Alex Bilokur

Member of the Russian poker school, Alex (Leonid) Bilokur made his first steps into the game we all love and enjoy so much some fifteen years ago, while he was at the Military Academy. Playing all sorts of card games was the favorite pastime, and poker was high on the list. He says he liked it a lot, together with other gambling games. Born n 1976, he did not have that many opportunities to play seriously during his youth, so it had to wait after he graduated and started his own business. When the things fell into place regarding his business ventures, he finally decided he had enough time to devote himself to poker more seriously. Without any important prior experience, excluding some online play here and there, he believes that he did not have any real conditions to start a poker career. But that did not stop him. In March of 2010 he traveled to Germany to take part in the EPT Berlin and, just like that, he proceeded to take down one of the side events, for total of $236,000 in prize money. After this score, he got more involved with the game. Apart from the monetary aspect, he was attracted to poker because of the “athletic component of the game”, as he has played sports for the most of his life, mostly boxing and football. Bilokur does not consider poker to be his job. It is more of a favorite hobby to him, and his time is divided about 70-30 between his business and his poker endeavors. High roller events are his preferred choice of tournaments because the competition is much tougher and it makes him play his best poker. He tries to avoid lower buyins because he finds that there are often weaker players in them who make illogical moves, and that makes it hard for him to know where he is in a hand. That said, one of his main goals is winning the WSOP bracelet, so he might need to play couple of those lower buyin events before he gets there. Bilokur’s tournament earnings exceed $2.5 million and include scores like the 1st place in the 2012 PCA High Roller for over $1.1 million and runner up finish in the EPT Barcelona High Roller event from the same year worth $363,000. When sitting at the tables, he can usually be seen wearing his lucky white shades. Although they are cheap, he says they grew on him and he loves to put them on while playing as he thinks they bring him luck. Apart from that, he is not superstitious and does not have any habits or “rituals” before sitting down to play. There are quite a few videos featuring Alex Bilokur here on PokerTube.