Seat 1: Siarhei Alontsau, 32, Belarus – 3,150,000
Siarhei Alontsau says there are three people responsible for his incredible Main Event run here in Prague. The first is his poker mentor who taught him the game when he was a teenager in Belarus. Alontsau was too young to play himself, but he’d sit patiently behind his friend, watching and learning. Now his mentor is watching him on the live stream and the two speak on every tournament break.
The second person is two-time EPT winner and Belarusian poker star Mikalai Pobal. Alontsau and his wife went to stay with friends at their summer cottage in Belarus, where Pobal happens to be a neighbour. “My friend told me, look, Siarhei, this guy won several times,” Alontsau explains. “So I decided, OK, I'm going to
participate in an EPT as well.”
The third person is his wife, who not only gave Alontsau the green light to use some of his savings to come and play but who has been alongside him cheering him on every step of the six-day journey.
You won’t find any results online for Alontsau, but he says he’s got plenty of experience. When he was 18 he entered a beginners tournament in the Belarusian Federation of Poker and won it. He then had a decision – go pro or get a career, and he chose the latter. “Playing poker professionally is not easy,” he says. “You can have a birthday and a funeral on the same day.”
For 12 years he’s worked in information security, helping to prevent online hacker attacks. He’s not had much MTT experience since that decision, but he says he’s played lots of Sit & Gos, adding: “I’m well informed about ICM and push-fold equity.”
That puts him in good stead at the final table, where he’s guaranteed by far the biggest poker win of his life. But he says poker has never been about the money. He just loves the process. “The thing I'm most proud of is that across all six days, I've never been all-in when I was behind,” he says. “Winning the title would mean much more to me than the prizes."