The Russian Poker Tour’s three-day inaugural event in St. Petersburg concluded last week with Oleg Suntsov capturing the series’ first ever first-place prize. Suntsov walked away nearly $300,000 richer after beating out the $1 million Texas Holdem tournament’s 201 other entrants, including Team PokerStars pros Ivan Demidov, Vanessa Rousso and Alex Kravchenko .

Suntsov, a St. Petersburg native, began last Sunday as the nine-person final table’s short stack. Chip leader Dimitru Gaina received the most attention early on as the other players jockeyed to supplant him, and Suntsov took advantage of the fact to make himself nearly invisible. He avoided the frenzy as much as possible and only played a few choice hands to double up twice before the break.

By the time the dust settled, it was Suntsov in heads-up with Belarusian player Vadim Markushevsky. Having played so conservatively, Suntsov led Markushevsky in chips and was able wear the Belarusian down over the next several hands. The final draw saw Markushevsky push after the turn on a K, 9 top-paired against an all-babies board of 6, 9, 3, 5o. Suntsov, in turn, followed him in with a well-concealed pair of queens that went nuclear when the river showed a deuce.

The St. Petersburg tournament kicks off the most recent addition to proprietary sponsor PokerStars.com’s ever-growing list of regional circuits. The RPT’s next event will be held in Moscow Feb. 22 to 28.
Final Results for the 2009 RPT St. Petersburg Open:

1. Oleg Suntsov – $296,635
2. Vadim Markushevsky – $152,816
3. Alexander Pantukhin – $89,890
4. Sergey Solntsev – $66,502
5. Bulat Bikmetov – $53,928
6. Sergey Popuk – $44,931
7. Anatoly Ozhenilok – $35,961
8. Dimitru Gaina – $26,964
9. Evgeny Zaytsev – $17,966