Russia's Andrey Pateychuk Wins 2014 Merit Poker Winterfest

Andrey Pateychuk has won the 2014 Merit Poker Winterfest, after besting a field of 191 players over three days on his way to capturing the title, and collecting the $145,472 first-place prize.
The $3,300 Main Event was held at the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel Casino in Kyrenia, located in the northern Turkish occupied territory of Cyprus. By January 21st, the final table of nine had been reached, and eventually the Russian would then progress all the way through to heads-up, where he defeated Morocco’s Omar Lakhdari to take the title.
In addition to his Merit Poker Winterfest main event victory, Andrey Pateychuk earlier won the $600 buy-in Turbo Deepstack for $9,894, as well as finishing 10th in the $1,100 Hold’em Turbo Deepstack for a further $2,421.
Final Table Payouts:
1 Andrey Pateychuk   $145,472
2 Omar Lakhdari         $102,071
3 Ilan Amilov         $65,657
4 Gil Atzlan         $48,594
5 Uladzimir Zakharau $36,476
6 Kiryl Radzivonau   $29,181
7 Evagoras Evagorou  $24,235
8 Muhammed Bufalah   $19,413
9 Khalil Tawil         $14,529
Following his impressive victory in Cyprus, the 24 year-old Russian pro now boasts $2,520,880 in live tournament earnings, to go with the $1,187,540 he has won online playing under the screen name Aangierr.
Andrey Pateychuk’s biggest ever score came in 2011, when he won the €4,900 EPT San Remo Main Event for €680,000 ($937,530), before just over a month later emerging triumphant at the €3,500 WPT Prague for €450,000 ($599,720). In between both competitions, Pateychuk also enjoyed an exceptional run at the WSOP Main Event, where he finished in 15th place out of 6,865 players to walk home richer  to the tune of $478,174.
The following year, however, Pateychuk was not so successful and highlighting the risks faced by professional poker players, explained: “I had a huge downswing in live events in 2012, especially at the WSOP. I lost $200k in the last WSOP. I didn’t even make one-second day in a single NLHE event. I also bought a lot of pieces in the WSOP, for well over $100k, and I didn’t have a single score. Everything went wrong..minus $200k is very sick indeed.”