Name: Janne Salonen

Nationality: Finnish

Age: 26

Player Presentation:

I got into poker about a five years ago when I saw my friend play online and winning like $500 in 40 minutes. I had never seen this poker with only two cards, only poker I knew was 5 Card Draw and Sökö (Finnish five card-stud for our non-Finnish readers –ed. Note)

I made my first deposit a shortly after seeing my friend play and then made my second deposit about 30 minutes later. I kept playing freerolls, cash games and tournaments and kept losing money.

The turning point was seeing a friend of mine making some money and I decided I have to be better than him. I started playing SNGs a bit more seriously and did quite ok.

I consider myself an average poker player who loves the gambling element in poker. Nowadays I mostly play small to midstakes online MTTs

I haven´t played much Live poker but have occasionally played some cash games in Helsinki and took part in Macau Cup with Team RedKings a while ago. My first goal in GSOP Live Riga is not to bluff myself out in the first 30 minutes.

Name: Tuomas Ketola
Age: 35
Nationality: Finnish

Player presentation:

The next qualifier we introduce to our blog readers is a familiar face to many: Tuomas Ketola has played with Team RedKings in “Rigged in Riga” last year but he is even more known for his accomplishments in professional tennis.  Tuomas holds the all time 3rd highest Finnish ATP-rank peaking at 130 in May 1998. He reached the first round of Wimbledon in 2004 and played 31 Daavis Cup matches for Finland.

After retiring from professional sports Tuomas has satisfied his competitive nature in Online Poker and has quickly proved his abilities in this field too. So far he hasn´t had any major success in the live scene but hopefully this is a subject to change next week!

Name: Wouter G

Age: 26

Nationality: Dutch

Player Presentation:

I started playing poker five years ago in freerolls and small buy-in tournaments, but I quickly switched over to cashgames from NL50 to NL400. Last year I started focusing on Heads-Up games and I´ve been very happy with my success.

I also played my first big live events at the end of the year and eventhough I still don´t play that much live tournaments, when I play, I have only one goal: winning.

Name: Kanstantsin Yermakou

Age: 27

Nationality: Belarusian

Player presentation:

I have been playing poker professionally for approximately 2,5 years now and have tried all poker variants, but at the moment I prefer playing Sit´n´Go –tournaments. I have some live poker experience and we will see if that helps me in the upcoming higher level tournament in Riga.

In Russian:

Живу за счет покера около 2.5 лет. Пробовал себя во всех дисциплинах, но на данный момент предпочтение отдаю СНГ. Есть некоторый оффлайн опыт, посмотрим будет ли его достаточно для турнира подобного уровня.

Name: Pekka Ikonen

Age: 31

Nationality: Finnish

Player presentation:

I have been playing poker for four years now and it has been my main source of income from the beginning 2010. I started with free money bonus in small stakes fixed limit cash games before switching over to No Limit cash games. At the moment I´m playing everything from NL200 to NL1000. I used to play tournaments only with local friends but in early 2010 I started studying the tournament game too and playing Online tournaments at RedKings regularly. I haven´t played that many Live events yet but I find them a welcome break from sitting in front of my computer and in future my plan is to attend at least few major events a year. So far my biggest achievement in the Live Scene is 3rd place finish in WSOP Event #47 this summer.

Suomeksi/In Finnish

Olen pelannut pokeria nelisen vuotta ja vuoden alusta pokeri on ollut ainoa tulonlähteeni. Aloitin ilmaisrahalla pienten panosten fixed limit- käteispeleistä. Myöhemmin siirryin no limit- käteispeleihin joita pelaan edelleen tasoilla NL 200 – NL 1000. Turnauksia olen pelannut lähinnä kotipeleissä kaveriporukalla. Tämän vuoden alusta olen kuitenkin opetellut myös turnauspelaamista ja pelannut turnauksia säännöllisesti netissä. Liveturnauskokemukseni on vielä melko vähäistä, mutta ne ovat mukavaa vaihtelua kotikoneella istumiselle ja jatkossa aion matkustaa ainakin muutamaan turnaukseen vuodessa. Mainittavin turnausmenestys tähän asti on kolmas sija viime kesän WSOP event 47:ssa.

Name: Jan Forss
Age: 40
Nationality: Finnish

Player Presentation:

I am a 40-year father of three from Pori, Finland. I have played different card games since I was a little kid and found poker about five years ago. Poker has been my hobby ever since but as I`m self-employed and have family I have limited time to play and participate in big live tournaments abroad. I have played some bigger Live Events at Grand Casino Helsinki in Finland but mostly I play with local friends or Online at RedKings.

