Interview with Arturs "IKSecret" Kurnajevs
Charles Hawk: How are you? How is your summer going?
Arturs 'IKSecret' Kurnajevs: I am good overall, thanks! I ruptured ankle ligaments at the end of spring, so my summer was not going great. Was cut from riding motorcycle. Couldnt do any other sports much too because of ankle, so I mostly spent my time home playing poker, worked on my mtt game, did learning on other poker formats, meditated more etc. I did gain 12 kg of weight on, because w/o many things that bring me happiness daily (sports, riding, even city walking), I slipped to bad eating habbits from time to time.
Now my ankle is almost healed, I got back to gym and did my first motorcycle trackday last week. Went back to eating well a while ago too after thinking a lot about bad eating habbits and how I harm myself, so I am back on track with everything.
Charles Hawk: Congratulations - you moved to your own apartment recently.
Arturs 'IKSecret' Kurnajevs: Thanks, there are still few things that need fixing and it will be done in next week.
Charles Hawk: Few months ago you travelled to Sochi, Russia to play in Party Poker festival. What are your impressions of Sochi? Any photos? How are fields there comparing with other stops in the world?
Arturs 'IKSecret' Kurnajevs: I liked area a lot, enjoyed staying there! I was in city of Sochi just for one day and it was raining, so I didnt do much sightseeing there. But I loved fresh sea air and infrastructure was good, lots of parks, long beach area.
Casino itself was in Sochi area called Krasnaya polyana, it is located near good skiing resort with beautiful nature, mountains all around.
Besides good spots for skiing and hiking there is one of world's highest bungee jump spots.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ELDLn5qtYA Casino is located in Marriot hotel, which had good price/performance deals at the time. Hotel had really nice spa area and good gym.
TBH I haven't played much live poker, from my perspective field seemed soft, there were lots of amateur/fun players.
Charles Hawk: Mike Sexton took over the leadership becoming CEO of Party Poker. Any thoughts related that? Any predictions what could come from it for poker pros?
Arturs 'IKSecret' Kurnajevs: It is very good for sure, that someone with big knowlege of poker world is responsible for things that matter.
Charles Hawk: How are things with husng hypers there?
Arturs 'IKSecret' Kurnajevs: Games get worse every year, because this format have always attracted many players. With pokerstars lowering rakeback now it is even worse, but at the top you can still make some $.
Tho with rappidly growing solver market I think games will get much worse at fast rate :( All one will need in near future to beat game is working hard away from tables. Because with rakeback so low and edges super slim only poker sites will win.
Charles Hawk: Pokerstars just finished limited access alpha of power-up. Info on full launch coming soon! Have you tried it? Have you discussed about it with your poker friends? What are your predictions about this format?
Arturs 'IKSecret' Kurnajevs: I haven't tried it. I saw that new format was introduced, but I was too busy working on life stuff to learn more about it and I don't like to play games I dont know rules of if it involves $ :D