Late last month, the PocketFives Open took place on InterPoker. Nearly 100 people showed up and the top three finishers took home brand new Apple iPads for their time. The buy-in was a scant €11 and plenty of bounties were up for grabs. Coming away with the victory in the most recent PocketFives Open was Latvia's WeeklyStorm (pictured), whose real name is Andris Kaktins. We sat down with him, in a virtual sense of course, to talk about his landmark victory in the community-building event."I've never won anything like this," Kaktins admitted when asked what it felt like to come out on top. "I'm happy to win an iPad." The PocketFives Open marked the first badge in his profile on our site. The Aluksnes native joined PocketFives in August and played in the Open under the InterPoker screen name iPollo.
"I felt very good after the tournament," he pointed out. "I felt so good when I won that I shouted and called all of my friends." When asked how his friends responded to the news, Kaktins replied, "They thought, 'How could I win?' They were in shock." He edged out fellow PocketFives member Dipolico, who hails from Greece, heads-up.
New iPads, generously added to the prize pool by InterPoker, were given to the top three finishers in the PocketFives Open. Dished out to the top 10 were copies of "The Mental Game of Poker," licenses to Tournament Shark and Smart Buddy from Poker Pro Labs, and plenty of PocketFives gear. You can relive all of the action by checking out this PocketFives thread.
Kaktins registered for the PocketFives Open because of its value. He said that one month of PocketFives Training and a free license to a Poker Pro Labs product were enough to get him over the hump. As he put it, "I want to be a great poker player, and those helped me do that."
By the way, you can still sign up for InterPoker through PocketFives to get one free month of PocketFives Training with the sign-up fee waived. You can also take part in PocketFives' exclusive InterPoker Points Competition, which is running this month and awards €1,000 in prizes. Right now, the first place player has raked €144 and is in line for a €300 payday. The second place player has raked €50 and is in line for a €200 payday. So, there is plenty of value to be had. It's only open to players whose InterPoker accounts were created through PocketFives' links.Let's get back to Kaktins. His brother, a poker player, turned him onto the game. Right now, he is going to school to be an electronics technician. He remarked, "I like electronics and I like making things, so it's perfect."
Check out past PocketFives Open winners. Look for the next set of PocketFives Opens, one for U.S. members and one for non-U.S. members, later this year.
