shabalinvlad Becomes Third Player to Reach 10 Million VPPs
According to an article on the PokerStars Blog, Russia’s shabalinvlad, who is known in the real world as Vladimir Shabalin (pictured), became the third player ever to hit 10 million VPPs on PokerStars.
The world’s largest online poker site detailed the impressive feat, saying, “Last year, Shabalin clocked up 4.5 million VPPs playing high-stakes sit and gos, which equates to 22.5 million Frequent Player Points (FPPs) or, if you were to cash them in at the VIP Store, more than enough to get seven Porsche Cayman S sports cars.”
He is off to a hot start in 2014 as well: “This year, he’s already burned through more than 2 million VPPs, which is enough to get three more luxury cars.” At this rate, he’ll reach 6 million VPPs in 2014.
Ten Porsches later, Shabalin is still trucking along on the world’s largest online poker site. He was camped out in Monaco, site of the EPT Grand Final, and told the PokerStars Blog, “I’m really grateful for PokerStars. This is the only site that I’ve played through my whole career. I really appreciate the software and client service. Everything is organized to be comfortable for the players and this is really important for me.”
According to the PokerStars Blog, the 10 million VPP man is a sit and go player nearly exclusively. He told the site, “Poker gave me a lot of opportunities, a lot of chances to meet different people. It was very important because poker forced me to organize my life and organize myself. The main quality of poker as a professional is that everything depends on you.”
Shabalin is receiving an all-expenses paid, once-in-a-lifetime trip to enjoy from PokerStars, although where he is headed is not clear. A trip is given to anyone who reaches 10 million VPPs.
On whether he travels in general, Shabalin said, “I’m a big fan of traveling, but there are two completely different periods in my life. When I’m playing, I’m only playing. I’m concentrating fully on the game, so I’m playing all day long, but when that period is finished, I enjoy traveling a lot and spending time with my girlfriend. I’m a big soccer fan, but traveling is my main hobby.”
PokerNews relayed that the two players to hit 10 million VPPs before Shabalin were George Jorj95 Lind and a yet-to-be-identified person.
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