down Event #13: $2,200 No-Limit Hold'em Turbo Bounty at the 2015 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $37,640, and followed that up six weeks later by winning the €2,200 Eureka High Roller in Rozvadov for €25,725.
Urbanovich's recent success has given him the early lead in the 2015 Global Poker Index Player of the Year race with 2,380.48 points, though that doesn't yet take into account his latest win. His prior wins had him in the hunt, but it was his performance in Malta that saw him jump 16 places to the top of the leaderboard.
Urbanovich has results dating back to July 2013, but it's safe to say he didn't become a superstar until visiting the first-ever EPT Malta. Something tells us we'll be seeing plenty more of him on the EPT, but it'll still be two years before he's old enough to travel to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker. Kind of reminds you of Ole Schemion, doesn’t it?
For more on Urbanovich, check out his €25,000 High Roller winner interview with Sarah Herring: