Continued from Part Three...
Interview - Yevgeniy Timoshenko
With the turbo heat done and dusted, the remaining seven players were braced like coiled springs. With the likes of Sam Trickett, Toby Lewis, and John Duthie in the mix, this was looking like one of the toughest STTs in history, and a reflection of the improved standard witnessed in TV events over recent years.
Perhaps the favourite for victory was Ukranian-born Yevgeniy Timoshenko. When Alexander the Great was 33, he cried salt tears because there were no more worlds to conquer. Yevegniy is only 22.
Since winning a side event at the 2007 Irish Open for €124,600, Yevgeniy has collated a near $3.4 million in live tournament winnings, including titles in the 2008 Macau APT and 2009 WPT Grand Final, as well as a final table appearance in the 2008 WSOPE. His proudest moment, however, came when he won a WCOOP Main Event, picking up $1,715,200 under the moniker 'Jovial Gent'.
Now, after defeating EPO winner Fabian Quoss and soon-to-be WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela in his heat, Yevgeniy was in line to add another $200,000 to the kitty, and the title of 2010 World Poker Open Champion to his ever-increasing list of accolades. Of course, Timoshenko was showing no signs of nerves or apprehension, and seemed as confident as ever as he relinquished his spot in the commentary booth in exchange for a seat on the final.
Echoing his demeanour at the felt, Timoshenko was cool under questioning, always taking his time and showcasing an honesty that seems to have become a familiar trend with successful young poker stars. Perhaps it's this decisiveness and self-assurance that has contributed to his huge success.
Snoopy: Do you have any strategies heading into the final?
Yevgeniy Timoshenko: Run good. I got to do commentary on the runners-up heat, which was very helpful. I wish It had been one of the regular heats because the turbo was over very quickly, but it still gives me an advantage. Also, the major hands hands have been posted on the PartyPoker blog, so I've been reading that and trying to see how some of these players are approaching these heats so I can pick up some reads.
Snoopy: What are your thoughts on how people have been playing?
YT: It's more or less what I expected. A few people have surprised me with their play, actually, and there have been a couple of hands that I wouldn't expect from certain players, so I'll definitely keep that in mind when making my decisions against the other finalists.
Snoopy: Is there anyone in the final who you'll be wary of?
YT: Everyone in this final is pretty tough. I was kind of disappointed, I was rooting for some other guys, but as it turned out, the final's a pretty fair representation of who played best in the heats. There's really no soft spots at the table, so I'll definitely have to run good and play well to win it.
Snoopy: How do you feel you performed in your heat?
YT: I was really happy with my performance in the heat. Things went my way and I don't think I made many mistakes, which was good. A lot of the hands played themselves. I never really got any hands early, so most of my decisions came late when the stacks were shallower and decisions were more or less cut or dry, more preflop poker than interesting post-flop spots.
Snoopy: What were your thoughts about the K-9 hand?
[Yevgeniy three-bet squeezed K-9 suited after Simon Zach had opened with queens and Dixie Dean flat-called with aces. The flop came K-9-x.]
YT: I thought it was a really good spot. I usually call there, but I thought it was a good opportunity to balance my range. The opener was a pretty straightforward player, and the other player was calling so much, but folding to three-bets, that I thought I could get away with it, but unfortunately I ran into queens and aces. That hand didn't really work out.
Snoopy: Can you give me a quick idea of how you got into poker?
YT: Sure. I got into poker in 2003 after seeing Chris Moneymaker win the Main Event. Right around that time, I had a few friends get into it as well, so I'd play with my friends in very small stakes, before moving online and playing for play money. As I started enjoying it more and more, I got more passionate about it. I began taking the play money games more seriously and I ended up grinding the freerolls on UltimateBet, and that's how I built my bankroll.
Snoopy: Were you just playing for fun at his point?
YT: Yeah, I was definitely playing for fun. Winning real money, or the transition to real money, was not in my mind at the time. I was just enjoying playing, it was just something to do to pass the time.
