On Saturday, PocketFives published a feature article about Poland’s matt86ck, who chopped the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up in February and Marchfor $193,000 total. In the latter month, one of his chopping partners was Russia’s aJarov (pictured), whose second place finish was worth $76,000. aJarov was camped out in Kiev, Ukraine when we talked to him and he dubbed the city the “capital of Russian and Ukrainian poker players.”

The Sunday Warm-Up on March 17 was chopped three ways. aJarov narrated what happened down the stretch: “I made it to three-max with Matt, who was playing pretty well and tough, as well as another player. Matt had the chip lead and asked for additional $2,875 so he could make $100,000 total with $90,000 from the deal and $10,000 for the winner.”

Deal or no deal? aJarov gave us his mindset when faced with an offer: “I didn’t want to give up anything, but the other guy agreed to give away $1,800 as the shortest stack and Matt promised to buy me a nice bottle of something at a live event in the future. So, I took my $76,000 for second place, made it to heads-up with Matt, and lost a flip there. It was pretty standard.”

While it may seem like aJarov and matt86ck are good friends – fishing buddies perhaps – that’s not the case. aJarov told PocketFives, “I didn’t know either of those guys. I have just played a bit with Matt before. We both grind MTTs for a living. I think he was very good throughout the tournament. He was lucky enough to get a big stack before the final table in a big cooler, winning with a flush draw against the nut straight. After that, he was very aggressive, putting a lot of pressure on the short stacks, as I was most of the time.”

He added, “Because of ICM, I pretty much couldn’t do anything without a hand, so I was just waiting for a good spot and also was lucky enough to win every time I shoved and got called.”

He makes his home in St. Petersburg, Russia, but was in Kiev(pictured) for a month when we caught up with him. aJarov told us that while his playing environment has definitely been different, he has still been able to concentrate, improve, and excel: “I share an apartment with a friend of mine who is also an MTT reg and I know a ton of people in Kiev. It’s like the capital of Russian and Ukrainian poker players.It’s fun to spend time with people who make money the same way I do; I don’t have that a lot at home.”

He added, “None of my friends at home play poker for a living, so it’s much harder to talk to them. Playing online MTTs at mid- and high-stakes means you’re up all night and sleeping during the daytime. So, our schedules don’t overlap much at home.”

Prior to playing poker full-time, aJarov studied mathematics and computer science. He found the game during his second year of college and ultimately graduated in 2011. He said that while he received his degree, “I haven’t seen my diploma since I got it.”

We asked for his poker story, which has inevitably turned out to have a happy ending: “I think some of my friends told me about poker. In 2007, we were playing some sit and gos in a campus kitchen for 10 Rubles, which is like $0.30. After that, I played online freerolls for a long time and then finally started to win money around 2009.”

Finally, we wanted to ask what has been most helpful to his growth in poker over the years. Playing a lot? Talking strategy? Sheer luck? He responded, “It has been discussing hands with other regs. I do that quite often pretty much every day and it really helps a lot to see some different viewpoints on the same situation and try to find the best decision.”

Besides his big Sunday Warm-Up chop, other major scores for aJarov include third place finishes in the Sunday Brawl and PartyPoker$300,000 Guaranteed this year for nearly $50,000 total. See what else is brewing in our Russia poker community.

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