The final days of WCOOP 2019 are producing plenty of excitement — and not just for those still battling the Main Events. Just as Maxim “Pylusha” Pylev of Russia, winner of the 835-entry Event #60-M, the $109 No-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 6-Max.
It was a breakthrough victory for Pylev — also known online as ” Ярославский Исильдур” or “Yaroslavl Isildur” — and he spoke with PokerStars Blog to share some thoughts about his big win.
Maxim “Pylusha” Pylev, Event #60 champion
“I entered during the third hour of late registration… I only had 15 big blinds,” Pylev explains. “But I adopted an aggressive strategy, and just an hour later I had a big stack and was among the chip leaders.”
Things went smoothly from there for Pylev… for the most part, anyway.
“After that I began to play more thoughtfully and tight,” he explains. “I did risk getting knocked out the tournament once, but I was lucky.”
It took just about seven hours for that big field to be whittled down to the final six players and the final table. It wasn’t going to be easy for Pylev, with former WCOOP event winners Mikal “mikal12345” Blomlie and Ian “sprocketsAA” Shaw among the opponents with whom he still had to battle.
“The final table was very strong,” says Pylev, who judged nearly everyone left seemed very tough and talented to him.
“I started the final table as one of the short stacks, and the chip leader had about 50 percent of the chips left in play. He was playing very aggressively, pushing almost every hand. Meanwhile I chose a tight game, waiting for the next three players to get knocked out and then for the chip leader to give away those chips.”
Shaw had been one of those to go out (in fifth), but the Norwegian Blomlie remained along with “cladarth” of Poland. Third in chips and regarding both of his opponents as very good, Pylev was more than happy at that point to agree to a three-way deal with the others.
After that the cards fell his way — as did all of the chips — and after eight-and-a-half hours of poker Blomlie took third and cladarth second, and Pylusha was the champ earning a $9,770.05 prize post-deal.
“I’ve played poker for more than 10 years,” he says, noting how Omaha has always been a favorite game, although he plays it somewhat rarely. “This is my first major victory — before this I’d made a few final table, but always exited shy of the win.”
Above all, Pylev credits the win to his experience and most especially to “the support of my beloved wife, Julia.”
Congrats, Pylusha!
More WCOOP winner interviews:
• “Mr. No way”: It’s not easy beating “Colisea” heads up. Or is it?
• 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
It’s going to be a huge Sunday as WCOOP concludes. Get in on the fun. Click here to open a PokerStars account.