Last month, Ukraine’s Shak88888took third place in the weekly 888 Poker Mega Deepand earned $10,000. There were over 500 entrants that week and Shak88888 led all PocketFivers, who raked in 36% of the prize pool. He’s the #4 player in the capital of Kiev (pictured below) and #22 in the Ukraine poker community, so we wanted to catch up and talk about his most recent hit.

“The tournament went well for me and I picked up good hands,” Shak88888 told PocketFives after the fact. “At the final table, I went out with a short stack. It was very uncomfortable to play without the chip lead and without position and eventually I lost J-J to 9-9 for third place.” The Ukrainian watched as a nine hit on the flop, dashing any hopes he had of taking down the Mega Deep… that week, at least.

As far as his plans for the money, Shak88888 will give part of it to investors and sink the rest back into his poker bankroll. He has $272,000 in tracked online tournament winnings, certainly nothing to scoff at, and his biggest cash came after taking down the PokerStars Hotter $75 in August for $21,000.

Shak88888 started playing poker four years ago. He explained, “At first it was more than just a passion and I played with friends on the weekends. Then, I understood it was possible to earn good money. The last year-and-a-half, I have played seriously, analyzed my game, and worked on improving.”

He plays poker three or four days a week and also has a “real world” job to keep him busy. You’ll find him firing up Sunday Majors every weekend. He has ascended to #738 worldwide in the PocketFives Rankings, his all-time high.

Away from poker, his family keeps him entertained. In fact, he has bought plenty of presents for the group with his poker winnings over the years. He’s also a fan of football, tennis, boxing, and Formula 1. Apart from that, he enjoys traveling and visiting new countries.

He closed by wishing “good luck and new wins” to his fellow PocketFivers.

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