Timofey Kuznetsov Archives - Paul Phua Poker

The scent of pine needles has gone, workbenches remain idle, laces urge to be tied. It’s that time of the year when the grinders head to Platform 9 3/4 to begin their fortnightly trek to poker world – it’s the PokerStars World Championships of Online Poker (WCOOP).

By my reckoning, we’re nine days in, and that means the beef stew needs chucking, and the colostomy bags need changing.

Let’s catch up.

The quickest high roller off the mark was one of WCOOP’s finest. Shaun Deeb loves this competition so much, three-years ago he missed the birth of his son to play in it, and he’s taken down his seventh title.

Deeb, playing out of Mexico, defeated none other than Denis “aDrENalin710” Strebkov, heads-up, to win Event #9 (H) $1,050 No-Limit 5-Card Draw PKO for $25,375. You may remember that Strebkov won an unprecedented four titles in little over a week last time out. The Russian also finished the series as the leaderboard winner and sits atop the WCOOP Most Wins League with nine.

Back to Deeb, and the American has won close to $7m playing online poker tournaments, with $4.5m coming on Stars. His biggest score to date remains $312,610 after winning the $1k Monday on Full Tilt back in 2011.

Trueteller Wins The $25k High Roller.

Timofey “trueteller” Kuznetsov is one of those talented players who seems to revel in all formats live and online. The feared cash game star has made three Triton final tables this year, winning one, and now he has won a WCOOP title.

Kuznetsov conquered a 90-entrant Event #25 (H) $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Eight-Max High Roller. The Russian star beat his fellow cash game crusher, Jordi “proto” Urlings, heads-up to claim the $527,458.43 first prize.

A whole host of top bananas made it to the final table of this one including Justin Bonomo (3), Dominik Nitsche (5), Mustapha Kanit (6) and Timothy Adams (8).

Here are the results.

Final Table Results

1. Timofey “trueteller” Kuznetsov – $527,458.43

2. Jordi “proto” Urlings – $407,625.43

3. Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo – $315,017.17

4. Rachid Ben “SkaiWalkurrr: Cherif – $243,448.63

5. Dominik “Bounatirou” Nitsche – $188,139.58

6. Mustapha “lasagnaaammm” Kanit – $145,396.41

7. Zagazaur – $112,363.81

8. Timothy “Tim0thee” Adams – $86,835.86

The Best of the Rest

Australian, Michael “imluckbox” Addamo, has added a WCOOP title to the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) title he won in 2016. Addamo defeated a field of 272-entrants in Event #13 (H) $5,200 Sunday Million High Roller, beating the formidable Samuel “€urop€an” Vousden, heads-up, no less.

The $258,952.34 score is Addamo’s most significant live or online since finishing fifth in a €25,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Monte Carlo for $270,078, back in May.

Finally, two of Portugal’s finest, currently living in the Netherlands, earned WCOOP honours this week. Rui “RuiNF” Ferreira won his seventh COOP title after conquering a 97-entrant field in Event #21 (H) $1,050 Limit Hold’em 6-Max to secure the $23,896 first prize. Ferreira also made the final tables of the €50,000 and €100,000 at EPT Barcelona finishing 9th and 8th respectively. Joao “Naza114” Vieira is a regular on the EPT €25k buy-in circuit. Vieira also won a WCOOP title vanquishing 213-entrants to win the $88,846 first prize in Event #26 (H) $530+R Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) 6-Max. It’s been a cushy year for Vieira after winning his first bracelet and $758,011 at the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

WCOOP runs until September 25.

