The 2019 EPT Sochi played down to a champion. China's Yi Ye faded a field of 879 runners to win 19.3 million Rubles or approximately $300,000 USD. After declining a heads-up deal with Giorgiy Skhulukhiya, Ye went on to victory for his first EPT title. Local favorite, Lidiya Kozenkova, finished in fourth place.

Ship it to China! This year's EPT Sochi champion flew out from China to battle against the total European pros and a slew of Russians. This stop on the EPT was scheduled just before the 2019 WSOP Europe in RozVegas. If you planned it out right, you could have hit up Sochi and RozVegas for a dank Eastern European poker vacation.
The 2019 EPT Sochi, hosted at the Sochi Casino in Sochi Russian, had a buy-in worth approximately $2,050 USD. In Russian currency, the buy-in was 133,000 Rubles. In total 879 entries took a shot at the EPT title
Only the top 127 places paid out of the 103 million Rubles prize pool. The winner would bank close to $301K, or 19.3 million Rubles.
Chris Moneymaker made a trip across the pond for this one. At least he cashed in the EPT Sochi Main Event and made it worth his while.
Other notables who went deep and cashed included... Fatima de Melo, Simon Burns, Thom Greben, Andrey Kotelnikov, Zhe Hu, Vincent Remitschka, Ivan Rubin, Pavel Zuev, Mikhail Petrov, Dmitriy Ivanov, Nikita Kuznetsov, Viktor Levchenko, Mkhail Zub, Mehmet Koglu, Marian Mik, Alisa Sibgatova, Pavel Golovchenko, Aleksandr Leonov, Roman Sokolov, Karen Arutyunyan, Tibor Toth, Vladimir Dmitriev, Anton Komarov, Vyacheslav Goryachev, Sergey Skorobach, and Nikolay Fal.
Russia's Artem Voziyanov bubbled the final table in ninth place.
The EPT Sochi final table of eight included Yi Ye, Giorgiy Skhulukhiya, Natalia Panchenko, Lidiya Kozenkova, Egor Sukhov, Abdul Ali Han, Vladislav Petrov, and Boris Kitov.
With four remaining, Natalia Panchenko seized the lead.
Lidiya Kozenkova, a local casino worker, went deep with a fourth-place finish. The final table run drew tons of local support for obvious reasons. Despite the fervent rail. Lidiya Kozenkova's run ended in fourth place. Kozenkova won 6.2 million Rubles, or roughly $97K USD for her inspiring finish.
Natalia Panchenko made a final table appearance during her strong run in the EPT Sochi Main Event. She met her fate in third place, which paid out 8.2 million Rubles, or approximately $130K USD.
It came down to Russia versus China for the Main Event title. At one point they discussed a deal, but Ye shot it down beause Skhulukhiya sought more money than ICM. They were unable to come to a deal, so they resumed play.
Ye finished off Skhulukhiya. For a second place finish, Skhulukhiya earned 11.7 Rubles, or around $183K USD. Not too shabby eh, for a runner-up in Sochi?
Ye banked the big prize worth 19.3 million Rubles. In US bucks, that over $300K. That's an impressive amount any way you cut it, especially for a $2,050 buy-in event.
The EPT crowned its newest champion and the circus moves onward to the WSOP Europe in RozVegas.
2019 Main Event Sochi
Buy-in 133,000 Rubles
Entries: 879
Prize Pool: 103,370,400 Rubles
Payouts: 127
Final Table Results:
1. Yi Ye (China) 19,306,000 Rubles
2. Giorgiy Skhulukhiya (Russia) 11,722,200 Rubles
3. Natalia Panchenko (Russia) 8,269,800 Rubles
4. Lidiya Kozenkova (Ukraine) 6,202,000 Rubles
5. Egor Sukhov (Russia) 4,889,500 Rubles
6. Abdul Mamin Abdal Ali Han (Russia) 3,659,400 Rubles
7. Vladislav Petrov (Russia) 2,574,420 Rubles
8. Boris Kitov (Russia) 1,808,800 Rubles