Helicopters and High Stakes: King's Casino Owner Leon Tsoukernik's Poker Adventure
On March 5, the Global Poker Index (GPI) announced the list of nominees for this year's edition of the European Poker Awards (EPA), the yearly ceremony that will take place on March 25 at the Hilton Hotel in St. Julians, Malta.
Together with Player of the Year, Tournament Performance of the Year, and Breakout Player of the Year, the 2015 EPA will also pay tribute to the Industry Person of the Year and reward the work of those amazing people whose job is to make sure that the game of poker keeps growing and that players keep enjoying every single second they spend at the table.
The personalities selected as nominees for this year's Industry Person of the Year award are General Manager of World Poker Tour Europe Hermance Blum, President of the European Poker Tour Edgar Stuchly, the Owner of the iconic Dusk Till Down poker room Rob Yong, and the Owner of King's Casino Leon Tsoukernik.
To understand a little more about this award and to learn about one of the candidates that has worked extremely hard to promote poker in Europe in 2014, PokerNews flew all the way to Czech Republic and sat down with Tsoukernik, the owner of what is today Europe's largest poker room.
The Secret of Success? To Create a Casino Cruise, On Land
Although some may have stumbled upon Tsoukernik's name in colorful episodes like the crazy session he once played against Lithuania's representative at the European Parliament and former poker pro Tony G, the adventure he had at the 2012 EPT High Roller, or for his custom to travel from one tournament to another via helicopter, Tsoukernik is far from being the dazzling character one would imagine him to be.
"I would describe myself as a poker-oriented casino owner and an occasional [poker] player," Tsoukernik tells PokerNews when asked to choose how he preferred to be introduced to the audience. "In addition to this, I'm also an art collector."
A former antique dealer with a passion for cards and competition, Tsoukernik is a reflexive and business-oriented entrepreneur who seems to have found the secret to prosper in a sector that keeps declining in many European countries. As some of the old pillars of Europe's poker scene like Italy and France deal with a negative moment in history that has cost them prestigious events such as the EPT, King's Casino in Rozvadov seems to grow like no other place on the continent.
Home to more than almost 1,000 poker tournaments during 2014 alone, over the years King's Casino has become a must-go for most of the poker lovers around the world. In 2013, Germany's leading newspaper der Stern wrote about the casino, "Those who cannot make it to Las Vegas should definitely head to the King's Casino in Rozvadov, because that's the European poker dorado!"
But, what's the secret of this success, one may ask?
"I would say that King's works like a ship," Tsoukernik explains. "It's a bit like if it was a poker cruise. We are open 365 days a year. We only close if the President of the Czech Republic dies. In that case, we would respectfully mourn and stop our operations for three days."
Located in proximity of the German border, Rozvadov is convenient for players across Europe. People fly in internationally to Prague, Nuremberg, and Munich and take advantage of the shuttle service that King's Casino organizes to let everyone get to the room and play some of the lively tournaments and cash games available.
"We aim to provide poker for everybody, whatever buy-in they want to pay," Tsoukernik goes on. "I am very proud of the nomination, and I am surprised at the same time. The King's Casino team worked very hard in 2014 and we enlarged the casino to host 160 poker tables. Actually, the extension of the casino that we inaugurated last year was even bigger than the casino itself!"
But size isn't everything, and Tsoukernik seems to know very well that a big casino room is not what people look for when they choose where to go for their poker games. That's why he built his winning hand focusing on great services and events that provide a real value to the players.
Following this logic, King's Casino has awarded more than €15 million in prize money during the past 12 months, making sure that every Saturday would feature at least one €50,000 guaranteed event. When Tsoukernik adopted his aggressive strategy made of a large number of small and medium buy-in events with significant guarantees, many warned about the risk of overlays and of the guarantees being excessively disproportioned in comparison to the buy-ins. But, that's exactly what he wanted to achieve.
"I don't care about overlays," Tsoukernik candidly admits. "The guarantees give people a good reason to travel and to come to the casino to play, and in this sense they hold a great marketing value."
Numbers at hand, his strategy has already started to pay off, as the world's leading live poker operator have all answered to his call and included King's Casino in their schedules.
King's Casino's first €200,000 guaranteed event took place in 2010, when casino manager and well-known doctor Markus Fladung committed himself to make King's Casino a prime and popular location. Since then, Rozvadov became a regular spot on the World Poker Tour scene, and in June 2014 it even hosted the biggest standalone tournament in the history of PokerStars' Eureka Poker Tour thanks to the 493 entries at the series' Main Event.
Right after that, his other venue in Prague welcomed thousands of players eager to participate to one of the most awaited events of the season, that Prague Poker Festival. In 2014, this stop also included the record-breaking Open-Face Chinese Poker World Championship organized by TonyBet Poker. To continue the trend, in February 2015 King's Casino hosted the eighth edition of the PokerNews Cup, a €250 buy-in event that shattered its €200,000 guarantee thanks to an impressive total of 1,562 entries.
"It isn't easy to run a poker room in a financially profitable manner," Tsoukernik explains. "We charge fees for what we do, and we are up front about that. I believe you always have to be very clear with customers."
Fees aside, the success of the venue can be strongly attributed to the attention Tsoukernik and his staff put on the details.
