Paris ‘prsalute’ Tsokaridis

To close out 2015, Paris ‘prsalute‘ Tsokaridisfinished fifth in the PokerStars Sunday Million and raked in $49,000. There were almost 6,000 entrants that day, who together built a prize pool north of $1.1 million. We rarely get to talk to Greek poker players, so when the eighth-ranked player in Greece final tables the Sunday Million, we wanted to reach out.

“I’m so happy about it. It is a big score that can help me with my poker career and it’s not only about the money either,” said Tsokaridis, who has almost a half-million in career online tournament winnings. “It also feels like justification for the time I have devoted to my game.”

Getting deep in a tournament like the Sunday Million requires a combination of skill and luck.

“I got lucky in some important spots and was concentrating 100% of the time because I knew it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” said Tsokaridis. “A really difficult call with ace-high when there were 30 players left for my tournament life changed my whole psychology. That was the moment I really believed I could do it.”

Do it he did. The Sunday Million fifth place finish was the largest of his career, eclipsing a $21,000 score for taking down the Big $162 three years ago. He has 42 tracked wins along with 113 top-three finishes.

As far as the money goes, Tsokaridis said the Greek tax system will make it difficult to withdraw a large amount of his winnings, still it’s going to come in handy.

“The money will help my daily life, but I want to invest some of it back into the game, trying bigger buy-in tournaments and, of course, playing my stakes with less stress,” said Tsokaridis. “I was lucky enough to win a decent amount, so I will try to take advantage of my good run these days online.”

He attends university in the port city of Thessaloniki and is studying business administration. As he put it, “Poker is a hobby that can give me some money to live comfortably, but I believe you must always have some alternative options in case things do not work for you. However, I don’t think poker is a career that many can follow forever, including me.” He is the #2 ranked player in Thessaloniki and #508 worldwide, his highest position in the PocketFives Rankings to date.

Since Tsokaridis doesn’t plan on playing poker long-term, what’s he going to do?

“My goal is to work in marketing, but I want to find a job that can satisfy me both psychologically and economically,” said Tsokaridis. “In Greece, however, opportunities for good jobs are not plentiful, so there’s no rush.”

Speaking of Greece, the European nation has 823 registered PocketFives members and is #17 in our Country Poker Rankings. The Greece poker community’s top-ranked player is ‘apostolis20‘, who calls the Athens suburb of Galatsi home.

Tsokaridis got started in poker during summer vacation. A friend told him about the game and showed him the rules. Tsokaridis recalled, “I liked the game from the start because of its competitive nature, so we started playing really low-stakes home games with friends. One thing led to another and I began playing online.”

Here were the final table results of that weekend’s Sunday Million:

  1. veeea – $183,675.00 (veeea)
  2. HU4FU – $136,275.00
  3. DaNteisKing – $95,985.00 (Danteisking)
  4. pilsuhng – $66,537.75 (pilsuhng)
  5. prsalute – $49,770.00 (prsalute)
  6. topoz – $37,920.00
  7. Bario_03 – $26,070.00 (Bario_03)
  8. Indigo4life – $14,812.50
  9. JJdyno99 – $9,243.00

You’ll notice that ‘veeea‘, the #2 ranked online poker player in the world, won the Sunday Million the same week as Tsokaridis got fifth. The cash helped propel ‘veeea’ to the top of the rankings, where he has remained for quite some time.