Home / Poker News September 2012 / The Poker Grapevine – Who is “maratik”?
The Poker Grapevine – Who is “maratik”?
Posted by: Jo Martin - Sun, 2012-09-30 08:18
The story of “maratik” took the online poker world by storm at the conclusion of the WCOOP, the Main Event of which the player behind the moniker won. When “maratik” won the $5.2k WCOOP Main Event, surviving a starting field of 1,825 players, among them several high profile pros, not much was known about him. It later turned out that “maratik” had actually turned 40 PokerStars FPPs into one of the biggest tournament prizes in online poker today. As soon as news emerged of a micro-stakes grinder successfully tackling some of the world’s best at the WCOOP tables, everyone wanted to know more about the mysterious Russian. On Thursday, Marat Sharafutdinov sat down and talked with PokerStars about his accomplishment.
Sharafutdinov said that over the years he had specialized in small stakes action, especially FPP qualifiers to some of the major events hosted by PokerStars. He began playing FPP qualifiers as often as he could and soon results began to emerge: he secured several seats in the Sunday Million this way, as well as in some of the nightly $150
poker tournaments. Playing in hundreds of such qualifiers, Sharafutdinov also managed to hone his tournament skills. In one crucial hand in the Main Event, as the money bubble approached, a pro tried to push him out through a bluff, but “maratik” didn’t buy it and he managed to chip up nicely at a crucial stage of the event, thanks to that pot.
That pot gave him enough ammo to play the game the way he wanted to, which in his case meant 5 hands played in the following 4 hours. His patience bore fruit and he slowly managed to approach the final table. As soon as he hit the home stretch, he opened up, using his previously built-up image to bluff away. Sharafutdinov’s advice to those who would no doubt love to follow in his footsteps was to pay keen attention to bankroll management and to pick their risk-taking spots wisely.
