In the midnight hours of our first major day of action here at the latest WSOPC stop, it was Russian pro Maxim Lykov who completed an improbable comeback, erasing a 5-1 heads up chip deficit to defeat Hyak Grigoryan.

But oddly enough, the win might not have even happened had Lykov not made a “fortunate” mistake. Lykov told us he was traveling the US in prep for the WSOP this summer, and only came out to Los Angeles because he thought he was eligible for the Tournament of Champions due to a bracelet winner from year’s past. Well now, Lykov is $100,000 richer, and has now secured that very same ticket to the toC.

“I’m feeling great. I was traveling in the area before WSOP in Florida and in Vegas so I mainly came here for a tune up to Vegas this summer.”

Grigoryan held the chip lead throughout the final table, and at one point five-handed, he had over 20 million in chips, while his remaining four opponents all had under five million. As a result, the normally aggressive Lykov had to adjust his game to adhere to the dynamics.

“The way the table played was very aggressively so I was just waiting for my spot. There was an ICM spot where I just flatted with Ace-Queen when he had pocket tens and I ended up missing the flop. I might have gone broke there if the situation was different.”

Lykov managed to survive the battle of the short stacks, and drew the assignment to try to take down the gargantuan stack of Grigoryan. Fortunately for Lykov, he has plenty of heads up experience throughout his storied career, and was ready for the challenge.

“The guy said that this was one of his first live events and for sure his first live heads up, so I felt like I had a nice advantage because he played very aggressively but I am prepared to handle that type of play. I used to grind $100 heads up sit n gos online, so I’m very confident in my heads up game.”

Now that he has secured his first WSOP Circuit ring, Lykov has his eyes set on the grand prize, first place in the $1,000,000 Tournament of champions coming up on Thursday. When asked what his plan was for that event, Lykov kept it pretty simple.

“I will try my best to win it! What else can I say.”

Congratulations to Maxim on his impressive victory, and thank you to everyone who came out for our massive Housewarming Event. We hope to see you all for the Monster Stack Event, which kicks off today at 11 AM!