Iva Lazarova makes history with MPNPT Sunny Beach Main Event win

After outlasting 319 players, Iva Lazarova finally took down the Microgaming Poker Network (MPN) Poker Tour Sunny Beach €550 Main Event. The tournament was held at the Platinum Casino in Bulgaria from July 5-8 and put up for grabs a total of €150,000 ($176,000). The Bulgarian player has now become the first female to ever win the MPN Poker Tour’s Main Event.

The win wasn’t easy for Lazarova. She was short-stacked down to one big blind on Day 2 with only 36 players remaining. She saw her stack grow to four times its amount on the bubble when her A-9 bested an A-Q after scoring a 9 on the turn. Lazarova began a run that saw her eventually rise to be the second highest stack on the table before taking a couple of hits to end up in eighth place on the last day of play with only 13 players remaining.

Robert Bostock out of the UK led the final day action with a substantial lead—over twice the amount of his closest rival, Borislav Yosifov from Bulgaria. He used his stack well, eliminating four players in a row. Now down to nine players, the final race was on to see who would emerge victorious. Things were looking good for Bostock at this point, as he held more chips than his closest three competitors combined.

Lazarova produced the first casualty at the final table when his pocket tens held up against fellow countryman Tihomir Ochkov’s A-8 suited. Bulgarian Galin Panayotov was the next to fall, not able to find a connector for his A-7 suited against Yosifov’s pocket Queens. The all-in eliminations continued as Bostock scored against Martin Nikolov with pocket Kings over an A-10.