Six years ago, Renat Bohdanov won the opening event of the WSOP Europe to snatch his maiden bracelet and a ticket for the Main Event, only a year after his career record began.
Now he has more than $2 million in live tournament winnings and even graces the Triton Super High Roller Series from time to time to play against the likes of Jason Koon.
“This one was very important because it feels like a bigger one and more important, so I’m excited.”
Action Recap
Although Bohdanov kicked off the final table as the chip leader, the start of Day 3 was anything but smooth running. A series of bad spots left him close to dipping below the 30 big blinds mark when everyone else was relatively well-stacked.
Not only that but Dennys Ramos had his Brazilian fans on the rail making their usual passionate display. This was going to be a tough day for the young Ukrainian.
In fact, runner-up Ramos clashed with Bohdanov several times during the final table stage but Bohdanov handled the situation well, mostly proving impervious to the pressure.
Bohdanov dished out the first two eliminations, sending home Boris Kolev and Santiago Garza. And he then took a huge chunk of chips from Ramos after firing all three streets on a low- medium four-straight board.
Hattori Lopez fell in sixth place when his pocket queens got two callers and Tsz Ho Chau hit middle set on the flop. An hour and a half later, Anatoly Nikitin’s run came to an end when his A♥ J♠ couldn’t overcome the 4♠ 4♦ of Chau who was chipping up nicely.
Less than 10 minutes later, Bohdanov min-raised from under the gun holding A♣ 10♣ and Ryan Wolfson jammed in the big blind for 10.5 blinds with Q♥ J♥.
The board ran out 6♥ 3♦ 5♦ Q♦ 9♦ and that left only Chau and Ramos to challenge Bohdanov.
Ramos and Bohdanov were still clashing even at this late stage before their final battle.
One great hand started with Ramos raising from the button to 500,000 with blinds of 125,000/250,000, 250,000 ante. Bohdanov called in the big blind.
The flop came down 2♥ A♦ K♠ and the Ukrainian check-called a bet of only 300,000.
The turn was the 7♦ and we saw another bet from Ramos; this time 650,000. Bohdanov called again.
The 9♥ river didn’t put Ramos off in the slightest and he fired out a bet of 900,000.
Bohdanov went into the tank for a short while, but in the end he declared he was calling and turned over K♦ Q♥ for only second pair.
As it turned out, it was a great call as Ramos showed 10♠ 5♠ for an airball three barrel bluff.
Over the next couple of hours, Bohdanov and Ramos continued to tussle while Chau eventually struggled to keep up and his downfall began.
In the end it was a pocket threes versus king-queen flip that saw the Hong Kong native knocked out of the event to set us up nicely for the heads-up battle everyone wanted to see.
The two players did not disappoint and entertained the rail thoroughly for around an hour before it all came down to a flop of J♠ Q♦ 10♥.
Bohdanov had Q♥ 8♥ and Ramos Q♠ 10♦. Ramos check-called the flop and 7♠ turn but the 9♠ river flipped the script to give Bohdanov a straight and it was game over for Dennys Ramos after an amazing performance.
Bohdanov had very little to say after achieving his poker dream other than: “This is just the beginning.”
Event #35: $3,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
| 1 | Renat Bohdanov | Ukraine | $451,600 |
| 2 | Dennys Ramos | Brazil | $300,830 |
| 3 | Tsz Ho Chau | Hong Kong | $212,820 |
| 4 | Ryan Wolfson | United States | $152,760 |
| 5 | Anatoly Nikitin | Russian Federation | $111,270 |
| 6 | Hattori Lopez | United Kingdom | $82,260 |
| 7 | Santiago Garza | United States | $61,750 |
| 8 | Boris Kolev | Bulgaria | $47,060 |
