When I saw among the many winners of WCOOPs over recent days that a player from Norway named “Mr. No way” had beaten out the phenom from Poland Dzimtry “Colisea” Urbanovich to win Event #47-L ($5.50 PLO8), I had to talk to him.
With a username like that, I was fully prepared that my request to talk would be declined. But Mr. No way said yes, and our conversation began with a laugh when I addressed him as Mr. No way from Norway.
“Not everybody catches that right away,” he chuckled.
As part-time player with a family and full-time job, Mr. No way is like a lot of WCOOP players who have to squeeze in events whenever they can. His preference for mixed games also influences his game selection, which is one reason why he found himself joining the pot-limit Omaha high-low event.
“I’ve played at least twenty-five years or so, more or less,” he says. “Sometimes in life it is easier to get time to play, and sometimes it’s kids and work.”
Thankfully for Mr. No way, he was able to find the nine hours required to play #47-L to the end, with the $2,902.98 first prize he earned for doing so a nice reward. While it isn’t his largest tournament score ever, it is the most he’s won in a while.
“I’ve had some bigger cashes, but they were a long time ago,” he explains. “Recently I haven’t been playing so much, so this is the biggest one in a couple of years.”
There were 4,142 entries in the event, representing 2,732 unique players. “It’s kind of crazy even to start when it is fields like this,” says Mr. No way. “But it is fun… that’s why I play.”
As already noted, out of all those opponents, one would stand out among the rest — Urbanovich.
“It was quite easy in the beginning — nothing special happening, just building up a stack. Then with approximately 40 players left I had some problems, but got into a good situation when I doubled up through Colisea.”
Mr. No way did know who Colisea was, so it wasn’t as though Urbanovich was operating undercover. Of course, Urbanovich’s style of play singled him out as well. “He was quite aggressive… a very good player,” says Mr. No way.
“He probably plays 10 or 20 times as much as me and I’ve seen his results before,” Mr. No way continues, alluding to Urbanovich’s $5.7 million-plus in live tournament cashes and many online titles (including multiple SCOOPs and WCOOPs).
“So I knew what I was up against.”
Dzmitry “Colisea” Urbanovich, whose reputation precedes him
“I think many others were playing tight, so I picked up some chips from there and suddenly I was in the chip lead together with Colisea,” he explains. “We both had nice stacks when we got to the final table, and of course with many short stacks they want to survive each other. I was also fortunate to have position on Colisea — that was a really good thing for me.”
After others fell they were the last two standing, with Mr. No way holding the chip edge.
“I knew what he was capable of,” says Mr. No way, noting how he was ready to find a spot in which to gamble at the end. Urbanovich doubled up once to narrow the gap, but then came a climactic clash.
“The board was K-J-something with two clubs and I had a king and an ace and redraws for a low,” says Mr. No way. “He bet and I raised, then he went all in and I called. It was probably a bad play for me on my side, but I didn’t know how to lay down that hand.”
“When they showed the hands he had like 56 percent equity or something — he had the A♣ and Q♣, I guess — but no flush or straight came and it held up.”
“I had seen that he was really aggressive all the time. For sure I was the weaker player in that situation, so I figured that was a good spot for me.”
It sounds like Mrs. No way is away on holiday this weekend, which means the Event #47-L champ will be at the tables again as WCOOP comes to a close, particularly in those mixed game events.
If he goes deep in any of those, he might well encounter Colisea again. Next time, though, Urbanovich will have some idea what he’s up against.
More WCOOP winner interviews:
• Germany’s “Gaul4200”: “$44K is a lot of money for a 20-year-old student in Germany”
• Joris “BillLewinsky” Ruijs: Captures second career WCOOP title in $530 NLH PKO
• “myIT4”: “The WCOOP… it’s the World Cup, and I was representing Russia!”
• Filipe “Zagazaur” Oliveira: One week, three WCOOP titles!
• Espen “_sennj_” Sandvik: “It’s my first win in an official tournament”
• Rodrigo “guinHuuh” Freire: Brazilian’s roller coaster ride turns $11 into $13K
• Patrick “prepstyle71” Serda: No more pizzas for the three-time winner
• Jeffrey “Jefffrr8” Reardon: He wanted a five-figure score. He got one.
• Maxime “Daghemuneguu” Chilaud: Malta-based Frenchman wins first WCOOP of the series
• Norway’s “19_Kumite_79”: First two-day event, biggest field, biggest cash
• Viktor “TsiTool” Kovács: Puts Hungary on the WCOOP map
• 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
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