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Mikita Badziakouski Wins Super High Roller Series Jeju for $5.25 Million

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While much of the poker world has focused on Justin Bonomo and his record-setting year, Mikita Badziakouski has somewhat quietly moved up into the top three on the 2018 Money List. On Wednesday, Badziakouski took down the Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju Main Event for a career-best $5.25 million.

The event moved Badziakouski up to over $10 million in 2018 earnings, catapulting him into third place. Five players walked away with $1 million or more, including Jason Koon who managed to retain his second place status on this year’s money list.

Bodyakovskiy Wins Back to Back Triton High Roller Series Main Events

On Wednesday, Mikita Badziakouski outlasted a field of 55-entries to win the Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju Main Event for HKD 41.25 million (US $5.25 million). He had to outlast a superstar final table that included Sergio Aldo, Jason Koon, Sam Greenwood, Richard Yong, and Chan Wai Leong.

All but Aido walked away from the final table with at least a $1 million payday. Yong finished in third for $2.13 million while Leong walked away with a $3.25 million top prize. The heads-up contest between Leong and Badziakouski wasn’t even close with Bodyakovskiy coming into heads-up play with a 5:1 chip lead. He never relinquished the lead and went on to win the event and the largest prize of his live poker career.

This victory came just over two months after Badziakouski won the Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro Main Event for $2.49 million. At the time, that victory was the largest win of his live poker career.

Earlier in the Jeju series, Badziakouski finished fifth in the HK$ 1 million Short-Deck event, earning another $588k.

Badziakouski Now With $10.49 Million in Earnings in 2018

Badziakouski is easily having the best year of his live poker career in terms of earnings. Including his win on Wednesday, Badziakouski now has $10.49 million in earnings in 2018 and $16.67 million for his career.

Badziakouski doesn’t have a lot of cashes this year, but the ones he has have really counted. Three of his eight cashes in 2018 have been seven-figure scores. He also has three wins this year.

Badziakouski’s first seven-figure score came back in May when he won the TSHRS Montenegro for $2.49 million. Later that month, he finished fourth in the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl for $1.6 million. His third was his most recent victory in Jeju.

With his Jeju win, Badziakouski is now 52nd on Poker’s All-Time Money List with $16.67 million. Despite cashing in live events since 2010, the last three years is where Badziakouski has earned the bulk of his scores as he is now considered one of the best high stakes tournament players in the world.

Badziakouski also moved up to third on the 2018 money list, trailing Jason Koon and Justin Bonomo. Koon was able to retain second on the list with his fourth-place finish at Jeju for just over $1 million. Koon now has $11.27 million in live earnings and $22 million for his career.

Despite their big wins at Jeju, both Koon and Bodyakovskiy are well behind Justin Bonomo with no realistic shot of winning the 2018 Money title. Bomomo has an insane $24.94 million in earnings this year and either Badziakouski or Koon would have to win every significant High Roller for the rest of the year to even have a shot.

That’s, of course, assuming that Bonomo goes ice cold the rest of the year. While he is taking a break until the Poker Masters in September, there’s no reason to believe that he won’t come back just as dominant as he’s been up to this point.

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