Daniel Tuller won the Main Event at the MPP, while Gia Skhulukhia became the EAPT Cyprus Champion.

Main Event

The Mediterranean Poker Party festival took place from 3 to 13 May at the luxurious Merit Royal Diamond Hotel & Spa on Cyprus. The festival offered a total prize pool of over $10 million, including a $5 million guarantee for the Main Event. The $5,300 Main Event consisted of three starting days (Days 1A, 1B and 1C) and five calendar days. During this time, 1,196 players competed for the title, creating a prize pool of $5,740,800 - significantly exceeding the guarantee. After four intense days of competition, nine players reached the final table. Daniel Thaller of Austria ultimately took the title, winning $786,670 in a three-way deal.

• Daniel Thaller (Austria): $786,670
• Timothy Chong (Great Britain): $637,250
• Andreas Mavromoustakis (Cyprus): $651,080

One of the most exciting moments of the tournament came at the start of the final table when Andreas Mavromoustakis made a four-bet. This caused Italo Modena to fold his pocket queens, and he was soon eliminated in ninth place. Following Modena's elimination, Chong quickly took the tournament lead after defeating several opponents in a row. Mavromoustakis soon regained the lead, but not for long. In the key hand of the tournament, the Cypriot player was feeling confident with a J 10  on a flop of 5 10 J , but a turn of 7 proved fatal. His opponent, Daniel Taller, made a set with 7 7 .

After this hand, Thaller took the lead and soon eliminated the Cypriot player in third place. He then defeated Timothy Chong in a Heads-Up battle. In the decisive hand, Thaller called all-in on the river with K 2 , calling out his opponent's bluff. He was right; on the board 2 Q 9 A 9 , Timothy tried to take Daniel out with an underdrawn gutshot on the king-wallet. A few minutes later, Tuller went all-in preflop with A Q . Chong decided not to discard K 7  in the 20 blind, but had no outs on the flop of A 3 3 .

"It was crazy and fun," commented Tuller after the win. For him, this success was practically a home run: the Austrian player has lived in Cyprus for over seven years, never missing a Merit Casino festival.

Garik Tamasyan's success should also be recognised: the Russian player made it to the final table with the eighth-largest stack, and managed to finish fifth for $229,000 — the best result of Garik's career.

EAPT Cyprus

The EAPT Cyprus always stands out in terms of both buy-in and size. At the MPP, the initial buy-in for the EA Poker Tour event is $1,100 (at classic European stops, the buy-in rarely exceeds $600). The guaranteed prize pool of $500,000 and the late start, following the MPP Main Event, attract players who might not otherwise have planned to participate in such an affordable series.

Consequently, there are no issues with guarantee coverage in Cyprus, with 797 players competing for the EAPT trophy this time. With a total prize pool of $765,120, the Cypriot tournament became the largest in the second season of the EAPT in terms of both the number of participants and the size of the prize pool, surpassing even the ultra-popular stop in Batumi.

The nine-man final table was formed on the third day of play and three players from the former Soviet Union represented the Russian-speaking poker community: Belarusian Artem Panasyuk, Georgian Gia Skhulukhia, and Russian Sergey Levin. They all guaranteed themselves at least $11,000, but their payout increased with each new pay jump. In the end, Giya was the best player, adding $120,000 in prize money and becoming the first EAPT champion.

Over the course of the EA Poker Tour's decade-long history, Giya travelled with the series to many destinations, including Minsk and Altai, and also played at the EAPT in Sochi. Skhulukhia came closest to winning the title in 2021 when he accepted a deal at the Main Event in Altai, but the championship ultimately went to Roman Kolotyuk. This time, however, it's a clean win!

- All the results of the final table of the EAPT Cyprus tournament: