Name: Tomáš Lencsés

Age: 23

Nationality: Hungarian

I first started playing online poker a couple of years ago when I saw my friends playing online and really enjoying it.  I started to take it more seriously about a year ago when I realized how important strategy is in poker. I started with Sit&Gos but changed shortly after to cash games. Occasionally I play Omaha and MTT but my preference is NLHE Cash games. I don’t have much experience in MTT’s, especially in live tournaments, however in Malta I will play my best possible game and most importantly have lots of fun.
Good Luck to everyone and I look forward to meeting you in Malta!

Name: Juha Varis

Age: 32

Nationality: Finnish

Player Presentation:

I started playing poker about four years ago inspired by the WPT-broadcasts and my friends. I got in to the action playing with a $10 dollar No Deposit bonus and never looked back. I have never had to deposit my own money. In the beginning I was experimenting with Fixed Limit Hold´Em but quickly moved to Sit&Go´s and then to No Limit cash games.
Nowadays I mostly play cash games with the focus in NLHE, but I sometimes give Omaha a chance or two. Just for a change I still occasionally play some tournaments too. I have always liked playing live, and this summer I made my first poker trip to Las Vegas. So far I haven´t played bigger Live Tournaments, but I have high expectations for GSOP Live Malta. Whenever I play, I play to win!

Good luck to everyone and enjoy!

Name: Sami Turunen

Age: 42

Nationality: Finnish

Our next RedKings Qualifier, Sami Turunen, is a man of experience. He was playing poker before most of our Qualifiers were even born. In his own words:

“Hi Kids, I started playing poker 30 years ago.

Alright then.. that was 5-card Stud (if I remember) when I was 10-years old or something, and I forgot the game and all its variations completely for the next 25+ years.. so that much for the experience.

Nice to be back though: I found poker (online) just about 5 years ago when WSOP events started to showing on TV -and I was right into it again; been playing cash games and MTTs “50/50″ ever since.

About Live tournaments.. I don’t often get a chance to play them and this GSOP Malta is actually my first MTT outside the casino in Helsinki where I live (I occasionally play there for fun, both cash and MTTs). So I’m really looking forward to this - I really like the athmosphere in live games and I get to see people I know, but rarely meet “offline” =)

See you at (Final?) Tables!”

Name: Tapio Koivisto

Age: 30

Nationality: Finnish

The next GSOP Live Malta qualifier we are introducing you is a long-time RedKings regular Tapio Koivisto from Finland. Like many Finns Tapio keeps it short and pithy:

“I´ve been playing poker for about seven years now, I´m a SnG regular and occasionally play MTTS too. I don´t play big Live events very often - and haven´t had any success in the ones I´ve played so far - so I´m really looking forward to GSOP Live Malta”

Name: Andrey Tsitovich
Nationality: Russian
Age: 21

Player presentation in English:

Three years ago there was a poker boom in Russia and I started playing too, having $50 in my account. I was playing 12 NL2 cash tables at a time as well as different kind of cheap satellites. In one of them I qualified to a 250k gtd. tournament in which I finished 15th. I also decided to try some cheap offline tournaments in a local poker club and my first experience appeared to be very lucky – I took the 1st place. Having a decent starting bankroll I went for $5 SNG 10max, six months later I was already playing at $54 with a good ROI. Later after reading some posts of hiNt (editor’s note: a well-known Russian player) I changed 10max to 6max $54-$108 SnG and also started discovering MTTs where I managed to go up to $525 limits. Now I am interested in HU SnG’s.
Player Presentation in Russian:

Я начал играть 3 года назад , во времена покерного бума в России.
Я стартовал с 50$ и начал играть НЛ2 кеш на 12 столах, также время от времени играл различные дешевые саттелиты, в одном из которых я отобрался в турнир с гарантией 250к и занял там 15-ое место. В это же время я первый раз попробовал поиграть дешевые оффлайн турниры в местном покерном клубе, и в первом же турнире 10+ Rebuy мне улыбнулась удача – я занял 1-ое место. Имея приличный стартовый банкролл, я перешел на 5$ sng 10max, через полгода я уже играл на 54$ с неплохим рои. Почитав посты Хинта о бесперспективности 10max, я перешел в 6max sng 54-108$, а также начал учиться играть MTT, где, поймав удачную полосу, мне за пару месяцев удалось быстро подняться до лимитов 525$. Сейчас я начал изучать дисциплину husng.

