Kunimaro Kojo

While Japan is not a hotbed for producing well-known tournament poker talent, the country’s own Kunimaro Kojo appeared on the scene in 2011 and made an impact during his short time playing on the live circuit. According to The Hendon Mob, Kojo’s first cash came in May of 2011 when he finished fourteenth in the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em Championship at the WSOP. Considering the high buy-in priced out most amateurs and left a field that included heads-up specliast Olivier Busquet, seminal poker figure Tom Dwan and English poker star Jake Cody, Kunimaro did exceptionally well for his first WSOP outing.

After picking up three additional cashes at the series, he went on to catch two runner-up finishes in October – the first at EPT London and the second at the WSOPE in Cannes. Kojo kicked off the following year with a win at the PCA in the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em 8-Max Turbo event. This time around, the final table included the likes of Isaac Haxton and WSOP Main Event winner Jonathan Duhamel. In an astonishing performance, the Japanese poker mystery beat a number of experienced pros to claim his first major tournament title.

One month on, Kunimaro went on to earn his second – this time at EPT Deauville in the €5,000 Heads-Up event. On this occassion, he beat none other than Swedish online poker wizard Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom to win the trophy.

Since the summer of 2012, there have been no documented tournament cashes for Kojo and it appears that his time spent in the high-stakes MTT world was short but memorable. He will go down as an esoteric player that appeared out of nowhere to conquer some of the toughest in the game.