Aliosha, please introduce yourself a little bit - who you are?
Hello I’m Aliosha Staes from Belgium, I’m 35 years old. Playing poker for 10 years, but for almost 4 years I do have a job and do not play so much.
What do you do in life and what led you to play poker?
I do have a job in IT for one year, and I studied to be an educator normally, but I changed my direction let’s say. And I started to play poker with friends for 1€, then 20€ then more and more, and here I am :)
How do you rate your game at the WPO? Would you made something different?
This performance was really amazing. I wish to make a score like that since 10 years ago. And because I wouldn’t change anything but I probably missed play many hands and I like to know what I should do.
Were the players tough opponents? Who were you most worried about?
Opponents were all really, really good. It was the strongest final table I have ever played. Everyone was really concentrate, no mistakes. Particularly Pastore and Benjamin impressed me.
What kind of strategy have you chosen?
My strategy in day 1 was just waiting spots for value, to not go into complicate hands or decisions. End of day 1, I grew 50 % of my stack mostly during the bubble. And day 2 - nothing special. The plan was to survive between all this sharks, and day 3, there were only 17 player left, a lot of very good players, so my strategy was just to not be scare of money and don’t panic if I think the spot is good.
Was this tour biggest win?
Ohhhh yes, it was the biggest score I had….for the moment :)
Do you have a recipe for winning?
The secret is maybe, just to be good. Be good and everything around will be good.
I saw your community around you. They are great supporters. Who came here to support you?
The rail was amazing, many friends from Belgium, it’s a small country, so usually we know each other when we travel for poker. And I got also some friends from France, they are often coming to Belgium to play.
Do you play also online poker? What format suits you better 6-max or full table?
I do play online, we can´t play on Winamax in Belgium, but we have GGPoker. I prefer 6-max, but in Belgium, we do not have many offers of 6-max games.
What is your next step in poker and life?
I will play in Namur (in Belgium) next week, there are really nice events almost every months. Also in the beginning of December I will play in Namur a huge and beautiful festival. And maybe on 12. October going to play in Rozvadov. About my life, my next life is to be a father in December.
