We often look for interesting online EPT qualifiers who are either high-stakes crushers or complete unknowns. ‘juicetus’ is all of the above.

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One of the first ports of call for the PokerStars Blog at European Poker Tour (EPT) events is to find interesting online qualifiers to talk to. They all won their way to the Main Event for cheap, but while many are top pros and satellite specialists, others we’ve never heard of before.

In the case of “juicetus”–a high stakes MTT player whose screen name was instantly recognisable from our online poker reporting–we found a triple threat.

1. We knew he regularly played the biggest tournaments running on PokerStars.

2. What made him interesting is that while scanning the full list of EPT Paris qualifiers, the name Justus Held appeared twice next to two different PokerStars screen names.

Now, it’s not uncommon for a talented player to win multiple packages to a live event. For example, Stephen “stevie444” Chidwick famously won 101 seats to the $10K World Series of Poker Main Event back in 2008 when he was just 18 years old–too young to even play poker in Las Vegas. (Rather than there being 101 empty seats at the Rio, Chidwick received online tournament dollars instead. 101 x $10K = $1.01 million.)

So why were there two packages for Justus Held on the list? Well, it turns out that Held played EPT Paris satellites on both the global client (a €530 buy-in) and the French, Portuguese, and Spanish shared liquidity client (a €250 buy-in) simultaneously.

“I got very lucky and won both of them,” he tells us. “It was pretty fortunate!”

One of the package wins was refunded to him in tournament dollars (i.e. PokerStars credit he can use online), and the other secured his trip and seat to the French capital.

Oh yeah, and 3. We still knew nothing about him.

THE MYSTERIOUS THORSTEN LEGIT

Held neither has a Hendon Mob profile nor a PokerStake account (formerly known as PocketFives), so it’s near impossible to track his poker successes.

To make matters more confusing, when you Google the screen name “juicetus” along with “PokerStars”, the first result is a Twitter account (@juicetus) belonging to a man named Thorsten Legit. 

Thing is, there is no Thorsten Legit.

“Ah, that’s funny that you know that,” Held says when we ask where the name came from. “When I play other games, like Counter-Strike or shooters and things like that, I usually call myself Thorsten Legit.”

Turns out there is a German footballer called Thorsten Legat who enjoyed a 15-year career in the Bundesliga from 1986 to 2001. “He was quite a legend,” Held says. “So I just made fun of that and made it Thorsten Legit instead.”

What’s really funny to Held is that some sites have even reported hands from his online play referring to him as Thorsten “juicetus” Legit. Not that he’s complaining. “It’s quite funny,” Held says. “I’m quite happy to keep that going!”

Right, so that’s the double qualifier and Thorsten Legit mysteries cleared up. 

So who is Justus Held?

Held is a poker pro who lives in Innsbruck, Austria. He doesn’t really play live poker, preferring to ply his trade online. Originally from Germany, Held–like many German natives–likes to keep his privacy, hence disabling his profiles on the results tracking sites.

He’s been playing poker for quite some time, reaching the high stakes tournaments online. But it’s not all been smooth sailing.

“There have been many years where things didn’t go my way,” he tells us. “But I managed to get through all that. I like to think I just got better at being lucky and somehow I’m still here.”

Here is currently EPT Paris, where Held is battling on Day 1B. He used up his satellite entry yesterday, but to no avail, so opted to fire a second bullet today. “It’s going pretty well, yeah,” he says when we suggest it looks like he has a lot of chips. “I just made a lot of good hands. Straight and boats everywhere!”

If he can keep this form and run deep in the EPT Paris Main Event, it will be pretty hard for Held to maintain his anonymity, Hendon or no Hendon.

“There’s no particular tournament result I’m most proud of because it often comes down to just running pure,” says Held. 

“But I’m definitely proud that I was able to get through some tough years with no results and maintain life as a professional.”

More about EPT Paris:

• EPT Paris coverage hub
• European Poker Tour (EPT) homepage
• EPT Paris schedule
• EPT Paris results

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