Name: Siarhei Sakhamiyes
Nationality: Belarusian
Age: 25

What poker is and how to play it I learned less than one and a half years ago when I saw one of my friends playing online. I was watching him playing for a couple of weeks and then I decided to try it myself. I registered an account at RedKings, made a small deposit and started to play without really knowing the rules of the game. My first games were NL Turbo Double with buy-in $1.20. Some time ago I quitted my job because I can earn money and make my living just playing poker. The live event GSOP Live Riga 2010 will become my first live poker experience, and I am going there to win!

Name: Mikhail Fando
Nationality: Belarusian
Age: 21

I've been playing poker professionally almost since my school graduation in 2006. I tried different varieties of poker games and in the end I stopped on short table mid-stakes cash games. Live poker has never really attracted me because of not the best infrastructure in my home country; however, I have some experience of playing live as well as I had some winnings. Now I hope to get a new interesting experience playing live at GSOP Live in Riga.

Name: Pekka Ikonen
Nationality: Finnish
Age: 31
I have been playing poker for four years now and it has been my main source of income from the beginning 2010. I started with free money bonus in small stakes fixed limit cash games before switching over to No Limit cash games. At the moment I´m playing everything from NL200 to NL1000. I used to play tournaments only with local friends but in early 2010 I started studying the tournament game too and playing Online tournaments at RedKings regularly. I haven´t played that many Live events yet but I find them a welcome break from sitting in front of my computer and in future my plan is to attend at least few major events a year. So far my biggest achievement in the Live Scene is 3rd place finish in WSOP Event #47 this summer.

Name: Maxim Zelenskiy
Nationality: Russian
Age: 31
My poker career began in 2007. For a long time I have been playing mostly cash games, was going up by limits starting with NL50. Now I play NL600-1000 on a regular basis. Some time ago I got interested in a tournament game. During the last few months I am constantly playing online Sunday tournaments with buy-ins $100+. I haven’t had a great success so far, but the distance is still very small to make any conclusions. Regarding my live poker experience, the only time I tried myself in a live tournament was 2 years ago.

Name: Andrey Shatilov
Nationality: Russian
Age: 24
I learned about poker about 1.5 years ago. I started with SNG micro limits but at that time I couldn’t play a lot because of my work. Step by step I went to higher limits playing low limit cash games as well. RedKings became my poker-room some 6 months ago where I went up from $11 up to $54-$108 tournaments. Two times I played side events at RPT Odessa but in both of them I was knocked out on the bubble, so, hopefully, GSOP Live Malta event will be more lucky for me and I’ll get into money this time.

Name: Andrey Tsitovich
Nationality: Russian
Age: 21
Three years ago when there was a poker boom in Russia I started to play poker having $50 in my account. I was playing 12 NL2 cash tables at one time as well as different kind of cheap satellites. In one of them I qualified to a 250k gtd. tournament where I took the place 15. I also decided to try some cheap offline tournaments in a local poker club and my first experience appeared to be very lucky – I took the 1st place. Having a decent starting bankroll I went for $5 SNG 10max, six months later I was already playing at $54 with a good ROI. Later after reading some posts of hiNt (editor’s note: a well-known Russian player) I changed 10max to 6max $54-$108 SnG and also started discovering MTT where I managed to go up to $525 limits. Now I am interested in HU SnG’s.

Name: Victor Vorobjov
Nationality: Belarusian
Age: 22
Before becoming a poker player I did fencing professionally for over 5 years. My live poker experience is around 4 years old; the start was in one of the local casinos in Riga (Latvia). I participated in many tournaments in different European countries – I had ups and downs as everyone does. I learned about online poker after getting a job in one of the poker-rooms where I stayed for approximately a year. Currently I play both online and live poker. The GSOP Live event in Malta will be the 2nd event for me in this great series of poker events.

Name: Siarhei Yakubenka
Nationality: Belarusian
Age: 25
I learned about poker a year ago when my friends invited me to join them in their game. I got interested, studied the game’s strategy and started to play low limit cash games online slowly going up the limits. I’ve tried different kind of poker but my preference still is Sit’n’Go tournaments. I’ve never been playing offline and live event GSOP Live in Bucharest will become my first live poker event and I feel excited about it.

Name: Koen
Age: 34
Nationality: Dutch
My name is Koen, from The Netherlands. I started playing poker 5 years ago and my main game started at 50 nl full ring. After that I played a full year online tournaments only. Currently I play mostly heads up 200 nl and occasionally higher, up to 1k nl. Live tournaments I play a few times a year with a few in the money finishes like in GSOP Live Riga 12th place. Of course I aim to do better in Bucharest and improve my best live score finishing 4th in a deep stack tournament.

Name: Vasilica Balan
Nationality: Romanian
Age: 27
My name is Balan Vasilica. I am from Romania and I am 27 years old. I started to play poker around 4 years ago. At first it was some kind of a distraction for me but after I discovered that poker is more than just a passion. I play daily to improve my game and to reach the highest level.

Name: Vyacheslav Stoyanov
Nationality: Moldavian
Age: 23
I have been playing poker for three and a half years; my friend introduced me to this game. My start was low limit SNG tournaments for 0.1$. Since last year March I have been playing at Redkings Poker, which became my main poker-room. Now I am playing SNG 5 max turbo 22$-108$ and studying HU SNG and MTT. My first offline poker experience I got during the last summer taking part in several RPT Odessa poker series. I got into money in the 6max tournament which is my favorite one. I am going to get seriously prepared for the coming GSOP Live event in Bucharest and hope to show a decent game there.

Name: Tobias Revenäs
Nationality: Swedish
Age: 35
I knew the poker from my youth and started playing Hold'em three years ago. Since then my skills have gradually improved and I play a lot online. I have won a few satelites to live tournaments but so far without performing well in the events. Now I look forward to playing GSOP Live Bucharest and play my best.

Name: Oleksandr Golubetskyi
Nationality: Ukrainian
Age: 30
I learned poker rules in 2006, in 2007 I began to play into plus the 9-10max SNG tournaments. In the end of 2007 the game went very well in the Ongame Network. Now I play HU and SNG 5max. My biggest success achieved by me is HU tournaments for $100. I also have some live poker experience playing 10max nl200 cash tables.

Name: Adrian Marin
Nationality: Romanian
Age: 31
I’ve been playing poker since 2007 and this is the only source of income for me. I used to play cash games mostly until the end of 2009 when I took 5th place in WPT Marrakech, after that I switched to tournaments. I play mostly online, my last live result is 2nd place in one of the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza events in Las Vegas in 2010. I’m looking forward to playing in the GSOP Live Bucharest as a Team RedKings qualifier.

Name: Bas VD
Nationality: Dutch
Age: 24
I started playing fixed limit poker 4 years ago and after a year I switched to 6max cashgames. At the moment I play full time midstakes cashgames and on sundays I try to play the major sunday tournaments. I have also played some live events across the world, including the WSOP and PCA Bahamas. Traveling is something I really love and with poker it’s really easy to combine and I really like that! I’ve never been to Romania before so I am really looking forward to play some poker and check the place out!