Russian Poker Player Dmitriy Zaytsev Wins

Posted by Bradley, September 11, 2013

It's nice to be able to use your pocket aces to win a tournament. That's exactly what happened to Russian poker player Dmitriy Zaytsev, who plays at the Titan Poker tables under the nickname "Mozgolom". On the very last hand of the $20,000 Guaranteed R/A staged on September 8th, Dmitriy was dealt a pair of aces.

A total of 282 players paid the $30+$3 entry to participate in this popular Sunday tournament. With re-buys, the total prize pool was pushed up to $22,500. Going into just two-hands of heads-up play, Dmitriy and "tayeb82", his final opponent, were tied in chips.

"tayeb82" found himself looking at pocket threes, so he made a small raise. Dmitriy re-raised and "tayeb82" called. The flop came as 8d 6d 2s. Dmitriy led out with a bet, his opponent re-raised. Dmitriy re-raised, and his opponent again made the bet even higher. Finally Dmitriy pushed all his chips into the middle and then both of them were all-in.

Neither the turn nor the river could change the domination of aces over threes. For his tournament win, Dmitriy was awarded a prize of $4,601.25.

Dmitriy previously appeared on our Poker Tournament Winners page in June, when he won $25,400 for placing 2nd in the $200,000 Sunday Special.

We congratulated Dmitriy on his achievement and talked to him about his poker career.

Q: What do you do for a living?

Dmitriy: I am a professional poker player. I used to be an interpreter and poker was just a hobby. But one day I realized that I can earn more money playing poker than doing something else. And what's more important - I really like this game. So poker became my main occupation.

Q: How long have you been playing poker for and how did you start?

Dmitriy: All in all I have been playing poker for about 6 years (3-4 years as a pro). I started from freerolls, played cash games, sit-and-gos. I tried almost everything. But my main passion is MTTs, and nowadays I play them for a living.

Q: Did you use any special strategy to win the tournament?

Dmitriy: Can't say I did something special, just played my A-game. I was lucky enough to avoid bad-beats and setups. I reached the final table as a chipleader and won the tournament.

Q: Are there any key moments you remember from the tournament?

Dmitriy: There was one funny thing, our heads-up battle lasted only one hand although we had very deep stacks. In the first hand of the match there was a 3bet-pot and my opponent managed to get it in bad with pocket threes on 8-6-2 board against my aces. It's always good when you're dealt aces at the right time ).

Q: What do you plan to do with your prize money?

Dmitriy: I will invest this money in my bankroll and hopefully will play tourneys with bigger buy-ins (such as hundred dollar re-buys) in the near future.

Q: Do you have any advice for other players?

Dmitriy: If you want to be a winning poker player, you always have to work on your game to make it better. Otherwise it's very difficult to get positive results.

My quote is: "Do what you have to do, then you'll get what you deserve."

 

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