The first Hungarian winner of the 2019 World Championship of Poker tells us his story.
We’re well aware of Hungary’s ability to produce online poker excellence. You only have to look as far as Andras “probirs” Nemeth — the current world no.1, according to Pocket Fives — for proof of that.
Despite the country’s talent, they haven’t been able to keep up with the prolific results of Brazil and Russia so far this WCOOP. That’s what made Viktor “TsiTool” Kovács’ win in #3-L: $22 PLO 6-Max for $16,573 and his first WCOOP title all the more special to him.
“I am very proud of this win especially because I was the first winner of WCOOP in Hungary in 2019,” Kovács tells PokerStars Blog [Since his win, Hungary has captured one more title].
It’s always nice to chalk up a big result right at the beginning of a big online poker series, especially when you’ve had to fight your way through an enormous field. That’s exactly what Kovács had to do to capture his gold.
“It was really a big challenge for me to win it because there were more than 5,800 participants,” he says. “This has made me motivated to continue this way.”
Kovács is a PLO cash game regular, and only tends to dabble in PLO tournaments when the prize pools are big enough. Needless to say, they’re never bigger than during WCOOP.
“On the first day of the $22 there was nothing special,” he says. “I won some big pots and ran with an average stack, ending Day 1 in 18th place.
“The second day was more exciting. As I increased my stack, I knew that I had to take advantage of it and I started to play more aggressive. This strategy helped me to move to the Final table.”
Kovács began playing online on PokerStars back in 2010, kicking off his career at the $0.01/$0.02 cash games.
“At that time I worked full time in the banking sector and played only as recreation player,” he tells us. “After years of playing I discovered PLO and started playing only this game, still just as a hobby. 2016 was the turning point when I decided to leave my job and I became a regular player.”
Like most of us, Kovács didn’t study much in the beginning, instead drawing on his experiences at the felt to come up conclusions.
“I then recognized that I needed to have better knowledge in order to reach the higher limits, so I started to do analysis,” he says. “I also keep contact with other players in order to exchange experience and to collect further knowledge. There are several excellent Hungarian players to whom I thank a lot.”
While he plan is to continue moving up the PLO cash game stakes, you can expect to see Viktor “TsiTools” Kovács grinding for the rest of WCOOP. But as he lets us know, all you No Limit Hold’em players are safe.
“I’ll only PLO, of course.”
Check out more of our WCOOP winner interviews here:
• Italo “sep_itl1914” Carandinas: Brazilian chooses his own adventure
• Naoya “nkeyno” Kihara: Woken up by a kick from his 3-year-old, plays Razz and wins!
• “snovalshik1”: first-timer, who turned $5.50 into $3,408
• Rinat “Zapahzamazki” Lyapin: Won PLO while streaming live
• Alex “dynoalot” Difelice: Second win, but “I feel I have a ways to go.”
• Pedro “PaDiLhA SP” Padilha: Akkari’s acolyte, who sets the record straight
• Shaun “shaundeeb” Deeb: Seventh title, surely not the last