Anatoly Filatov, a 28-year-old Russian poker player, took down the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Main Event at the Sochi Casino & Resort in Sochi, Russia on Tuesday, pocketing $900,000 in the process. Not bad considering the buy-in was only $5,023. It was the biggest win of his career and sees him quickly approaching the $3-million mark in live-action winnings.
It’s only fitting that the partypoker tournament be won by a partypoker ambassador. He has been seen regularly at both live, as well as virtual, tournaments and goes by the moniker NL_Profit on partypoker. His $2.7 million in live action is only slightly better than his online winnings, where he has racked up $2.3 million. He has been performing very well this year, already making it to the final table in three different tournaments. 
916 entries were recorded for the NLHE event. As the players entered the final day of action, Filatov was in eighth place by chip count with only 11 players still in the game. He scored several key hands, including a K-Q win over the A-K of Konstantin Uspenskii, which resulted in Uspenskii being sent to the rail in eighth place with $63,000.
Next up, an A-Q held by Mikhail Galitskiy was no match for the pocket Kings Filatov was hiding and Galitskiy hit the bricks in seventh with $90,000. Filatov, still on a roll, handed Alexey Melnikov a pink slip next, pushing the eventual winner into second place by chip count. Melnikov took home a decent $180,000 for his efforts.
The Russian poker pro then knocked out Viktor Khodorenko and became the chip leader. Khodorenko shoved an A-7 off-suit, but Filatov slammed home the win after his pocket Queens found a match on the turn to complete a set. Khodorenko took home $270,000 for his fourth-place finish.
Filatov’s status as chip leader didn’t last long, as Gor Kazaryan took it back when he eliminated Andrey Malyshev in third for $400,950. As the two final players faced off, Kazaryan had 534 million chips to Filatov’ 378 million. Filatov fought his way up, raking in several pots to regain the lead.
On the last hand, Kazaryan button-limped with a Q-9 off-suit, which Filatov raised with his J-10 of hearts. Kazaryan called and a flop of Q-9-7 looked to be like a killer score for him. Filatov checked, Kazaryan dumped 35 million into the pot and Filatov called. When a K surfaced on the turn, Filatov checked again and Kazaryan upped the stakes by betting 55 million. Filatov shoved all-in and Kazaryan called, only to be extremely disappointed by his opponent’s straight. An Ace on the river secured the win and Kazaryan would have to settle for second place and $585,000.
