It has been a big last month for Vasilis Mantis (pictured), who is known on PocketFives as jellyfish223. Not only did he take down the Full Tilt Sunday Brawl outright for $33,000, but he also welcomed his first son into the world, who now checks in at around a month.

The Sunday Brawl marked the second biggest cash we’ve had for Mantis, whose largest came as a result of an FTOPS final table in 2013. As he said about the Brawl, “It was my second biggest cash ever, so I am really happy. I got lucky when there where about 45 players left and sucked out twice. I played very well at the final table.”

He’s a regular in the Brawl and plays it every week. However, up until earlier this month, he had neither made a final table nor won the $255 buy-in tournament on Full Tilt. “I haven’t been playing a lot these past few months and the money will probably go toward baby expenses,” Mantis told us of his plans for the money. “After all, I have a three-week-old son!”

This author is a father of a rambunctious two-year-old and knows how much being a parent can change your life. As Mantis put it, “It’s such an amazing experience becoming a parent – a little sleeplessness, but that is nothing.” Mantis is on the verge of breaking $700,000 in tracked online tournament cashes and plays as jellyfish223 across the major online poker sites.

He plays poker part-time and is trying to get a business started as well. Meanwhile, his wife takes care of the baby. You can find the family camped out in Greece, which is home to over 400 PocketFivers with PLB scores. He told us how residents of his home country view the game of poker: “It’s not very popular yet. Most people think it’s only gambling. The usual reaction when I tell someone is ‘Wow people do that for a living?'” Indeed they do!

Mantis got started in poker through a love of strategy games. He saw the World Poker Tour on Greek television and recalled, “I’ve always liked strategy games and gambling and thought this game combines both, so I should give it a try.”

This interview gives us the perfect excuse to talk about our Greece poker community here on PocketFives. We have 674 registered PocketFives members from the European nation who have combined for $33.4 million in online tournament winnings all-time, including $2.3 million in the last three months. The group has amassed almost 100,000 cashes.

The Sunday Brawl runs weekly on Full Tilt. Sign up for Full Tilt through the links on PocketFives to get a 100% up to $600 deposit bonus and one free month of PocketFives Training with no sign-up fee. Click here to get started.

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