Last month, Denis Timofeev (pictured), who is known on PocketFives as Flat, took third in the PokerStars Sunday Millionand put back $93,000. He’s associated with the 2CardsCollege pro poker training teamand told PocketFives, “I was very happy about finishing third, but I’m a little upset because I was so close to heads-up. I played with the second largest stack all final table and wanted to make a deal heads-up with another reg and win after that.”

$93,000 is certainly nothing to scoff at. In fact, it was Timofeev’s largest score ever by a factor of three and, as he put it, “It is really good money. I’ve played every Sunday for two years with no big results. I think I actually deserve it now.” He has $1.4 million in career online tournament winnings and is ranked #5 in his home country of Russia.

There was no deal that week in the Sunday Million, which attracted a field of 5,680. He told us why no agreement was discussed in a tournament that frequently ends in a chop: “We had a reg with a big stack all final table and a lot of short stacks. That’s why there was no talking about a deal. The third player three-handed was not so good. I think even if we had three equal stacks, there would have been no deal.”

He plans to buy a flat with his newfound winnings and, yes, that’s somewhat ironic given his screen name on PocketFives is Flat. In fact, when asked if he had any plans for the money, his response was, “Look at my screen name.” Duh. He has shot up to #128 worldwide in the PocketFives Rankings, 33 spots off his all-time high set earlier this year.

His friends and family have been pretty elated about his success in poker. “They are happy for me,” Timofeev said. “They told me, ‘We knew someday you would win something like this.'” He didn’t even have time to celebrate his big Sunday Million score either, as he was heading to Barcelona and had a ton of errands to do around town.

As we said, Timofeev is up to #5 in Russia and is #1 in the city of Perm. He gave us his take on the Rankings here at PocketFives: “Every MTT player wants to be first. That’s why every move up in the Rankings is good.” He certainly has set himself up for success, as within four days of his Sunday Million final table, he won the PokerStars Hot $109 twice along with the $102 Heads-Up Hyper-Turbo and $109 Rebuy.

Timofeev got started in poker eight years ago after hearing about the game from a friend. “Now, poker is a huge part of my life,” he said. “I’m playing, learning, and training. I’m also interested in sports like basketball, biathlon, and football. Another big part of my life is my girlfriend. We like to spend time together and travel.” Who doesn’t?

Other big scores for Timofeev include multiple wins in the PokerStars Big $162 and a victory two years ago on PokerStars in the Sunday Storm for $32,000. Visit PokerStars for more details on the weekly Sunday Million.

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