10 years ago, Ivan "Soul" Demidov won second place in the main tournament of the World Series. Poker has changed a lot since then, but this tournament has kept both the name and the status of the World Cup. No other bracelet in the World Series of Poker compares with this, and although Ivan did not manage to get it, not a single Russian-speaking player has yet repeated his achievement, let alone beat it. In the rating of the most successful players playing under the Russian flag, Ivan still ranks second, second only to Igor Kurganov.

In the anniversary of the landmark event for the Russian-speaking poker community, we decided to go back in time with the main character.

- 10 years have passed. How do you feel?

- It's ok.

- Do you often remember the 2008 WSOP and the final table?

- I don’t remember at all. When I lost heads-up, for me it was a big blow, and if I have hard negative emotions for some reason, I try to forget everything. It was so at the beginning, but now it’s all so far away that it’s no use to remember. But sometimes, if something pushes, then there is nostalgia, of course.

- How did you get involved in poker at a time when it was not yet mainstream?

- I played computer games - Starcraft and Warcraft - and there was another professional player, in my opinion, from Holland, with whom we all hacked to death. We had a strange relationship, one in which from hate to love is one step. We very fundamentally related to the matches against each other, during the game it almost reached insults, but outside of the games we talked perfectly normal.

Once he wrote to me that there is such a thing - poker. He said that he has been playing for a long time, wins a lot and thinks that I will succeed too. He persuaded me to create an account at PokerStars and transferred $ 50 there. In those days, the cards were not very common, especially among students, and it was a big problem to deposit funds into PokerStars.

In Starcraft, if you play better than your opponent, you will win 99% of the matches with him, so at first I had the same illusion about the poker results. Once having taken the 3rd place in the tournament for $ 10, I decided that now I will not go below the third. I didn't know anything about bankroll management either, of course, then.

- So you are then with this $ 50 and unwound?

- Not. At first, poker seemed boring to me, I tried and quit. But in the summer, after graduating from university [mekhmat MSU - approx. Ed.], I returned to it because there were rumors about other cyber sportsmen who win a lot of money there, and I thought that once I beat them in Starcraft, I would beat them in poker. I didn’t want to go to regular work at all, but there was an opportunity to earn money sitting at the computer, so I spent most of my time then.

- How did you learn to play?

- Basically I read English-speaking forums, where I learned, for example, about ICM. In those days, if you knew about ICM, you automatically had a ROI of 10% to the most expensive limits, and you could easily make millions.

- But you still did not become a millionaire before the World Series?

- I was very lazy, it was a common problem for all poker players. I remember how until 2008 we felt that someone lost a bankroll: “Well, you have to play low limits for a couple of months and the bankroll will be restored.” Then the money in poker was simply given, but many people were Ludomans and gave it back.

- What are the limits you played in 2008?

- I have such a cast of character that I quickly get tired of doing the same thing, and I take long breaks. So it was in Starcraft, and in poker. In 2006, I rather quickly won 20-30 thousand dollars, which was a huge amount for a student at that time, but then I started a downstrip and the desire to play disappeared.

I returned to poker only in the fall of 2007 at the lowest limits. It was possible to put together some bankroll in MTT pretty quickly, and in the spring of 2008 I started playing cash games. There was no particular problem on the NL100, but on the NL200 and the NL400, the downstrip started, and I spent the whole of April and May for days, 16 hours a day, so I came to the WSOP with a giant toy.

- And what was your tune offline?

- Then in Moscow casinos were still open, and I played tournaments in the “Crown”, there was some experience.

- How many tournaments did you play there in total?

- Pieces 15

- At what point did you meet Gipsy?

- Asma met him, also starcraft. When I first started playing Starcraft, I did it on some kind of free server and tore everyone into the trash. The level of play there was very low. Once, Asma went under the left nickname, and I even won one or two games with him on some kind of map. I lost the rest, but he was still so shocked that he invited me to the Orky club and became my “guardian” there. My cybersport career began with this, I began to constantly go to Orky, then participate in tournaments and eventually became cool.

