Some players grind away for a lifetime playing tournaments, racking up decent cashes but never quite reaching the brass ring (or in this case, a World Series of Poker bracelet). In Arkadiy Tsinis’ case, his best finish to this point had been an 11th place finish in a $1,500 event in 2009.

After knocking on the doorstep on multiple occasions, Tsinis finally busted it down Friday afternoon by capturing his first bracelet and $540,136.

Tsinis defeated Michael Blonovsky heads-up after more than four hours of play, a match that spanned two days due to the hard stop rule. Tsinis’ win in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event is nearly ten times his previous largest cash, which was for an 11th place finish in 2011 in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event.

On the final hand of the tournament, Blanovsky was all-in with AT against Tsinis’ QJ. The flop was T95 and Blanovsky had quite a sweat to survive and double-up. But the 8 on the turn ended all of the drama, giving Tsinis the nut straight and the win. The heads-up match was long, it was a battle, but in the end, Tsinis emerged victorious.

The Ukranian-born chess and backgammon specialist learned to play the game from former November Niner Ylon Schwartz, and notes Schwartz’s experience and teachings as a vital part of his knowledge of the game.

“Him being at the final table of the biggest event ever, that’s help that no one else can provide,” said Tsinis. “You have to be there and experience it. Just talking to him constantly, getting the right mindset and strategies, that really helps.”

The slow pace of the final table was set early on in play on Thursday night. For an hour-and-a-half, there were several all-ins involving short stacks, but the shorter of the two would end up ahead by the end on every one. The first significant confrontation at the final table would see a three-way all-in that would knock two players out and propel one of the three similarly-stacked players into the chip lead.

When the cards made it to their backs, Christopher Homan had the best of it with KK,  Tsinis was in trouble with QQ and Ryan Laplante had AK. Tsinis and Laplante were almost identically stacked, with Homan holding just slightly less than the other two. The flop changed things dramatically, with the Q in the door followed by the T and 7. Tsinis had taken a commanding lead, but Homan had a flush draw to retake the lead.

The T on the turn had Laplante drawing dead and Homan needing the K, the last one in the deck, but the 8 on the river gave the pot and the chip lead to Tsinis. After the chips were counted down, Tsinis had Laplante slightly covered, meaning Laplante would follow Homan to the rail. Due to their chips at the beginning of the hand, Homan would take ninth place and Laplante would settle for eighth.

It was a just a few hands before they were at it again, as David Rounick pushed his short stack into the middle and found a caller in Randy Lanosga. Rounick was ahead heading to the flop with A9 against Lanosga’s QJ but a J on the flop was all Lanosga would need, and the card that would end the tournament for Rounick in seventh place.

Texas Hold’em can swing dramatically on the fall of a single card, and that’s exactly what happened between Linosga and Perry Lin. Lanosga was all-in and way behind Lin on an AJ5 flop; Lanosga had QQ, while Lin had flopped two-pair with AJ. The 9 on the turn gave Lanosga just two cards to hit to save his tournament, and one of them hit on the river as the Q gave him the pot and devastated Lin.

The two would clash again on the very next hand, with Lanosga holding the best of it with JJ against Lin’s A9. After being just one card away from holding the combined total of both players’ chips, Lin found himself on the rail one hand later with Lanosga holding all of the chips. Hold’em can be a cruel game, and it was for Lin, as he went out in sixth.

After a short break, the action resumed and the knockouts kept on coming. Paul Nash went all-in on a flop of 873 and was called by Tsinis. Nash had been ahead preflop with AJ but Tsinis had pulled well ahead with A8. Neither the Q on the turn nor the A on the river did anything for Nash, as he and his full rail of sloshed Brits exited the Amazon room with Nash as the fifth place finisher.

Dutch player Pim de Goede stayed away from most of the all-in action, picking his spots and winning his pots mostly without showdown. When four-handed play began he was the shortest of the remaining stacks, and it didn’t take long for de Goede to get them into the middle.

De Goede had AQ and was up against Lanosga’s T8, with which Lanosga had pot comitted himself. The tables were turned on de Goede as the flop came out 987, giving Lanosga a strong hold on the hand. The 2 and 8 were of no help for de Goede, and his tournament was cut short in fourth.

When stacks are as deep as they were when three-handed play began, it often takes a cooler for chip stacks to change dramatically. Lanosga fell victim to just such a situation, turning the nut flush but losing a big pot to Tsinis’ rivered full-house.

Lanosga still had some play in his stack, but decided to gamble to double up in the wrong spot. His 56 was well behind the 88 of Blanovsky. The flop was as dry as they come, Q72. Blanovsky turned a set of eights on the turn with the 8 in a spot where he’d just have soon not hit his set, as it gave Lanosga his best chance at catching up with an open-ended straight draw. The A on the river allowed Blanovsky to exhale, and Lanosga was sent to the rail in third place.

When the heads-up match between Tsinis and Blanovsky began, both players were within one million of one another, but Tsinis continued to grind Blanovsky down. Blanovsky took down a few pots but continued to get chopped down every time he was building momentum.

The pair played heads-up for nearly three hours without having a winner come out on top, and they eventually ran into a hard stop. Here’s where they stood at the end of Day 3:

• Arkadiy Tsinis – 7,110,000
• Michael Blanovsky – 2,765,000

Once they came back on Friday afternoon, it took just five hands for Blanovsky to find AA and double through Tsinis, making the counts much closer. At this point, each player had between 30 and 40 big blinds each, so despite the high blinds and antes, they both had some play left with their stack.

In the end, however, Tsinis won when it counted. He missed draws twice on Friday that would have won him the tournament, but on the final hand he was able to connect for a straight and capture the biggest win of his career.

1. Arkadiy Tsinis – $540,136
2. Michael Blanovsky – $336,253
3. Randy Lanosga – $233,732
4. Pim de Goede – $168,334
5. Paul Nash – $123,028
6. Perry Lin – $91,010
7. David Rounick – $68,209
8. Ryan Laplante – $51,771
9. Christopher Homan – $39,756

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