On September 18, Andrei Krylou (pictured), better known as Happynoseon PocketFives, won the first of three tournaments for his first Triple Crown. PokerStarswas the site of the victory, which came in a $75 NLHE tournament. The next day, he was off to the races in the Full Tilt Benjamin, coming out on top for $3,200, and his final Triple Crown tournament was the iPoker Saturday Mosh Pit.

“I feel great,” Krylou said of his emotions on winning his first Triple Crown. “It was amazing to win three tournaments in a row and a nice cash reward as well. It was the second opportunity I’ve had to win one, so I felt a little bit nervous playing the last final table, heads-up especially. Winning a Triple Crown means a big psychological impact on your game. For me, it shows I can achieve something at poker and will try to grow my experience and skill that way.”

Earlier this year, Krylou won the 888 Sunday Challenge for $22,000, the largest tournament cash we have tracked for him. The story behind the win is that he began playing poker in 2009 on the side. He lived on his poker winnings for two years, but didn’t have much success to write home about and so took on a full-time job. He explained, “My friend gave me a second breath in poker, got me interested in tournament poker again, and that was the result that totally inspired me to continue my poker career.”

In 2012, Krylou was predominantly playing NL25 to NL100 cash games before getting into MTTs. His decision to do so, interestingly enough, involved some spirits: “In the autumn of 2013, I was drinking beer with my friend and he started talking about his tournaments and his winnings. After that, I tried to play weekend sessions and my interest totally returned back. A couple of months later, I quit my job and started grinding.”

There are 219 players with PLB scores from Belarusand Krylou is ranked 12th among them. Worldwide, he can be found at #962. “Online poker in Belarus is quite popular,” he said. “Many people ask questions when you wear clothes with a poker site label. We don’t have any TV channel that shows the WPT, EPT, RPT, or other series, so the only source for us is PokerStars.tv.”

Despite the dearth of poker entertainment, those interested in the game in Belarus can head to their local casino. Krylou explained, “Offline, we have the Byelorussian Poker Federation, which holds a national poker championship with five to eight events. That has been going on every year for the last six or seven years and there are a couple of tournaments every month. Also, offline poker is widely played at different casinos, but there are mainly cash games.”

Krylou got started in poker after a friend told him about the game at the end of university. “It took us not a lot of time to learn all of the combinations and game rules,” he commented. “For a couple of months, we played friendly poker using matches instead of chips. After that, we decided to play real money games, found one of the many sites that gave a free $50, and started playing online.”

We’re quickly nearing the end of 2014, which means it’s time to discuss poker goals for the rest of the year. Krylou told us what he’s focusing on this year: “Not ruining my bankroll until the end of the year and earning money from EPT tournaments.” He has actually had a longstanding goal of excelling on the EPT, so we’ll see if that eventually comes to fruition.

Visit our Triple Crown Wall of Champions to learn how to get your own award.

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