Name: Mikhail Dvoinikov
Nationality: Russian
Age: 24

Player Presentation in English

I got into poker about 5 years ago after watching a Heads-Up game on TV. I checked the rules of the game and decided to try to play online. There was a $100 freeroll at RedKings back then [and still is! -ed. note] and my first cash was 3rd place for $45 prize which I quickly lost when I started playing for real money. I found different books, videos, articles which helped me play better and after a while I realized that it’s possible to earn good money just playing poker. In the same time I regularly visited a local poker club where I won my first live tournament. Often getting to the final tables, for example one time I won a $75 buy-in tournament which brought me $12,000 in prize money.  And now I won an online tournament at RedKings and got the ticket to the live event in Malta! I hope my good luck is coming there with me.

Player Presentation in Russian

Покером я увлёкся лет 5 назад. Тогда по телевидению впервые показали турнир по игре один на один. Немного разобравшись с правилами, я решил попробовать поиграть в интернете. Тогда в сети Онгейм был фриролл, в котором за 1-ое место давали 100$. Поиграв неделю, я занял в нём 3-е место и получил 45$. Затем я решил попробовать поиграть на реальные деньги. Благополучно проиграв эти деньги, я начал искать книжки, статьи и обучающие видео, которые могли бы помочь мне научиться играть. Спустя год я понял, что могу зарабатывать покером неплохие деньги и начал задумываться о том, чтобы уйти с работы. Как раз тогда я узнал, что в Петербурге открылся покер клуб “Лидер”. Я начал регулярно туда ездить и спустя месяц выиграл свой первый турнир в живую. После этого я довольно часто попадал на финальные столы, а вскоре выиграл турнир за 75$, за который получил 12000$ призовых. И вот сейчас я выиграл турнир на RedKings, получив билет на турнир на Мальте, куда я с удовольствием поеду. Надеюсь, мне там повезёт.

Второй день начался с быстрых вылетов игроков – как наших, так и в общем. За первые 3 часа игры из 91 игрока, принимающих участие во втором дне, осталось меньше 60-ти. Из наших же 8 игроков за это время из игры вышло четверо. К сожалению, Евгений Лощаков оказался среди них, проиграв свой стек c TT против JJ. В финал прошло 9 игроков, среди которых 2 игрока RedKings: Тони Ояла (ПРО) и Янне Салонен. Фины умеют играть в покер.

The players are certainly not nervous to get involved in pots, in the first hand we saw an EP raise, call from Tomi-Ville Hytti and a raise from Morten, only to be followed by all-in from Hytti. Morten folded so we still have 9 players.

The second hand Janne opened the button, and Teppo called in the bb. Janne took the pot down with a continuation bet.

The GSOP Live Riga Final table is about to start in few minutes. There are still two Team RedKings players left, our Pro Toni Ojala and Janne Salonen, who qualified for the tournament Online.

Here´s the seating order:

Edgars Augtskalns 762k
Toni Ojala 739k
Tomi-Ville Hytti 913k
Janne Salonen 461k
Morten Mortensen 901k
Teppo Joentausta 447k
Kristian Salonen 666k
Juho Mätäsaho 269k
Martin Emanuelsson 550k

Janne and Toni seem to be taking it easy at the moment, so most of our updates are on Koen. He just lost major pot against the guy on his right. We don´t know what Koen had but his opponent had AA and the board came KQTJK