2015 PokerStars.com EPT Season 11 Malta

€5,300 Main Event
Day: 4
Event Info

2015 PokerStars.com EPT Season 11 Malta

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
a10
Prize
€687,400
Event Info
Buy-in
€5,000
Prize Pool
€4,340,750
Entries
895
Level Info
Level
38
Blinds
300,000 / 600,000
Ante
100,000

The Great Name Debate: Ignat Liviu or Liviu Ignat

Level 20 : 5,000/10,000, 1,000 ante
Liviu Ignat
Liviu Ignat

There are some truly great online players out there better known by their screen names than their given names. Take "Isildur1" for example. For years he was online poker's most notorious player, but no one knew who he was. Eventually PokerStars rolled back the curtain and revealed him to be none other than Sweden's Viktor Blom.

Another moniker famous in the virtual realm is that of "0Human0," a Romanian player who cut his chops playing no-limit hold'em and pot-limit Omaha on PokerStars. Like "Isildur1," the man behind the screen name remained a mystery for a good long while, but eventually it was revealed to be former engineering student Ignat Liviu. So it remained until today.

You see, in Romania it's traditional for one to give their family name first. So when you first meet the man behind "0Human0 " — who doesn't speak much English — he'll more than likely introduced himself as Ignat Liviu. As it happens, Ignat is among the 56 players returning to action today, and he's actually been seated at the feature table. That means he'll get some airtime, and so the TV crew needed to be 100% on his name, which was listed as "Liviu Ignat" on his PokerStars ID.

A similar situation happened with Ionel Anton, who was reported the other way around for many years before making the final table of the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, where he eventually finished fourth for $675,000. He too was from Romania, so that was the first clue.

Still, when it came to Ignat, HendonMob and past reports had him as "Ignat Liviu," and he never corrected those who wrote it that way – we even did it in an interview with him back in 2012. Well, just because everyone is doing it doesn't make it right. It's been confirmed that Ignat is indeed his family name, meaning when it comes to spelling it out, it should be Liviu Ignat.

Now that his name has been sorted out, let us tell you a little more about "0Human0." Rather, we'll let Ignat tell you.

"I started playing poker about four years ago," Ignat previously told PokerNews. "At the end of 2007, I deposited $250 at Full Tilt and lost it. Then I deposited $250 at PokerStars and began playing $0.10/$0.25 no-limit hold’em and moved up in stakes using standard bankroll management.

"In January 2008, I was playing $0.50/$1.00, then in the summer $2/$4, and by the end of the year $5/$10. In 2009, I started playing $10/$20 NLH and then $25/$50, and in 2010 and 2011 I played any stake at NLH I could. I even started $25/$50 pot-limit Omaha too."

According to highstakesdb.com, Ignat’s biggest outright win came in $100/$200 PLO on February 23, 2012. In the hand, action was five-handed when “MaiseE” ($50,291.26) opened for $400 under the gun, Ilari “Ilari FIN” Sahamies ($99,135) three-bet to $1,700 from the cutoff and Ville Wahlbeck ($19,120) four-bet $6,000 from the button. Ignat ($37,925) made the call from the small blind, both “MaiseE” and Sahamies came along for the ride, and it was four-way action to the {A-Spades}{9-Hearts}{J-Spades} flop.

Ignat was first to act and checked, opening the door for “MaiseE” to fire out $13,300. Sahamies got out of the way, Wahlbeck called off his remaining $13,120 and Ignat woke up with a check-raise all in for $31,925. “MaiseE” made the call and the board completed {10-Clubs} and {5-Hearts} on the turn and river respectively. Ignat rolled over {K-Hearts}{Q-Clubs}{10-Hearts}{4-Clubs} for Broadway, and it was good enough to pull in the $101,245 pot.

In addition to playing online, Ignat has padded his résumé with $220,545, with his biggest cash being $80,335 for a 14th-place finish in the EPT Prague Main Event back in December 2011.

Liviu “0Human0” Ignat’s Notable Live Tournament Results

DateEventPlacePrize
December 5, 2011EPT Prague €5,000 Main Event14th$80,335
January 31, 2012EPT Deauville €5,000 Main Event12th$65,757
May 6, 2013EPT Grand Final Main Event78th$32,334
October 21, 2011EPT San Remo €4,600 Main Event67th$20,681

"I really like playing the EPT's. I try to play most of them, it’s like a nice holiday, and something else different from the daily routine," said Liviu, who began today 37th in chips with 312,000. Ignat has shown he knows how to go deep in EPT Main Events, but he's still looking for his first final table. Will it happen here in Malta? We'll definitely be keeping an eye on Ignat Liviu, errrrr we mean Liviu Ignat, here on Day 4.

Tags: "0Human0"Ignat LiviuPokerNews Live Blog Feature