Blackmoonpoker interviewed Miska Lahti,

our first winner of the WSOP ticket.

A few days after the first lucky winner was announced, we went up north to Helsinki, Finland, to meet and congratulate him. In exchange for $15000 in WSOP Main Event ticket and travel money he agreed to give us an interview.

Here is what Miska Lahti had to say:

Hi Miska and congratulations! Please tell us about yourself. How did you learn the game?

Hello and thank you! My name is Miska Lahti, and as you already know, I’m Finnish. I started playing poker when I was 15. As kids, we used to play Finnish traditional card games with my friend and his father. Then we watched the movie Rounders and thought it would be cool to try out the real Texas Holdem poker. We tried to copy what the actors did in the movie, but we actually got it wrong at first. We played by the wrong rules for quite a while, feeling like Vegas highrollers.

What happened next?

When I turned 18, I started playing freerolls in many sites. I had like poker 40 accounts. In my free time, I was playing only poker and soccer. I made some cashes in freerolls and starting playing very low stakes to build my bankroll. I played heads up Sit’N Gos for a while, and then I moved to 6max cash. I played 6max for a few years, made some money, lost some money – I played for fun without actually thinking about bankroll management. After a few years of playing mid and low-stakes I went to the army. In Finnish army, you have to be away for a year, and you are only allowed to come back on the weekends. Obviously, I was too tired to even think about playing poker. I had to spend my entire little poker bankroll in that time due to personal reasons.

And when you came back…

After I came back from the army, I had to start building up my bankroll from scratch. I made a small deposit and started playing low stakes heads up NL at two sites at the same time. I played quite many hands in the first month and made some money. That allowed me to move up the stakes a little. Several months later, I was already close to the midstake levels. You could say I was just bumhunting and making money off bad players. I also play tournaments, but mostly on Sundays, when there are many good tournaments with large prize pools. The chance of winning is not big, because there are so many players, but if you do, your life can change in a second. I hope to win one of those someday.

How often do you play?

I try to play tournaments at least twice a month. During the week, I try to play at least 3 hours a day. I try to develop my game and study for at least an hour every day.

That’s really interesting. What do you do besides poker? Do you study somewhere?

I have a place in a university – economics and mathematics. However, I have been keeping this year off. I felt like I needed some rest and extra time for poker and my family.

How does your family feel about your hobby?

Well, at first they were a bit suspicious. Then they saw that I make good money. Now they are rather trusting.

How did you find Blackmoonpoker?

I was searching for good bonus offers and rakeback when I stumbled upon Blackmoonpoker.com. I signed up for a rakeback offer and decided to give the WSOP promotion a shot. I earned the required points in just one evening and got back to my new rakeback account. I cannot describe how shocked I was, when you told me I am the winner! This is all like a dream.

We are happy to make that dream come true. Tell us about your game. What type of poker do you enjoy the most?

Lately I’ve been playing a lot of 6max Omaha, I like it very much. Nevertheless, personally, I enjoy heads up Hold’em the most. That’s my game.

Do you have a favorite starting hand?

4d7s. I used to screw up with it a lot. It’s kind of a very old story with one of my friends. I was like 14 at the time. We played this coin machine and... *laughs*, but it’s a long story. Somehow, I always manage to get myself in trouble with that hand. You should always throw it away, its rubbish. A couple of months ago I checked my stats to see that I lost a few thousand with that hand, so…

Now that you know you are going to Vegas, how do you feel?

I feel awesome! I have never been to Vegas. I have always wanted to go there, but could not afford it. Blackmoonpoker makes my biggest dream come true.

What are your expectations of the largest poker tournament in the world?

Everyone keeps saying the field is very soft. There are so many satellite winners, so many Americans who simply come to play there, because it is THE Main Event. For many of them it is like a $10,000 lottery ticket. I will just go there and play with the field. I will play pretty cautious during the first levels, just to see how it goes and get the feel of it.

Did you share the great news with your friends? What did they say?

Of course I did! They were amazed and could not believe that I’m actually going there.

Good luck and keep us updated!

Thank you!

Miska will be leading a video blog on Blackmoonpoker.com during his Vegas adventure !
Don’t miss out!