"The coolest thing is everyone can be a part of London's big TV tournament"
Paradox2 joins the elite group of PokerStrategists who have won a $2,500 PokerStrategy.com TV World Championship VIP Package to London. Let's hear what he had to say after his great win.
Paradox2 finished second out of 918 participants in the $10,000 freeroll on Poker Heaven and not only won a handsome cash prize of $865.95, but also his ticket to London. In our interview, the member of the Russian community tells us that he has been with PokerStrategy.com for a long time already and why he is really looking forward to the PokerStrategy.com TV World Championship.
"It's hard to win tournaments without a little bit of luck"
PokerStrategy.com: Congratulations on your 2nd place in the $10,000 depositor freeroll. Why did you participate in the tournament? Do you regularly play at Poker Heaven?
paradox2: The thing is that besides actually playing poker I am also an affiliate and I have been professionally referring new members to PokerStrategy.com for about 3 years. That is why I visit the site quite often trying to find interesting news so that I could pass it to "my" community. Large freerolls are always interesting and when there is an opportunity to qualify for such a great event, the freeroll becomes twice as exciting and attractive.
From time to time I take part in such tournaments myself as they are very profitable. I have never played at Poker Heaven before, but after the victory I started playing some cash.
PokerStrategy.com: Had you not qualified through this tournament, would you have tried the other available ways to qualify as well?
paradox2: Yes, I think so. I would have prefered to qualify through the national $1,000 freeroll, however the fields are quite large and its tougher to qualify this way. I think I would have tried to do my best at the MTT and SnG rake races. These options would have been much more realistic for me.
PokerStrategy.com: How did the tournament go for you?
paradox2: The beginning wasn't too successful. At a certain moment after 15-20 minutes of playing I had only about 500 chips left. That was less than 10 BB. However I managed to make a swift comeback. Of course, lady Luck played its role here. I have to say that during the tournament I was getting good hands and got lucky in a fair few spots. In 2 or 3 situations I was dominated, but still won the pots having only 3 outs. However in most cases my stack was so big that the loss of those pots wouldn’t hurt much.
Most of the time I was in the top 10 and reached the final table with the second biggest stack. It is hard to win tournaments without luck and I am very grateful to my poker gods that the decided to pay me a visit at that tournament.
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| This is how you qualify for London (Click to see larger image) |
PokerStrategy.com: How do you feel now that you won the package to London?
paradox2: For 24 hours after the tourney I’ve been in shock. Well, I am still in shock now. I have never taken part in international live events, especially those which are aired on TV, so everything is going to be new for me and very-very interesting. When the tournament was over other finalists from the Russian community and I literally screamed with delight and congratulated each other on the forum 🙂
Roots in the Russian Community
PokerStrategy.com: Which game types do you usually play?
paradox2: Lately I’ve been playing $6-33 MTTs. I don’t play much cash, because I don’t consider myself a good cash player. I simply don’t have the required qualities. However I really enjoyed playing cash at the poker clubs in my town. The field was really fishy. It’s a pity they are all closed now.
PokerStrategy.com: How long have you played poker for?
paradox2: I play poker almost since the foundation of the Russian community at PokerStrategy.com. For a couple of months I had been playing by myself and then one day I bumped into you. Since then we are inseparable 🙂 At that time the Russian division of PokerStrategy.com was only several months old. It was the very beginning: Rustem was coaching, golden status was really cool, cashing more than $400 in a tournament deserved a piece of news on the main page… eh 🙂
Then I became a professional referrer to PokerStrategy.com. In 3 years according to my calculations I’ve referred no less than 30,000 people, including several members which are very famous at our community now. Let’s think that this live event is some kind of an acknowledgement for my work 🙂
At the same time I continue playing the games I like. I don’t assault new limits and heights any more – it is in the past. The revenues from my projects allow me to play for pleasure and it makes me really happy.
"The best thing about the promotion is that everyone can participate!"
PokerStrategy.com: Will you be nervous to be live on TV?
paradox2: I can’t answer this question right now. I remember being real nervous during my first time at the live poker game. My hands were shaking and my heart jumped out when I was bluffing. Since then I’ve gathered some experience. I am quite comfortable at the table with other players. I hope I will be able to completely concentrate on the game and no outside thoughts or things will distract me.
PokerStrategy.com: How do you generally like this event presented by PokerStrategy.com and Poker Heaven?
paradox2: This is a great promotion and the coolest thing about it is that anyone can become a part of it. It is a perfect chance to take an interesting trip, meet new people, play poker with nice opponents, become popular and, probably, earn some money.
To my mind Pokerstrategy.com should hold such event at least once year. Of course, the more there are such events – the better. The battle of the champions, introduction of the league, super cup and lots of other great stuff.
PokerStrategy.com has a very professional marketing department. Lots of talented people are employed there. Nobody else offers so many cool promotions. It really deserves respect!
PokerStrategy.com: You might compete with Korn at the final table. How do you feel about that?
paradox2: I really respect this person. To a large extent thanks to him (and Rustem) my life is so closely connected to poker and poker industry. I am grateful to him for what I owe at the moment.
I am looking forward to meeting him and may be playing at the same table. There is only one thing I am sure of – it will not be easy!
Get your VIP Package to London
Besides mattee and znah, winner of the $10,000 freerolls, three other PokerStrategists qualified; out of the 918 participants, paradox2, etseratov and bach23 also made it, after roughly four and a half hours of playing.
Not only did they win their share of the $10,000 prize pool, they also got their ticket to TV fame - a $2,500 VIP Package to the PokerStrategy.com TV World Championship in London!
Qualify now!
We have good news for you: Poker Heaven still offer many ways to qualify for the PokerStrategy.com TV World Championship.
Don't miss your chance for a share of the $42,000 prize pool, TV fame and the opportunity to represent your community in this battle.
You can find all the details on how to win one of the $2,500 VIP-Packages here: 
PokerStrategy.com TV World Championship
