In mid-2006, PocketFivers in the U.S. watched as discussion of internet gambling and online poker took place on Capitol Hill, which included the infamous line, “Click your mouse and lose your house.” At the time, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was just months away from being signed into law and the industry would be turned upside down forever. In Poland, according to recent PokerStars Sunday 500winner Bianconero12, it’s “Click your mouse and lose your Kielbasa.”

Let’s start with the good before we talk about how poker is viewed in Poland. The December 17 Sunday 500 drew 907 players and awarded a prize pool of over $450,000. The final table featured a lineup that included longtime Canadian PocketFiver Mike SirWatts Watson, who finished third, as well as Bianconero12, who calls Katowice home.

We asked Bianconero12 for a quick recap of the $500 buy-in weekly tournament on PokerStars: “I was playing a lot of tables and don’t remember anything until we got into the money other than I had a nice stack from the start. I’m very happy to take down one of the toughest online tournaments around and definitely the toughest Sunday one. The biggest hand was with 16 left when I won with queens against kings. But hey, six weeks ago, I finished 14th in the Sunday 500 after losing with kings against tens, so it’s even, isn’t it?”

Watson (pictured) came into the final table of the Sunday 500 with the chip lead, which caused Bianconero12 to remark that the Canadian could “play his super aggressive game 100% of the time.”

He added, “The sick part is I had Watson exactly on my left and with 11 people left, I lost with eights against queens, so I had like 12 big blinds at the start of the final table. One of the most important hands of the final table was against Watson. He opened UTG, as he always did, and someone with big stack called from middle position. I had 7-7 on the big with like 20 big blinds, so I shoved expecting to take it down before the flop, but he tank called me with A-10 suited and I held up.”

Bianconero12 said he expected Watson to roll over A-J+ or 8-8+: “I wasn’t expecting him to call with A-10 suited, but I still think with my range it’s good call. It seems like I may be called a lot of times, but he was opening like 100% first in, so how often can he wake up with a hand that’s in the top 7%?”

That critical double up was enough to propel him to his first Sunday 500 title. All told, he has recorded 17 victories across 1,159 tracked MTT scores, a 1.5% success rate.

He got into poker a half-dozen years ago when he “accidentally” ran across a promotion for a free $50 from PartyPoker. He turned that into $150, cashed out his bankroll, and resumed playing at the micro-stakes levels seven months later. “Since then, I’ve had my up and downs, but somehow I’m still winning.” He has also taken up live poker.

Poker in Poland doesn’t seem to be socially accepted quite yet. Bianconero12 narrated, “Poker players are viewed like criminals. People think it’s a game with 100% luck where you can lose your house in one hand and every poker player is addicted.” Recently, we’ve seen crackdowns by Sweden and Russia on online poker sites and online poker players.

What would lead to this overly negative sentiment toward poker players? Why are the industry and the players in it viewed with such scorn? “The older generation still views poker as they saw it in the film ‘Wielki Szu,’ which showed the game with guns, cheaters, and the mafia. Also, the Polish Government is definitely not helping, but despite all of that, poker is getting bigger every day and even people who thought it was all luck or run by the mafia change their mind after they see it close up.”

By the way, we immediately went to IMDB to learn more about “Wielki Szu.” IMDB describes the 1983 movie with a plethora of colorful words like “prostitute,” “con,” “sin,” and “prison.” It’s no wonder that poker is not viewed in a kind light.

He wanted to send a shout out to the Polish readership of PocketFives. We have just over 400 registered PocketFives members from the European country, and you can read the latest from Poland by visiting our new Poland poker community.

If you don’t already have a PokerStars account, sign up through PocketFives’ linksto help support our poker community. Plus, you’ll get a 100% up to $600 first-time deposit bonus. Get started here.

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