Yevgeniy Timoshenko aka Jovial Gent and bballer88
Yevgeniy Timoshenko was born in Ukraine in 1988 but at just ten years-old he and his family moved to Washington in the United States, living in a town called Mukilteo. His first taste of poker came in 2004 when he was sixteen years old and watched the WSOP television coverage, seeing Greg Raymer get crowned champion. Timoshenko was intrigued by the game and wanted to learn how to play so he searched the internet reading the rules and poker strategy, then found Ultimate Bet. He created an account but instead of depositing he played the play-chip games and the freerolls. After long hours at the play-chip tables he eventually cashed in a freeroll earning him $6. With this he entered a multi-table tournament and ended up winning it for $300, and he has never looked back since.
With his new bankroll he began playing at the real-money cash games and became a regular winner at the Limit Hold’em games. He shot up through the stakes at a lightning speed and grew his bankroll into thousands. As he became more successful he created PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker account’s because they have the best MTT schedules. Playing as ‘Jovial Gent’ on PokerStars he earned a fearsome reputation as one of the best NLHE MTT players in internet poker. He won various big tournaments including the Daily $100 Rebuy for over $30,000, the Sunday $200 Rebuy for over $60,000, and a final table in the famous Sunday Million for another $60,000. Then in 2006 he took down the Sunday Million tournament for over $250,000. By now he had the whole poker community admiring him and seeing him as the best online tournament player in the world and he went on to win the Bodog Sunday $100k, and Full Tilt Poker $1k Monday, as well as final-tabling the Ultimate Bet Sunday $200k, all of which are notorious for their fierce competition.
With so much success online, and a bankroll of over $1 million, Timoshenko decided to travel the live tournament circuit in 2007 where he was just as impressive and successful. His first major live tournament win was at the 2007 Paddy Power Irish Open where he won $166,000 in a NLHE side event. He then travelled to France where he made two final tables for a combined $50,000.
In 2008 he travelled to Macau in Asia for the 2008 Asian Poker Tour. He entered the $5,000 Main Event and ended up winning it for $500,000. Then only two weeks later he was in Spain for the EPT Barcelona Open where he finished second in a No-Limit Hold’em side event for $134,000. He then made his first WSOP appearance at the 2008 WSOPE where he entered the £1,500 NLHE event and final tabled it, eventually finishing third for $100,000.
However 2009 proved to be the most impressive year for Timoshenko so far in his poker career. Two months after turning 21, he decided to enter his first tournament in the U.S – the WPT Seventh Annual Five Star World Poker Classic at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Timoshenko was able to overcome a final table which included Scotty Nguyen and ‘ElkY’ to defeat Ran Azor heads-up to take down a the massive $2.1 million first prize. He also made three WSOP cashes which combined to $90,000. Then just months after his massive live result for $2.1 million, he took down the 2009 PokerStars WCOOP (World Championship of online Poker) Main Event. The tournament was a $5,000 buy-in event which attracted 2,144 players but it was Timoshenko who was victorious, defeating ‘Udon Wannit’ heads-up to win a staggering $1.7 million and the crown of 2009 WCOOP Champion.
You can play with Timoshenko at PokerStars where he plays as ‘Jovial Gent’ or at Full Tilt Poker where his alias is ‘bballer88’.
