In poker, as in life, you sometimes just have to have a little faith in yourself.
“When I got to the second day of the event, I told myself: ‘To hell with modesty! I’m winning this SCOOP!'”
So said SCOOP 8-L winner Aethyr13 from Romania, aka Floki The Carpenter (taken from his favourite show The Vikings), who supressed modesty brilliantly this week to win a SCOOP title in the heads-up format, and the $5,731 that came with it. But then, as far as he was concerned, there was logic behind it all.
“In the last 32 rounds, I got into a huge all-in pre-flop with ace-queen vs. ace-king. From that point on, I had to win it all. No other choice.”
“I was so full of life until the last hand, but then reality hit me. I was speechless. I couldn’t believe it. How can I just win a SCOOP when I don’t usually play MTTs?!”
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Aethyr13, who even before his win professed a love of heads-up tournaments, bought in directly and satellited into other buy-ins of the same event, where he busted early. A poker player for seven years (“Part-time poker, part-time sloth”), the 25-year-old found focus during each round of play to come naturally, often the case when the stakes are high.
He talked through the highlights:
“The first key moment was getting a weird message on my screen saying the tournament is paused for 13 hours or so. I was like, WTF is going on?! #SCOOPfish. Then winning the 40 big blind all-in ace-queen vs ace-king in the round of 32.
“After that, in the last four, I won another one with similar stacks, eights vs tens – got a runner-runner flush. Like my coach says, if you want to win: ‘play bad, get lucky.’
“To be honest, I was a bit scared every time I got a small stack or when I got all-in with so few outers, but not too much. This SCOOP was my destiny, and I knew that. Just a temporary loss in faith!”
At $5,700, the first place prize money will not rank as one of the biggest wins in this SCOOP season, but it means much to Aethyr13, who as a $15 Spin and Go player now has a beefier bankroll with which to absorb those occasional setbacks. Aethyr13 is familiar with them, being a former 1c/2c player and all.
“I was such a fish back then. Fun times.”
My guess is that there are more fun times ahead for Aethyr13 The Poker Player.
Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.
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