Living by John Leonidou

High stakes

Amateur poker players were keen to take on one of the world’s upcoming players when he was in Cyprus last week. But could they win?

In attempt to better know Crazy Cypriot poker man Argyris Argyou – the Cypriot student taking the poker world by storm with his winnings and never ending banter – seven arranged a poker tournament with him as the main guest one night last week.

It was a fitting venue – played in an eighth-floor apartment with the lights of a Nicosia night as backdrop.

In the few years that he has been playing online and at mammoth poker tournaments around Europe and the US, the 24-year-old has amassed around $200,000 in poker winnings.

As the cigars lit and beer cans cracked open in Nicosia, all the players gathered at the table knowing they could very well be in for a roasting as Argyrou took his chair.

Unlike the other players at the table, who boast winning family games at Christmas, some of Argyrou’s major wins include $119,118, which he won online on September 17 last year before finishing fourth to win $54,000 in a $200 buy-in Sunday Million tournament a few months later.

Despite the “marginal” difference in pedigree, all players had agreed to pay £25 to enter the tournament – not the cash game as that would be illegal – and who ever was left by himself with all the chips at the end of the night would win the pot.

Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t our man Argyrou – who in all fairness was more than happy to sit back and watch us try and tear each other part.

When he did go out, despite holding a pair of tens, he went out with dignity, saying that in poker you need luck overall to succeed as well as talent.

The actual tournament was one by Adrian Cleave – an internet/media company director – whose aggressive tactics, accompanied by a good slice of luck, saw him eventually take the pot and a prize of around £175. The runner-up was Cyprus Mail sports editor Soteris Charalambous.

Not a bad night for us amateurs and what is for sure is that Argyrou will not be so gentle with us next time around…

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.