Maxim Lykov Wins WSOP $1k NLHE For $648,880

Russian pro Maxim Lykov has won WSOP Event 54: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em, after overcoming a field of 2,644 players over five days to collect a WSOP bracelet, and the $648,880 first place prize.
The Team PokerStars Pro has now earned an impressive $3,215,638 playing both live and online poker, and currently sits in third spot in the Card Player Player of the Year competition.
With his latest victory in Vegas, the Russian also seems more determined than ever to make a deep run in the upcoming Main Event, and said:
“It’s not my first big cash. I have more money, but now I need to win the Main Event.”
On his way to taking down the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event, Maxim Lykov eliminated five out of the eight remaining players at the final table.
First Lykov with Kh-Qh called Sebastien Roy’s pre-flop 8-8 shove, to dispatch him in 9th place ($53,333) on a 10-5-2-A-J board.
Next, a short-stacked Douglas MacKinnon open-shoved pre-flop with Q-7 into Lykov’s 7-7 and was soon eliminated in 6th place for a $90,604 pay-day.
Lykov’s next victim was Ren Zhang in 4th place ($213,539), before then eliminating Warren Wooldridge in 3rd spot ($288,946). Wooldridge initially looked to be in good shape (A-J) against Lykov’s Ad-9d but a 9 on the flop sealed his fate, leaving just US pro Dror Michaelo left to face the Russian heads-up.
However, Lykov used his 2 to 1 chip advantage to good effect before Dror Michaelo then three-bet shoved from the button pre-flop (Kc-5d) into Lykov’s Ah-Ks.
Dror Michaelo had to then content himself with a runner-up finish worth $401,296, while full WSOP honours went to Maxim Lykov.