The 2009 running of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship ended with one PocketFiver triumphing above the rest. Yevgeniy atimos Timoshenko, a former Monthly PLB winner on PocketFives.com, took home the $2.1 million first place prize money and became the second youngest WPT titleholder ever. The 337 player field featured a bevy of PocketFivers, as Timoshenko defeated a final table that also included Christian charder Harder, Bertrand ElkY Grospellier, and Shannon ShannonShorr Shorr. Timoshenko took down the 2008 Asian Poker Tour (APT) Macau Main Event for $500,000 and now has major tournament wins on multiple continents under his belt. PocketFives.com caught up to the WPT Championship winner to talk about his epic payday.PocketFives.com: Congratulations on your big win. You entered the final table with a commanding chip lead, holding nearly double the second place stack. Were you expecting to coast like you did?
Timoshenko: I hoped to win, but I knew that it wouldn't be an easy task with such a strong final table and I would definitely need a little luck to seal the deal. I basically just wanted to go out there, bring my A game, and play to the best of my abilities. As long as I did that, I'd be satisfied with the result.
PocketFives.com: You knocked out Shannon Shorr (pictured at right) in fifth place after calling a 15 big blind all-in with pocket fours. Can you take us through that hand?Timoshenko: Shannon and I play a lot online and I feel like I have a pretty good idea of how he plays and thinks. I also felt that I had a pretty good grasp of his shoving range in the small blind there for 15 big blinds, which was likely more than 50% of hands. Against that range of hands, 4-4 is a clear favorite. On top of that, with the antes and blinds out there, I could actually make a mathematically profitable call with a hand that is slightly worse than his range of hands because of the dead money. There was also a chance that his shoving range was weaker because he might try to trap if he had a hand like a big pair. All of these things combined to make it an easy call.
PocketFives.com: ElkY (pictured at right) and Christian Harder were eliminated in the same hand by Ran Azor in third and fourth place, respectively. Did Azor receiving a big boost to his chip stack make things more interesting heads-up?Timoshenko: Not at all. In fact, Ran knocking out both players was the ideal situation for me. While Ran is a very smart and nice guy, he is also an amateur who is inexperienced in Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em, which is a specialty of mine and something I play a lot online. Once Ran knocked out ElkY and charder, I felt really confident in my heads-up play and knew that I was a pretty big favorite to take the tournament down.
PocketFives.com: That's how it seemed like it played heads-up, too. You slowly took Azor’s chip stack.
Timoshenko: Heads-up went pretty smoothly. I felt like I was in control the entire match and read him pretty well. He also played very passively, calling too much pre-flop, and then giving up on the flop when he missed.
PocketFives.com: On then the final hand, you shoved with Q-10 and Azor called for his tournament life with A-3. What range were you making all-ins and calls with?
Timoshenko: I definitely was not going all-in with any two, as Ran played pretty passively and allowed me to see a lot of flops. My strategy was to try to chip him down to 10 big blinds or less before playing push/fold.
PocketFives.com: How did the WPT Championship field compare with the APT Macau field?
Timoshenko: I think the WPT Championship field was much tougher than the APT Macau field. The APT Macau field didn’t have as many pros in it and had a lot more amateurs and recreational players.
PocketFives.com: For those of us who don't know, how did you get started in poker?
Timoshenko: I first got into poker after seeing the 2003 World Series of Poker. From there, I started playing with friends in home games and also played play money games online. Eventually, I moved onto UltimateBet, which regularly ran UltimatePoint freerolls. With enough points, you could play cash games and buy into real money tournaments. I patiently grinded out 200 UltimatePoints, which got me a buy-in into the smallest stakes UltimatePoints cash game. I probably ran really hot in the beginning, as I remember running my 200 UltimatePoints up in no time playing Limit games that I had no experience in. Eventually, I grinded out enough UltimatePoints to start buying into micro-stakes real money tournaments. One night, I won a $5 tournament that I bought into with UltimatePoints for $300. The rest is history.
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