Check out the interview!
1. What do you do in life?
I work as a power engineer in a large gas production enterprise in Novy Urengoi city. My nickname corresponds to the type of my occupation.
2. How long have you been playing poker? How did you learn about the chance to play poker online?
I started to play poker for fun money in a free-to-play application in the social network “Vkontakte”. After two months I started to feel bored. Then I saw by chance a GoPlayClub banner in the Internet and decided to give it a try. In this way I dropped into the club. In total I have been playing poker since November 2009.
3. Why do you like playing poker? What attracts you to online poker?
I don’t think anyone can answer directly to this question. Somebody plays poker for fun, while others manage to earn their living by playing. But in one way or another hazard and excitement, as well as rivalry feelings are the main elements that makes people play. I am a realist and I know very well that I won’t be able to make my living only by playing poker. So I play exclusively for fun, I’ve never made it an aim. Online poker is perfect for this purpose. I come home from work, run a few tournaments, drain my bankroll, relax and go to bed … In the morning I wake up and go to work… Isn’t it romantic?
4. How did you learn to play? Have you studied the theory? If so, where and how?When I started playing poker I didn’t read or study anything. Then having lost about 400 Euro I understood that something should be changed. I read everything I could find available (Harrington, Moshman, D. Sklanski, M. Hilger and others). Those books helped me, or it was my experience that served me to regain my losings, then I managed to go ahead and now everything is all right. Theory is necessary, it’s science!
5. How often do you play and what kinds of poker do you prefer?
Since in my wonderful city you don’t have a large choice of activities, except for working, I play almost every evening. I practice only Hold’em NL. I started from DONs and sometimes play them as well. I tried to play cash games, but it’s not my type. After the team championship Heads Up Arena 2010, I found HU quite interesting. It’s a rather challenging type of poker where you can show all your skills in full.
6. Is poker an entertainment or an opportunity to earn money for you?
It is clearly a pleasant pastime. I don’t really count on the money earned from poker, unless I sometimes pay for Internet or telephone using them.
7. What are the benefits of GoPlay in your opinion? Do you have any suggestions on how we can improve our service?
GoPlay is my first native room. It has a simple and easy interface, no extra elements. Everything is done solely and exclusively for the game, there are no distractions. I would also like to mention the qualitative and prompt activity of the support service, a great number of bonuses and availability of rakeback.
But I must admit that I recently changed the native room, because the minimum limit in HU game worth 5 Euro is too much for a beginner heads-upper.
8. What personal qualities (in your opinion) should a player have for a successful game?
A poker player should be patient and calm. Sometimes it’s good to have nerves of steel. The player should also be able to read the opponents and foresee the further developments.
9. Have you experienced any spectacular and memorable moments in your game? Please, tell us about them.
I think every player has experienced some, and will still be experiencing in the future. But all these events tend to be forgotten, because new spectacular moments replace them. For some reason I remember the startling moves and bad beats… For the whole time of playing I never had the chance to hit a Royal Flush. I had Street Flush several times though. I am waiting now for the Royal.
10. What general advice would you like to share with our beginner players?
I can’t give any good advices to the beginners, because I’m still a beginner myself. I often ask for advices from more experienced players in one or another situation. On this occasion I would like to say thank you to my first adviser in poker, JohnTaker, as well as Katamaran. By the way, I consider Katamaran to be a walking encyclopedia of poker. There wasn’t a question he wouldn’t answer.
11. Did you play in any offline tournaments? Any experience?
I don’t have such experience yet, but I would be glad to give it a try. Though I think it would be difficult for me to play there considering my amount of bluff in the game, it would be difficult to hide my emotions. I hope I will manage to try my hand offline while visiting my lucky friend Cheremis.
12. You participated in the Hit of the Month tournament. Was it difficult to play in this tournament? Why? Did you meet with your opponents at the tables before? Tell us about the most memorable moments.
Hit of the Month is a difficult tournament. It’s not so easy to get in. Very strong players gather there, the players whom I already met several times before at the poker tables and who start to be very difficult to outplay. No casual players can be found there. The tournament didn’t start quite well for me. I had to make 3 rebuys and addon. After the break the situation changed. I successfully managed to pass to the prizes. There were 4 of us by that time: me, Vetala_kh, fishka25 and the winner of the rating of the month – eAd_90. For that moment eAd_90 was a firm chip-leader of the race. But he made a mistake during the crucial dealing, allowed me to double my stack, lost his own stack the remains of which were then taken by fishka25. She was the next to drop out. In Heads Up I got very lucky while playing against Vetala_kh. The game in general proved to be very interesting.
Good luck to everyone and not only in poker!