A man who once won $1.5 million in roulette just chopped the PokerStars Sunday Milliontwo ways for $138,000. His name: Antonis ENIGMA4U4ME Poulengeris (pictured) and he finished fourth in the Sunday Million two years ago for $75,000. He’s over $600,000 in online tournament winnings.

PocketFives: Congrats on chopping the Sunday Million. Tell us how you’re feeling about it.

Antonis Poulengeris: Pretty good at the moment, although the win would have been better, of course, especially having finished fourth a couple of years ago.

PocketFives: Tell us about the chop. Are you still happy with it?

Antonis Poulengeris: Yes. I figured the original second place would have been about $125,000 and the chop suggestion was $141,000 to me and $134,000 to him. Financially, it worked out to accept $3,000 less so that even if I came in second, I would still be up. Also, it was 7.30am here in the UK and I was falling asleep and wanted to finish.

PocketFives: Do you have any plans for the money?

Antonis Poulengeris: The money is always nice to have. After any tournament where I get in the money, I tend to buy myself a little present and, of course, something for my girlfriend. The trophy is always more important to me, so I will take some out and use a fair portion for other tournaments and probably some live events. I could always upgrade my car too.

PocketFives: You’ve been around for a while, with scores on our site dating back to 2006. Talk about your career so far.

Antonis Poulengeris: I started around 2004 when I saw an article in the news about how online poker sites were doing so well with the example of PartyPoker. Not knowing anything about poker, I joined the site to see how it worked and invested $10 in a tourney with 7,500 players. I knew that A-K was good, but not much more. I ended up with a royal flush, quads twice, and came in second for $7,500.

I next did a satellite for the Aussie Millions and won that, coming in 12th in their Second Chance event live in Melbourne. After that, I came in third in the Second Chance Cruise Million and qualified for the WSOP.

After a while, I was doing really well on that site and won the Super Weekday event until the US was banned. I joined Paradise Poker and UB where I won every single event they held, including their $200K and $100K. When that shut down, I joined PokerStars and have never really looked back.

My live tourneys have gone pretty well too. I won the UK NPL OPEN and have a GUKPT title. I also had a final table on the UKIPT, so it has been all good so far.

PocketFives: Do you play only tournaments or some cash games and SNGs too?

Antonis Poulengeris: I prefer MTTs, as I seem to take them far more seriously. Cash games always feel like a rebuy, so I can’t concentrate that much on them regardless of stakes. Don’t get me wrong, I play cash games and have done pretty well, but I don’t enjoy them nearly as much. I play SNGs for satellites.

PocketFives: Tell us about your seven-figure roulette run.

Antonis Poulengeris: I used to play roulette and, as you may be aware, I won well over $1.5 million in that game. But, I know that is pure gambling, so I decided to play a game which is more skill than luck. I take poker very seriously, but do believe in having a backup, so I have a real estate company too.

My $1.5 million winnings in roulette happened over a period of seven days and I started with around $800. I turned the $800 into $38,000 and walked out. The next day, I bought a Lotus Esprit car and in the evening, I walked in with the balance of my winnings, about $12,000, and won around $180,000. I bought an apartment with cash the next day and this continued for the next few days when one day I won $600,000.

On the eighth day, I lost almost $500,000, but was still up around $1.5 million. That’s when I stopped and started playing poker. I sometimes see numbers before they come and only wish I could do the same with cards. It would make poker a lot easier.

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