2011 November Niner Martin Staszko Wins Sunday Warm-Up For $110k

Czech poker pro Martin “filfedra” Staszko has given his bankroll a massive boost, after taking down the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up for a $110,478 payday. On his way to victory, the 38 year-old had to first overcome a huge field of 2,939 players in the $215 buy-in tournament, as well as a tough final table of six which included regular grinder Roman “RomeOpro” Romanovsky.
Final Table Payouts:
1 Martin Staszko  $110,478
2 H0LDiT             $75,973
3 Romanovsky     $52,249
4 danger0us         $35,938
5 slon7716             $24,716
6 Der Besen          $16,999
Martin Staszko was a chess expert before turning his attention to poker, and describing the transition he had to make in order to succeed in the game, Staszko said:
“Playing chess taught me how to endure long sessions by the table. Chess also required much more preparation, which is not needed for poker. So compared to chess, poker playing is a piece of cake with much higher earnings.”
Well, that’s fair enough then. And the plain speaking Czech can certainly back up his claim, too, having earned a whopping $5,859,731 playing live poker tournaments, his most noticeable performance of which was reaching the final table of the 2011 WSOP Main Event. Eventually, Staszko finished runner-up to Pius Heinz, but still walked away with a hefty $5,433,086 payday.
Staszko hails from the industrial town of Trinec, which has a small population of just 37,405 people, and when he traveled to Las Vegas to take part in the Main Event he owned a 15 year-old Toyota car and resided in a cramped apartment. Needless to say, the heady lifestyle Staszko enjoys now is a far cry from the days in which he followed his father’ footsteps by working in the Trinec Iron and Steel Works.
Unfortunately, his new found fame does sometimes come with a price tag, and back in 2011 he became the target of a kidnap plot which thankfully was foiled after the former chairman of the Czech Poker Association became suspicious of a request “to treat his [Staszko’s] father an unusual Christmas gift – a private poker game in Cannes featuring the newborn superstar.” The swindle was apparently the brainchild of crime lord boss Michael Svab, whose past victims were either robbed or in two cases ended up dead. Since then, the criminals have been arrested and are now behind bars.