Interview: Stefan "RedRat" Hadzhistoikov Manager of Pokernews Bulgaria

Stefan is a person who i recently met and getting to know his poker success and career i was inspired even more for my project "How Poker Changed My Life" that aims to introduce poker and how it changes our lives  to peoples who are not familiar with it and probably need that change.
After all Stefan Hadzhistoikov is a really honest helpful and dedicated to his job person who won my respect in a minute.
And here is the interview read and learn my friends he is the first of the many successful players that ill interview to show you that everyone can have a better life if he put enough effords.


Hello , Stefan how did you find out about poker online and how did it started a flame in your heart ?


As most people I learned about the game from a friend, and it didn’t took long to get seriously in it. I play cards since I can remember myself, so getting in poker was kind of natural for me, and quickly after I started I was doing pretty well – actually I managed to raise my starting bankroll of $100 to almost $250 in one week playing $0.05/$0.10 limit games. Now it’s like, wow, how I managed to do that back in the days? It was more than 5 years ago.

What do you do for a living now and how did poker helped you in general?

I was playing for living for almost 3 years, and during that time started to get even more dedicated to everything related to the game, and the beginning of 2007 saw me becoming a local representative of one of the world’s biggest poker sites www.pokernews.com . It’s been now almost 5 years that I work for PokerNews, and that is something that changed my life in many different positive ways. I don’t have much time to play now, but I’m making a living with my hobby, and that is just wonderful. I’ve made new friends and I get work with amazing and very talented people from all over the world, every day. For one year I was even part of the management of the company after I got a promotion and was hired to do a job that required to look after all 30+ websites that the company has – that was really great experience and during that time I learned a lot of valuable things, which are now helping me in my everyday work and my communication and relation with other people.

How did poker changed your life and how did it changed it? For better or worse?

It changed my life in so much positive ways, and if I have to get in details here I can really write a whole book about it . The game has so many similarities with life itself, and it can teach you a lot of valuable lessons. To be patient, to be responsible, to be brave, to learn from your mistakes, so you can improve your game and yourself as well. As everything else the start is difficult and the test for your EGO and your emotions is quite a challenge, but if you manage to learn how to control both then you take it to the next level where every bad beat and every mistake is just something that you are supposed to experience and learn from, so you can move forward.Poker is a very challenging mental game, and the more you get into it, the more you learn not just to play better, but how to become a better person, and how to make better decisions – not just on the poker table, but in life in general. Most people hardly make it to the point where they realize how the game can actually help them improve as a person, because they are not committed and they are looking for short term money results, and if they fail to complete that, they give up and get frustrated. I believe that’s what separates the people who succeed from those who fail. It’s just like with everything else, if you fail over and over again in doing something, that just means you are doing something wrong, and the problem is in you. The sooner you understand that the better chance you have to get on the road to success.

Which one of your successes are making you proud the most? :)

I must say that I’m proud of everything I’ve accomplished for the past five years, and as weird as it might sound, the winning of money doesn’t make me feel as good as the feeling of playing the best game, and making the best possible decisions and taking the first place. Of course the money part is nice, but for me the other means more. But mostly proud I’m with the game I played back in October 2009, where I managed to make 10 final tables out of 30 tournaments for one month, and along with some cash game success and three 1st places I finished the month with around $18,000 profit, and this is still the best run I’ve ever had. I was always playing on the micro to middle stakes and up to day I have cashed out around $80,000 playing online poker.


Best of luck to everyone who decide to walk my way, and I’m always happy to give advice or suggestion or simply discuss a hand or anything with anyone.

We can always learn from peoples like Stefan and we shouldn't just pass away from the knowledge they have.Read learn and i truly wish you all to have at least half the accomplishments he have.

(Stefan "RedRat" Hadzhistoikov At IFP London)