About two weeks ago we had the privilege of announcing a brand new no deposit bonus campaign from Good Day 4 Play, a poker room that was established last year but already has thousands of active players. You might have seen Mikalai Vaskaboinikau's face on one of many promotional banners since the launch.
Vaskaboinikau is a Belarusian Good Day 4 Play poker pro with some really nice results on his poker resume (all from last year!), including an EPT Malta High Roller 3rd place finish, an EPT Prague final table, and a Belarus Poker Tour High Roller title. The fact is that he did so well last year that he recently was awarded with a Best International Belarusian Player of The Year trophy! Now, we hope you will enjoy this short interview with Mikalai Vaskaboinikau!
Tell us a bit about yourself and when you came in contact with the poker world.
I started playing poker when I was a student. My friend was playing on a site on the ipoker network and I watched him win 2k in a tournament. It made me very interested in poker, especially since it was similar to sports with tough competition and big money at stake. I decided to play some tournament poker myself (online and live). It didn't start out that great, but eventually I started to win more and more! 
Did you read poker strategy books or how did you improve your game?
No, I didn't read any books on poker. I had two coaches: Danila "dancer king" Kisilev for online poker and Jenya Gavrilovich for live poker.
Kisilev is the head coach of a PokerStars site in Russia. He has very good results online, including two runner up finishes in Limit Hold'em tourneys in the previous SCOOP. The mathematical knowledge is very important when playing Limit Hold'em... and Kisilev is one of the best Limit Hold'em players in Russia.
Jenya Gavrilovich has a poker school in Belarus, Minsk named pokerbrothers.by... and he's very famous in this region. His has some great results from playing online and live tournaments, including Sunday Million, Sunday Rebuy, EPT, and RPT titles! He's now teaching people how to play live poker - about tells, how not to reveal any information to poker stars such as Mike Mcdonald etc.
You earned your biggest payday to date last year after finishing 3rd in the EPT Malta High Roller. How was it to play against some of the best players in the world? How did you celebrate your €225k payday?
My secret to success in, for example, this tournament was to not care who the other players were...and I know I'm the best player when I play my game. After the tournament I went to a Japanese restaurant and had dinner and drinks with my friends, nothing special!
What buy-ins do you play online?
My average buy-in is $60 but, in fact, I don't like to play tournaments with less than $100 buy-in. I mostly play turbos and hyper turbos so I don't have to spend a lot of time in front of the computer. On the other hand I prefer to play slower structures live. The reasons for this is that you only play one tourney at the time, less variety and more money at stake (also higher buy-in).
Whom/who do you consider the best tournament player(s) in the world?
I would say my friends Bryn Kenney, Byron Kaverman and Antony Zinno. Kenney is very aggressive, Kaverman and Zinno are very solid players, all of them know how "modern tournament poker" should be played.
What advice would you give those who want to make a living from playing poker?
You must use proper bankroll management. Don't drink alcohol or/and use drugs when you are playing Also, you shouldn't make any quick decisions - think for 5-10 seconds minimum before making any decision.
Tell us a bit about your sponsor, Good Day 4 Play.
I think it is a very good poker room. It has great software and there are no professionals (only amateurs), so it is a great poker site for beginners. Besides the Good Day 4 Play windows software, we have Apps for android and iPhone that make it possible to play poker from anywhere!
Final question. What are your poker-plans for 2016?
I will go to EPT Monte Carlo EPT 100% and hopefully all other EPT's as well. I might go to some Russian series like RPT or BPT, just to have some good time.
