Pavel Shirshikov Victorious at PokerStars Championship Sochi

The PokerStars Championship Sochi Main Event attracted a total of 387 players, who all paid its RUB 318,000 ($5,612) entrance fee to create a prize pool of RUB 29,100,000 ($514,893). One week later, and it was Russian player Pavel Shirshikov who would eventually triumph over the field, including top Russian pro Vladimir Troyanovskiy heads-up, to claim the victory, and its RUB 29,100,000 ($515,774) first place prize.
By the time the final table of six had been reached, Pavel Shirshikov,  who was sitting on the second biggest stack, subsequently managed to oust all but one of the remaining competitors on his way to lifting the title.
Vladimir Troyanovskiy started proceeding by sending a shortstacked Timur Bubnov to the rail in 6th, after which Shirshikov (A-Q) did likewise to Lavrentiy Ni (8-8) in 5th. Shirshikov then looked like he would relinquish part of his stack after running pocket kings into the pocket aces of Dmitry Vitkind, but a king on the turn put paid to Vitkind’s chances, who then departed in 4th place.
Pavel Shirshikov’s (Q-9) luck then held in another showdown, this time against Seyed Ghavam (K-9), after all their money went in on a Q-9-8 flop. With no help on turn or river, Ghavam was eliminated in 3rd, leaving Shirshikov to take a 2-to-1 chip lead against Troyanovskiy into the final phase of the competition.
Shirshikov subsequently was able to grind his formidable opponent down to just 20bb, when the deciding hand was played with Shirshikov pushing all-in preflop with A-6, only to be called by Troyanovskiy with K-9. The dealer then laid out a 6-5-4-5-J board to consign Troyanovskiy to a runner-up finish worth RUB 18,450,000 ($332,100), while Shirshikov was crowned champion of the inaugural PokerStars sponsored event.
Final Table Results (US$):
1: Pavel Shirshikov Rus $514,893
2: Vladimir Troyanovskiy Rus $326,453
3: Seyed Ghavam Iran $235,948
4: Dmitry Vitkind Rus $190,829
5: Lavrentiy Ni Kaz $151,017
6: Timur Bubnov Rus $116,249
7: Daniyar Aubakirov Kaz $86,523
8: Nadar Kakhmazov Rus $62,636