In Finnish/Suomeksi:

Olen 40-vuotias kolmen lapsen isä Porista. Erilaisia korttipelejä olen pelannut pikkulapsesta asti ja pokeria nyt noin viisi vuotta harrastusmielessä. Olen osallistunut muutamaan isompaan turnaukseen Helsingin kasinolla mutta tämä on ensimmäinen iso kansainvälinen turnaus ulkomailla. Työni yrittäjänä rajoittaa peliaikaa mutta yritän pelata mahdollisimman usein paikallisen kaveriporukan kanssa tai netissä RedKingsillä.

Name: Mikhail Fando
Age: 21
Nationality: Belarusian






Player Presentation in English:

I’ve been playing poker professionally almost since my school graduation in 2006. I tried different varieties of poker games and in the end I stopped on short table mid-stakes cash games.
Live poker has never really attracted me because of not the best infrastructure in my home country; however, I have some experience of playing live as well as I had some winnings. Now I hope to get a new interesting experience playing live at GSOP Live in Riga.

Player Presentation in Russian:

Я играю в покер профессионально практически с момента окончания школы в 2006, за это время поиграл в несколько разновидностей покера, впоследствии остановился на мидстейкс кэш на коротких столах.
Лайв игры никогда особо не привлекали из-за не самой лучшей инфраструктуры в родной стране, тем не менее, опыт игры имеется, как и выигрыши. Рассчитываю получить новый интересный опыт в Риге.

Name: Siarhei Chyzhyk
Age: 25
Nationality: Belarusian

Player Presentation in English:

What poker is and how to play it I learned less than one and a half years ago when I saw one of my friends playing online. I was watching him playing for a couple of weeks and then I decided to try it myself. I registered an account at RedKings, made a small deposit and started to play without really knowing the rules of the game. My first games were NL Turbo Double with buy-in $1.20. Some time ago I quitted my job because I can earn money and make my living just playing poker. The live event GSOP Live Riga 2010 will become my first live poker experience, and I am going there to win!

Player Presentation in Russian:

Что такое покер и как можно зарабатывать, я узнал менее чем полтора года назад, когда увидел игру одного из моих знакомых. Я наблюдал за игрой этого человека пару недель и решил попробовать сам. Зарегистрировался на RedKings, сделал маленький депозит и, особо не зная правил, я сел играть. Начинал катать NL Turbo Double с бай-ином 1.20$. Совсем недавно уволился с работы, поскольку около года я могу обеспечить себе жизнь, играя только в покер. GSOP Live в Риге 2010 - мой первый оффлайн турнир, на который я еду побеждать!

Name: Aliaksei Militsa
Age: 27
Nationality: Belarusian

He will be playing for Team RedKings in the Grand Series of Poker Live Riga 2010 tournament

Player presentation: English

First time I started to play poker 4 years ago, I was playing cash games micro-limits but stopped. Later, one of my friends showed me how he learned to play S’n’G tournaments and as a result I came back into online-poker being in top3 $5 Sit’n’Goes. Going up by limits I revealed for myself such tournaments as turbo DON and stayed there for all the time. For 2 years now I consider myself to be a professional online-poker player, playing $50-100-200 DONs. Regarding live events, I’ve participated in offline tournaments in Minsk several times, once even got into top3 prizes but no special results, not yet…=)

Player presentation: Russian

О покере я узнал года 4 назад. Немного поиграл микролимитный кэш и бросил. Позже, где-то 2,5 года назад, один мой друг показал, чему он научился в СнГ-шках, и в результате я снова вернулся в покер и теперь катаю топ3 СнГ по 5$. Полгода рос по лимитам. Потом появились турбо-даблы, я пересел на них и бросил всё остальное. Вот уже 2 года живу только на доходы от покера. Катаю даблы 50-100-200$. Оффлайн я играл пару раз в Минске, как-то даже попадал в топ3 победителей. В общем, можно считать, что особых достижений в оффлайн у меня пока нет, но это пока…=)

Name: Evgeniy Loshchakov
Age: 23
Nationality: Russian

He will be playing for Team RedKings in the Grand Series of Poker Live Riga 2010 tournament






Player Presentation: English

I learned about poker watching TV. After that I got a job as a dealer in one casino where I learned to play Texas Hold’em. Since that time I have been playing poker professionally for 3 years. I play only at RedKings as I like it very much and now my goal is to conquest the offline MTT and I hope that RedKings will help me with that =)

Player Presentation: Russian

С покером познакомился по телевизору, затем устроился дилером в казино, там меня научили, как надо играть в Техасский Холдем. С тех пор, как уволился, играю 3 года и зарабатываю этим себе на жизнь. Играю только на RedKings, так как мне здесь очень нравится. Теперь моя цель – покорение МТТ оффлайн, и я надеюсь RedKings поможет мне в этом =)