- What about poker did you tell him?

- Yes. In one of the first breaks in the game, I gave him my account and once I even received such a letter from the PokerStars support team: “We have reviewed your application and have to report that only two cards, not four, participate in Omaha, therefore your combination was losing. In that hand, he collected a quads with three cards in his hand and for some reason lost.

But gradually, Asma finally figured out poker and rose to MTT to high limits. He first met Gipsy, and then pulled me and several other people into the team.

“And Gipsy took you all to Vegas?”

“Well, not immediately to Vegas.” At first we played some Moscow tournaments from him, and at the very end of 2007 we went to Vegas to play WPT with the legendary Max Katz. Naturally, nothing won.

- What terms did you play? Did the deal differ in tournaments in Moscow and Vegas?

- No, the conditions for all tournaments were the same - 20% with make-up.

- What is the composition of the players you went to the WSOP?

- Seryoga, me, Lika Gerasimova and Stas Alekhin.

- At what point in the series did you arrive?

- To the very beginning.

- And how many tournaments managed to play before Maine?

- A lot, and at the WSOP, and in the neighboring casinos, but almost all without prizes. We then hard grind. If I flew out of the tournament early, I immediately went to play cash.

Right before the main event, I played a $ 1,000 rebuy tournament. In the top 11, some fish started and I called with AK. He had KJ, but he moved me, and I flew out. I remember, as Like said then, that I would not have such a chance in my life. Very tiltoval and upset.

- They say you even thought to leave home before the main tournament?

- Gipsy had a bad financial situation, and there was not enough money for Maine, but in the end he put us all the same.

- You, Face and Stas?

- And myself. Lika almost got into the money, but I don’t remember about Stas and Seregu. By the way, in the house where we lived, we arranged a heads-up championship, in which 0.5% of the winnings in the main game were played. In the final, the ex-boyfriend Lika, beat the ex-girlfriend Gipsy, and then I paid him about 30 thousand dollars. All this looked ridiculous, but in fact, half a percent turned out to be quite good 

- Seven days in a row to return to the Rio Poker Room is every player’s dream, but also a serious test for the psyche, because every day may be the last in the tournament, and big money is getting closer.

- I slept very little. We finished late and first went to dinner at the same "lucky" steakhouse

- That is, there were some kind of aurist techniques!

- There were many receptions. But this steakhouse was also the only one that worked until 3 am. And then we drove home for another hour.

- Did you discuss the results of the day and plans for the next with Sergey?

- He gave some advice, play carefully and the like. I do not remember, to be honest.

- What did you do in the morning?

- We had a certain taxi driver ...

- Also lucky? And you demanded to send it every morning?

- Yes. Then he even wanted to introduce me to his sister .

- Do you remember any key hands to the nines against Chino of Rome who passed by the cameras?

- It seems that in the second day, when I already had a normal stack, I was transplanted to the table at which Viktor Ramdin sat. He watered hard, and at some point I bet 3-bet with AJ, and he answered 4-bet. I then realized that if I throw out now, then I will not have life at this table. And put a decent 5-bet. He thought for a long time and threw it away.

In the fourth or fifth day, I noticed how a person after a very long deliberation put a 3-bet into a bluff. In one of the following hands, I placed a 4-bet with the same thoughtful 3-bet without a card, and he threw it out. The next time I had aces in a similar situation, he called with the queens.

In the top 30, I bluffed - I had AQ on a Q-high board, but the king came out on the river and the opponent put the third barrel. Long thought, in the end I called and was right.

He was lucky somewhere, in the late stage he called with KJ and caught trips, but what to tell about it, especially since he could not get much.

- Did you meet anyone else known on the way to the final, except Ramdin?

- We played a little with Hansen, but did not remember anything special.

And, in the very last hand of one of the late days, I made a 3-bet with AK and got a push for a million chips when I had two and a half. I made the call, considering that in the last hand he decided to either go to the next day with a normal stack, or fly out, but he had aces ....