One of the Red Hot Poker Tour players (a series of free poker tournaments in Canada), Gary Biggar or AKTOR_ at PartyPoker tables, went all the way via PartyPoker qualifier and won a place in the Premier League playoff next month in Las Vegas.
AKTOR_ is now in with a chance to win the Main Event ticket plus the professional poker sponsorship from TeamParty. This is his story…
From red hot points to a chance of professional poker sponsorship
I began the journey on PartyPoker.com with a Qualifier at the lowest level; a $2 re-buy game mid December. I ONLY topped up at the outset of the game, so $4 spent. 70 something players I think. I qualified 1st among 4 others to play in the next satellite level, $52 around Xmas time.
I then won that event among 43 players moving me into the $480 Event, where for every 20 players, one package would be awarded, however only 15 players entered so winner take all!!! The whole sequence of qualifying was a total bonus as I submitted most of the the tournaments for Red Hot points.
A poker marathon on the way to Las Vegas
It was a marathon, starting with 20,000 chips and blinds at 20-40 for 20 minutes and ending 4h:38m later with 3,000/6,000 blinds 100 ante.
Nemo234 of Red Hot Poker Tour fame also played, and ended 6th, battled admirably, fought back several times, but just couldn’t obtain that massive double up we all seek so much to thrust us into a momentum changer atmosphere. He was recognized at the table by gylbertFD (a WSOP Main Event cashing player, 548th for $23K+ in 2009) as they play a lot of “higher” stakes tourney events and qualifiers, repeatedly doing well it seems.
I was never below my starting stack and held the lead after about 2 hours, never looking back, never giving up the lead except until long after heads up was under way. Even at that stage I was twice badly sucked out on, only to fight my way back until the final 2 hands when yes my “AK,” as in my screen name AKTOR, once again was the crippler, before my “JJ” closed it out on the very next hand. DESTINY!!!
It was 12.45 am when I won, and the house erupted with cheers of joy and I had to be pealed off the ceiling!!
You can follow AKTOR_ and the other Premier League qualified players in the upcoming weeks as they prepare to play for the $100,000 seat in the Premier League main event plus a chance to earn a professional sponsorship from PartyPoker. Stay tuned to the PartyPoker blog!
Photo by Liisa Vargas
