The €20K Freeroll: Heads Up
Luca Nonio (_ghiaccio_) and Nichita Beleaev (ProximoW) tell KS Poker about their winning experiences
One thing leads to another and you have no idea at the beginning. You read about a tournament and the next thing you know is, you’re a big winner. For Luca Nonino, Italy, winner of €5,134, it all began when he was reading about KS Poker on the September issue of Italian magazine Poker Sportivo. Nichita Beleaev, Poland, winner of €2,949, first found out about the KS €20K Freeroll when going through the forums on Polish sport site YourBet.pl. Little did they know, they were to share the final table on November 29.
Luca: I registered to the tournament without having any aspiration, only with the attitude of “I have nothing to lose”. Maybe it was that state of mind that allowed me to play well, and win. I tried to be very prudent and linear throughout the tournament, taking the right risks in most delicate steps. But I will be lying if I said that in more than one occasion I haven’t been kissed by “Fortuna”. But we all know that’s a part of the beautiful game that is Poker.
I have been playing both live and online Poker since June, but I prefer the latter as it enables me to conciliate my hobby with my job. My next goal will be to participate at the next San Remo tournament held on December, who knows…
I also would like to thank you all at KS Poker for giving me the chance to win the € 20,000 Freeroll. I don’t think any other poker room could have be bothered to organize a freeroll with such high prize pool without any buy-in.
Luca, making a wish at the fountain, to win San Remo KS Poker offline event
Nichita: I’ll probably never forget this tournament. I’ve been playing for around 2 years and this one was my highest winning so far (hopefully not the highest ever, lol).
I’m not a pro player, surely not yet, but I knew that as long as I play tight at the beginning, then loose-aggressive in the middle of the tournament, I’d have a good chance of “surviving” at least until the 130 position. On my way to the final table I managed to my utter surprise to get a Royal Flush on the Flop (of course I’ve managed to knock one player out).
100% indeed: Nichita’s Royal Flush Kodak moment
In the pre-flop from my opponent, was probably a bad call from me and we had switched places. I had under 2 mil, he had over 4 mil in chips. That was a hard moment. Two all-ins lost with not bad cards. But I wasn’t going to show him a white flag. So, after a few min. I gathered some more chips and ...A 10, he raised.
That was a tough one. I almost knew that he has an Ace, but what about a kicker. I went all in, he called - A 8. So he had only 3 cards from all the deck to help him. 5 6 2 flop, 4 on turn and .... All italian fans were typing “88888888888888888888888888888888” in the chat window, I had only one thought - "…if I know life, there will be an 8 next"
So I wasn’t too surprised when I saw that 8 (which costs me 2.2K Euros BTW)
That is life and that is Poker.
Runner up Nichita, enjoying the race.
Final table. Final hand. “Fortuna” 8 on the River! |
