How TimoDee Turned $15 Into Over $82,000

PokerStrategist TimoDee celebrated a deep run in the inaugural Red Spade Open on PokerStars, coming fourth for over $82,000. After his win, he took time out to speak to PokerStrategy.com about his play and his future plans.

The Red Spade Open was a $55 buy-in event that promised a prize pool of at least $1,000,000 and a first place prize of $200,000. Players flocked to the satellites and the guarantee was quickly reached with over 31,000 players generating a $1.5m prize pool.

PokerStrategist timodee managed to outmanoeuvre over 30,000 players, chopping the first ever Red Spade Open for north of $82,000 and before thinking about cashing out any money, he spoke to marcps.

Read the interview below to see how he feels about winning a life changing sum of money and how he plans to take on Isildur1 in the next Superstar Showdown... Just kidding!

Hasn't sunk in yet...

PokerStrategy.com: Thanks for dropping by for the interview, TimoDee. Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?

timodee: My name's Darius and I'm 20 years old. I live in Swansea, South Wales. I'm originally from Poland, however I've moved over here at the age of 11 so I kind of class this as my home now.

PokerStrategy.com: How does it feel to be the proud owner of $82,000?

timodee: It hasn't sunk in at all yet. I've looked at the Cashier window countless times, but because I haven't physically had the chance to spend the money, even pinching myself doesn't wake me up!

TimoDee will be partying a lot more after his huge score!

PokerStrategy.com: How did you start with poker? Tell us a little about your poker journey so far.

timodee: I was intrigued by the game, and I deposited $10 and googled the rules. I was on the sickest upswing ever, and not knowing what BRM was I soon found myself sitting on $280, which was a huge amount of money back then for me. I managed to lose it all and that was it for poker, I'd sworn never to go back, as much as I enjoyed the game.

From no-stake to low stakes

PokerStrategy.com: You've mentioned in the forum that you didn't strictly stick to proper bankroll management in the past - what about now?

timodee: I thought figures given by PokerStrategy.com are just a rule of thumb, and they put too much emphasis on it. I couldn't have been more wrong; the sole reasons for my breaks between playing poker of about 2-3 months each time is BRM. I am definitely not going broke this time!

PokerStrategy.com: There have been stories in the past where lows takes players who win life changing amounts of money quickly start moving up the limits. Is this something that you plan?

timodee:I wouldn't even call myself a low stake player, I'd call myself a no-stake player and have been for the last year or so. Getting down and dirty in the low stakes is how you learn to be a winning player in my opinion. I'm going to start low, so literally reading articles, watching videos and posting hands is my priority as opposed to moving up the limits.
 

I would have tilted a lot more than I did

PokerStrategy.com: What are you going to do with the money? What's your poker future?

timodee: The majority of the money is being withdrawn. The funny thing is that I've got a Student Overdraft that I've been increasing over the past years and my agreement ends soon. There was no way I would have been able to afford to pay that off without the win, so the first thing I'm going to do is to get rid of my debts. Then I plan to treat myself with a couple of nice things and then put away the majority to save.

The PokerStars Pros could not stop TimoDee...

PokerStrategy.com: At one point with less than 18 left, you lost a huge pot where your KK got sucked out on by AT and left you with 10 BBs. How did you keep your cool and build your stack again?

timodee: That was probably one of the lowest blows of the tournament, and had I not been playing for a long time before that I would have definitely tilted a lot more than I did. I thought about the hours I put into the tourney and thought is it really worth wasting all that time. That's all you can really do, you can't deal the cards.

PokerStrategy.com: 9 handed, you decided to make a deal - why was that?

timodee: It all really goes back to the lack of self-belief in myself as a poker player , I've never regarded myself as a good SnG player and ICM is something that I've only know the basics about. I felt there were a lot of good players on the table and the decision was +EV for my life; that kind of money is life changing!

PokerStrategy.com: Thanks for the interview, any last words for the PokerStrategy.com community?

timodee: I want to say thanks again to those who railed me. For them to give me so many words of support has made me feel part of something huge and something very special. And I really, really hope this will inspire other people to bring in bigger, better cashes than me!

We're all glad to celebrate the success our wonderful community has and should you have a story to share, do let us know in the forum!

$82,624 - what a handsome cheque