Besides a comfortable hotel always available to those who choose to spend more than one evening at King's Casino, since 2014 the casino is home to a top restaurant left in the savvy hands of Mr. Brando, legendary Italian restaurant manager and super host. This is an addition Tsoukernik is visibly proud of.
"We stock 12-week, dry-aged T-bone steaks from Omaha in the United States," he explains. "We had to source them from there and, really, if there's something I can promise you, it's that the Omaha steaks at King's Casino are really great."
Yet, as every wise businessman knows, even a success like the one King's Casino is living right now should not be considered anything more than a simple starting point to get to something bigger, something better. According to Tsoukernik, the future of the machine that today employs over 400 people and a dealer school in a region with a population of 530 individuals is to do even greater things.
"We will continue to expand," Tsoukernik firmly states. "It was word of mouth that grew King's Casino from day one, and I am talking about a time when the hotel had only nine rooms."
To keep the momentum going, on top of the achievements in 2014 Tsoukernik intends to continue the development of his jewel and add a 600-bed hotel while "further expanding the gaming floor."
And that's not all. In Tsoukernik's mind, Rozvadov has the potential to become a big international name and attract players from the whole world.
"Our plan is to continue to expand and to provide an even richer offer of games and events," Tsoukernik adds. "Soon, we will host an Italian tour and I am working on an association with the Sun City group in Macau to bring Chinese players to play in the Czech Republic."
Tsoukernik Tells How He Won $1,000,000 in a Single Hand in Macau
Tsoukernik is one of those who do not love to talk about himself nor give out too much about his personal life. Prominent in advocating poker in his home country, Tsoukernik is seen by many as one of the main supporters of poker's liberalization.
"We need to convince governments to liberalize the poker industry," he says with the tone of someone who definitely means it.
His personal relationship with poker, however, began a lot earlier than his venture in Rozvadov. Everything started back in the beginning of the 1990s, when Tsoukerniak was known to be one of New York's finest antiques dealers.
"I got into poker during some home games with friends in New York," he says. "At that time, we used to have two or three tables. We would play poker and then enjoy the time together, maybe have a pizza. Back then, the limits were $0.25/$0.50 or lower."
Since then, things have changed and his opponents stopped being a group of friends who would meet around an improvised table. Rather, they became some of the best poker pros in the world.
"I play poker for entertainment," Tsoukernik goes on to explain. "And since I don't find particularly entertainment to play with weak players, those are not the ones I look for."
This attitude, of course, changed the limits Tsoukernik now plays. Long gone are the low-limit games in the US, as he has started to play with sums that most of us can only dream of, but that's simply because "a lot of the time the top players want to play a lot higher."
Tsoukernik's quest for entertainment at that table, however, does not need big sums — it needs thrill, it demands competition. That's why, when he can, he likes to sit with just one opponent and engage in a battle that can leave only one survivor, only one clear winner.
"I play a lot of €5/€10," he says. "I prefer heads-up. I like the challenge to win."
As we start to discuss his past adventures in poker, Tsoukerniak immediately goes back to the 2012 EPT in Monte Carlo, when he "free rolled" the €100,000 Super High Roller event after he paid for his second bullet with his winnings from the casino floor.
"Before we got to the break, I had almost no chips, so I went to the craps table," Tsoukernik explains. "Once I got there, I won €70,000 in two minutes. Then, I moved to the roulette and won another €50,000."
After such a great heater, he felt like he almost had no choice other than collect his winnings and fire his second bullet at the €100,000 buy-in event.
"I kept my American smile on and went back to the tournament to get my second chance with the cash chips I had just won," he says, excitedly. "It was marvelous. What wasn't so marvellous though, was the that my pocket threes didn't hold up against my opponent's ace-queen."
Monte Carlo, however, is not Tsoukernik's remarkable story. Instead, he shared with PokerNews another colorful episode that took place in the high roller capital of the world, Macau.
"I walked into the Venetian in Macau in November 2014 and guess what, all my German friends were there: Philipp Gruissem, Tobias Reinkemeier, and Max Altergott were all at the tables," he says. "I could not believe it."
Driven by the thrill of a game against the best players around, Tsoukernik told us about how he sat to play at a HK$5,000/$10,000 no-limit hold'em cash game with straddles, and about how he won $1 million USD in a single hand.
"During the second day of the game, we played a really beautiful hand," he remembers. "I had pocket tens and a Chinese opponent had aces. We didn't get any great action before the flop, but when the dealer placed on the table 10x4x7x, everything changed. The turn and the river did not improve our hands, so I put my American smile on my face, and I kept playing. The pot got up to HK$8.9 million, and that's because my opponent simply couldn't stop betting. Result? I won $1 million US with just that one single hand."
Entrepreneur, casino owner, art collector... but also enthusiastic poker player and big staker — because Tsoukernik's profile wouldn't be complete if one didn't point out how much he invests in those he believes deserve a chance.
For example, during the coming months Tsoukernik will be investing in George Danzer and Altergott in the forthcoming EPT Monte Carlo High Roller in order to make sure that players like them get a chance to play in the games they deserve. This, to some extent, could be seen has his way to give back to the community and to thank those who make poker the very special game he loves.
"Every player has to get the possibility to be a World Series of Poker bracelet owner," Tsoukernik explains. "Some celebrities have done a lot for the game and I believe they deserve appreciation from people like me."
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