The 21st Full Tilt Online Poker Series Main Event played out in recent weeks. The tournament attracted 4,766 entries and a prize pool of $2.8 million was up for grabs in one of the largest online poker events held in 2012. Amazingly, but perhaps not surprisingly, members of the PocketFives community came away with seven of the nine final table spots. One of those lucky players was Maxim Mamonov (pictured), who is known in the online poker world as MAMOHT_T.

He finished in seventh place in the tournament and walked away with a bankroll boost of $65,000, which will hopefully offset a few Christmas-related bills. He told us, “I feel great. I am very satisfied with making the final table of the tournament. With such a strong group, I’m happy to have done so well. But, having gotten to the final table, I was expecting better results.” The top five finishers collected six-figure paydays, so he just barely missed out.

Mamonov entered the FTOPS XXI Multi-Entry Main Event three times and told us that he would have entered it more times if circumstances allowed: “The field was very, very strong. Initially, I was a little embarrassed to be among such a prestigious group, but I could not miss this event and, of course, I participated and made three entries.”

When did he take his three shells for the Main Event? He recalled, “I did all three entries at once at the beginning of the tournament. I wanted to use the maximum I could in order to be able to succeed in this important event in online poker. Honestly, if I had more, I would have done more.”

A two-way deal ended matters in the FTOPS XXI Main Event, with both chop participants banking between $413,000 and $453,000, undoubtedly life-changing money. We asked Mamonov how his friends and family reacted to the Russian nearly winning a half-million bucks: “My family, at the time of the final table, was sitting next to me. My wife was afraid of each of my decisions because during the break, she could see what the top prize was.”

We should probably point out that his FTOPS Main Event cash was the largest ever that we’ve tracked for Mamonov. He is now up to over $1.6 million in tracked scores and has cashed in a whopping 3,211 online MTTs, one of the largest numbers you’ll find on PocketFives.

He reminded us, “I have a ton of success in poker and I’m really happy for each cash I’ve had during my poker career. In my mind, success in the FTOPS Main Event eclipsed all other scores I’ve had. For me, success is not expressed in the number of tournaments and money won, but rather in recognition from the poker community.”

He started his poker career like many on PocketFives did, firing up play money games on PokerStars. He was an engineer by trade at the time and rehashed, “After a while, my good friend suggested that I download Full Tilt and play there for real money, which I did, and in the first few days, I took first place in an $11 tournament. Then, I was incredibly happy. The emotions I received throughout the tournament were irreplaceable.”

We’re just two days away from 2013, which means many members of the poker community will come up with resolutions. For Mamonov, the pursuit of live poker is on the horizon for 2013: “For 2013, I plan to grind less online and try more offline poker. At the same time, I want to see different countries, which is in line with me playing more offline poker. I hope I can do it and you’ll hear about me more as an offline player.”

He added, “Besides poker, I love to hang out with friends at clubs and travel to different cities in Russia and other countries, but I have had little time to do any of that because poker has taken up a lot of time this year.”

He is one of 477 registered PocketFives members from Russia and currently sits as the highest ranked player from his home nation. You can find him at #8 worldwide in the PocketFives Poker Rankings, up one spot on the week. Check out what else is brewing in our Russia poker community.

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