There’s something pretty groovy about being world class at ‘something’ and choosing to keep your identity a secret. There’s a certain Clark Kent about it. I know I’ld struggle to stay schtum. My ego would win the internal war of sense, innocuously dropping into conversations that I had earned more than $5m profit playing a game of cards.
The online poker community allows you to be a tad Jason Bourne, and many players have taken advantage of that, with Viktor ‘Isildur1′ Blom the most famous hidden identity of them all.
Trueteller is another one.
From 2011 until the summer of 2015, Trueteller competed against all and sundry in the highest stakes cash games in the world, and nobody had a scooby who he was.
Then, during the $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship (PPC) at the 2015 World Series of Poker (WSOP), Timofey Kuznetsov admitted to his tablemates that he was the man who once danced with Phil Ivey for more than 30-hours.
And now, after winning $3.1m on PokerStars, $2m on Full Tilt, $3m playing live tournaments, and likely millions more playing live cash games in Macau, Kuznetsov is about to leave the Daily Planet for good.
The 27-year old becomes the second Russian star to represent partypoker Team Pro (Anatoly Filatov joined in March 2017), and by my reckoning that makes it 23 ambassadors, more than any other online poker room in the world.
Trueteller’s favourite game is No-Limit Hold’em, but he will take on anyone at the Pot-Limit Omaha tables, and the vast majority of his Full Tilt winnings came playing 2-7.
Kuznetsov referred to the dark age in poker in his press release, stating that good sides must unite.
“I’ve spent all of my career in social silence, it feels like it might be a time to change that,” said Kuznetsov.
The Russian star also stated that he was looking forward to helping improve partypoker’s software, and to help them develop a more robust and exciting mixed game option.
You can expect Kuznetsov to get involved in Trickett’s Game, partypoker’s attempt of wresting the high stakes online cash game action from PokerStars’ control.
Kuznetsov will make his debut in the final week of POWERFEST. The online giants haven’t announced if Kuznetsov will feature at the partypoker MILLIONS UK at Dusk till Dawn (DTD) at the end of the month. Live tournaments aren’t Kuznetsov’s ding-a-ling, registering only three times on The Hendon Mob finishing fourth in the inaugural Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) for $2,150,000, winning a $50,000 ARIA High Roller for close to $800,000, and taking fifth in a Triton Poker Series event in the Philippines for a smidgen under a hundred grand.
MILLIONS UK takes place 29 September till 7 October, with the £25,500, £1m GTD MILLIONS UK High Super Roller looking like an event that Kuznetsov may fancy.

**Sam Trickett is among the top pros sitting pretty after Day One of the Triton SHR Series Main Event. Others have had to rebuy. The Paul Phua Poker team reports**

Day One of the Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro Main Event has just gone, and what a day it was! Some of the biggest names in poker were among the 47 (including re-entries) so far who have stumped up the HK$1m (US$128k) entry fee, making for some exciting poker tournament action and some very difficult tables.

At one point Paul Phua found himself seated in the most unfortunate position of all: with the young internet legend Timofey “Trueteller” Kuznetsov to his left, and veteran five-time WSOP bracelet winner John Juanda to the left of that! Perhaps it’s not surprising that Paul Phua was knocked out twice during the day. Undaunted, he has bought in a third and final time for Day Two!

Top pros who suffered an early knock-out, and then bought in again, include Steve O’Dwyer, Wai Kin Yong and David Peters. Even the recent Triton SHR Series 6-Max Montenegro champion, Fedor Holz, busted out and rebought. And despite the tournament experience born of two bracelets and more than 33 cashes at the WSOP, Dominik Nitsche was forced to buy in three times just as Paul Phua was.

Qiang Wang, the million-chip man

There is just one million-chip man going into Day Two: Qiang Wang. Top pros with significantly bigger stacks than the 250k they began with include Mikita Badziakouski (825k), Sam Trickett (715k) and Steffen Sontheimer (600k). Montenegrin local hero Predrag Lekovic, who came third in the Triton SHR Series 6-Max warm-up event, is sitting in tenth place with 357k. Lekovic busted Timofey “Trueteller” Kuznetsoz out of the tournament on the very last hand of the day!

Registration remains open until the beginning of Day Two. The big question is, will Tom Dwan make a last-minute appearance? Or is he too caught up in the exciting side action of high-stakes cash games at the Maestral Resort and Casino?

Interviews for the Paul Phua Poker School

Once the tournament broke up for the night, the Paul Phua Poker team filmed even more video interviews with the top pros. We’re really excited by the great strategy advice they have given us, as well as their insights into the life of a professional high-stakes poker player. We can’t wait to get all the footage edited so we can share it with you in the Paul Phua Poker School.

In the meantime, follow @PaulPhuaPoker on Twitter for updates on the Triton SHR Series Main Event.
No one can tell the future, least of all in poker. But there is one thing we can say for sure: with some of the world’s top poker pros competing, it’s going to be a thriller.