In my senior year at high school, I started to make money playing, but I still never considered I'd be doing this for a profession. I just thought it was a cool hobby that I made money out of. The summer after, I graduated from high school, and the first semester of college was when poker really blew up for me, and I was like, 'Wow, maybe I should give this a try because I'm doing really well and making amazing money, and the chances are that I'm not going to be making this kind of money with a regular job,' so I did, and it's worked out for me.
Snoopy: How big a win was the side event at the Irish Open?
YT: That was probably one of my first live tournaments, and it was definitely a big win. I think my first ever live tournament was the PCA [PokerStars Caribbean Adventure] that year, so winning a live tournament early on was good in that it gave me a lot of confidence and reassured me that I could win live as well. At the time, most of my success was online in tournaments.
Snoopy: What were your feelings when you started winning major events?
YT: I've always thought that I was one of the best tournament players in the world. I think my biggest advantage was in 2007, 2008, because back then I think tournaments were so much easier, and there were fewer good tournament players. I think relative to the field, I was playing the best in these years. It just so happened that 2009 was my breakout year. That's kind of when I ran the best.
Snoopy: Do you have a favourite moment?
YT: I think the WCOOP was awesome, just because it was such a tough tournament. I just felt like I played so well, and made so many good reads. To beat a field of almost 2,200 players, most of whom were online professionals, was very satisfying.
Snoopy: Do you change at all when you win that kind of money at such a young age?
YT: I don't think it changed me. At that point, I already had more money than I needed. Anything I would want, I already had, like I had a nice condo, a nice car, so I mostly used that money to pad my bankroll, and to invest it in various things.
Snoopy: You have a very deliberate posture at the table, a routine almost. Is this intentional?
YT: I try to be consistent in my actions in how long I take, how much time I take to make a bet, just so I don't' give any tells away. I'm very conscious about that. I think live tells definitely exist, and being predominantly an online player, I think it's very important to be stoic and not give anything away.
Snoopy: Do you consider yourself a maths or feel player?
YT: Probably both. I try to think independently about poker. I try to stay creative and experiment with things that other people don't do. That's what gives me an edge. I don't just play a certain style of poker that everyone else is playing. I try to do different things and see if there are better strategies out there than what everyone else is using.
Snoopy: What are your goals going ahead?
YT: Well, I hope to keep winning. I hope to keep playing well. I'm going to be playing a lot this month. I haven't really done much this year, so hopefully I'll start with this tournament, and then do something at the World Series of Poker Europe and EPT London. I intend to keep playing both online and live.
Snoopy: Have you always enjoyed your profession?
YT: I was fortunate to never burn myself out. I never really had as much work ethic towards online tournaments as someone like Shaun Deeb. When I was at it full-time, I was still only playing four to five days a week. The few days off prevented me from getting burnt out, and getting too involved in poker.
This year I've hardly been playing online at all, so when you play as little online as I do, it's always exciting. I don't need to play poker to make a living now, so I just play when I want to play, and that's really good to play when you're focused and motivated.
Snoopy: Do you think you'll always play poker?
YT: Probably. Hopefully, I won't need to be a professional poker player for the rest of my life, but I've dedicated so much time to it, and gotten so good at it, that I'll think I'll always continue playing whether it's to make money or just for fun.
Snoopy: What changes do you think need to be made to improve the future of online poker?
YT: I think online poker is in a pretty good state right now. There are things I'd change, for example, I hate some of the tracking sites. I just think there are more tools now than there were before, and some of these tools give too big of an advantage, such as the PokerTablingRatings and a few other things. I really don't like them.
And the fact that you can never play a single hand with someone and then just log onto a site and buy all the hands they've ever played - it creates an unfair advantage. I don't know how the sites can stop this, but that's definitely something that, in an ideal world, would be changed.
Read Part Five...
Previous World Poker Open articles:
World Poker Open VI - Part One: A Hard Day's Night
World Poker Open VI: Part Two: Interview - Toby Lewis
World Poker Open VI: Part Three: Sent to Commentary