Alwin, screen name “plens”, had both focus and destiny on his side when he took down SCOOP #20-M for $61,657.

On the road to the final table he “turned the nut straight on the button” against two all-ins, and made “quads against a full house”.

In Alwin’s own words, “poker can be easy sometimes”.

But no matter how well the cards are falling, poker also takes skill and focus. The kind where someone could rob your house without you noticing.

“With 100 players left, I realized I had a shot at the big one. That special feeling takes over, the reason why we play poker tournaments. Completely in the zone, I closed the lobby, 100% focused on the table. Wife and kids were in bed. Burglars could have robbed the TV in front of me without me noticing it,” says Alwin.

It could have been an easy ride but, down to just a couple of tables, Alwin got suckered into a big pot and confronted by pro Francisco “Tomatee” Benitez.

The SCOOP victory will help Alwin “plens” to tick off his poker bucket list

“I lost 35M chips calling it down with a big combo draw. It was depressing, with some big stacks bullying the last tables and “Tomatee” to my right. These guys hammered me down to under 50M.”

Alwin’s fortunes changed when his opponent made a major missclick.

“I defended my BB with K7. The flop came Kxx, and my opponent c-bet 24M, when he wanted to bet 2.4M. I knew what was going on, and shoved my 50M to the middle. It sounds unfair, but we cannot reverse the bet and I had to take my chance there. My King holds and I got back up to 100M chips again.”

The win comes at a good time for Alwin. Last year, he lost he job after 25 years employment in IT as a systems administrator in the finance industry, but has now got everything back on track.

“It feels like losing half of your stack before getting to the final table, and doubling up again!”, he says.

Alwin entered SCOOP #20-M after his planned holiday to Spain was cancelled. Now, the old-school poker player has $61k to celebrate turning 50.

The win will help speed up Alwin’s poker bucket list too. “The Prague and Barcelona poker series are still on there”.

We’ll see you in the future at the EPT!