Railbird Report: Timofey "Trueteller" Kuznetsov Gives Rare Interview

August 17, 2017

Remember when "Isildur1" came out of nowhere to battle the big names on Full Tilt Poker? Nobody knew who he was. The buzz was real. People of poker forums tossed out the names of just about any Swede they knew; there was even one guy on TwoPlusTwo who supposedly went on a trip to Scandinavia to find out who was behind the screen name.

And then, after having signed with PokerStars, Viktor Blom was introduced from behind a little curtain in the Bahamas before playing a heads-up match Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier.

A lot of the top online players start out anonymous, only to share their screen name with other players, and before you know it, the entire world knows. One of the screen names that wasn't figured out for quite some time was "Trueteller". The Russian player was a force to be reckoned with, regarded one of the best by many, without anyone knowing who the player behind the account was. Mike McDonald jokingly wondered if it was Robert Williamson III at one point, just about the last player in the world people thought it could be.

"I enjoy the tension about it. I think I can handle it really well compared to other players."

Eventually, Timofey Kuznetsov was revealed as the talented player. There are only so many players who can buy into Super High Rollers and play extremely well, so when the young Russian Kuznetsov entered the live scene, the world found out. Still, interviews he didn't really do much. He was talkative enough at the table to other players, but talking to the media wasn't something he did just yet. Or maybe nobody asked him, also a possibility.

Paul Phua and his team did interview Kuznetsov, the first video interview in English with Kuznetsov as far as we know. Kuznetsov tells how he got into poker, how he improves his game, his favorite place to play, how he came up with the screen name "Trueteller", what he would've done if he hadn't gotten into poker, and much more. The interview, done during the Triton Super High Roller in Montenegro not too long ago, is only 3:44 long, and well worth it.

Three Biggest Pots Online

Timofey "Trueteller" Kuznetsov won this week's biggest hand online, raking in a $61,800 pot against Sami "Lrslzk" Kelopuro. In terms of big blinds, the second biggest hand of the week was a bit bigger. All in all, no records were broken this week as no $200/$400 ran. The coming week, a lot of the players are in Barcelona for the PokerStars Championship, so high stakes online action might be a bit tamer.

1) Timofey "Trueteller" Kuznetsov Wins a $61,800 Pot (308 Big Blinds) of Sami "Lrslzk" Kelopuro
^{($100/$200 PLO Heads Up)}

Kuznetsov opened his button for $680 and Kelopuro 3-bet to $2,120. Kuznetsov 4-bet to $6,440 and Kelopuro called.

With $13,040 in the middle, the flop came 3♠4♦A♦. Kelopuro checked and Kuznetsov bet pot. Kelopuro shoved for $24,380 and Kuznetsov called.

Things weren't looking too bright for Kelopuro who was drawing slim with his two pair. They ran the turn and river twice, and both times nothing but blanks showed up. The first time it came 4♥, 4♠, the second time it ran out K♥, 7♦.

2) "Grazvis1" Wins a $52,874 Pot (528 Big Blinds) of "BERRI SWEET"
^{($50/$100 PLO 5-handed)}

"EEE27" opened under the gun for $450 and found two callers ("FerMorhy" in the cutoff and "BERRI SWEET" in the big blind) before big blind "Grazvis1" squeezed to $2,350. That was enough to get rid of "EEE27" but "FerMorhy" and "BERRI SWEET" they both called.

With $7,600 in the middle, all three checked on J♥9♦2♦.

The A♥ hit the turn and "BERRI SWEET" bet pot for $7,595. "Grazvis1" called and "FerMorhy" folded.

The pot was now $22,790 as the 2♠ completed the board. "BERRI SWEET" bet $6,835 and "Grazvis1" shoved all in for $15,042. "BERRI SWEET" called, but his 8♣J♠Q♦A♠ turned out beat by "Grazvis1"'s 2♥Q♣K♦K♥.

3) "Grazvis1" Wins a $52,874 Pot (528 Big Blinds) of "mickl58"
^{($50/$100 PLO 5-handed)}

Russian player "mickl58" opened under the gun for $450 and "nimzon" (hijack), "Grazvis1" (cutoff) and "BERRI SWEET" (big blind) all called.

With $1,990 in the middle, the flop came 3♥8♠Q♥. "BERRI SWEET" and "mickl58" checked before "nimzon" bet $1,002.15. "Grazvis1" called, "BERRI SWEET" folded, "mickl58" called.

As the Q♠ hit the flop, "mickl58" and "nimzon" checked. "Grazvis1" bet $2,485 into $4,996 and "mickl58" checj-raised to $12,428. "nimzon" folded and "Grazvis1" shoved for $22,415. "mickl58" called.

The river 6♣ gave "mickl58" a full house too, but it wasn't big enough to beat "Grazvis1"'s top full house.

Online High-Stakes Action Last 7 Days

In a relatively quiet week online, Timofey "Trueteller" Kuznetsov ended up the biggest winner, followed by "Grazvis1" and "BERRI SWEET". "mickl58" and Viktor "Isildur1" Blom were this week's biggest losers, but the swings have been bigger before for both.

The 2017 Leaderboard

Compared to last week, nothing much has changed. "BERRI SWEET" and Timofey "Trueteller" Kuznetsov won a little more, Viktor "Isildur1" Blom lost a little. The order, though, is still the same as last week. With Blom and Kuznetsov only $720 apart, that might just change next week.

Same goes for the list of biggest losing players. Two of them, Dani "supernova9" Stern and Bill "GASTRADER" Perkins didn't play. Like last week, Sami "Lrslzk" Kelopuro won, but not enough to change the order.

The above top winning and losing players in online poker for 2017 only consist of PokerStars accounts. All public data courtesy of HighStakesDB.com. If you want to opt out of being listed in this PokerNews update on high-stakes action, send an email with your username to [email protected].

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  Isildur1 Luke Schwartz Sami Kelopuro Viktor Blom Timofey Kuznetsov Trueteller

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  Viktor BlomSami KelopuroLuke SchwartzTimofey KuznetsovTrueteller