We got to meet Martin Kanaker early on Sunday before the action began and right away we knew he would be up to something special. Kanaker has been playing poker for more than a dozen years and more recently is part of the Swedish Value Town community for the past few years.
Although Kanaker is originally from Sweden, he traveled to Bratislava with several of his friends from Malta which he currently calls home. This instantly created some fun and excitement in the €125 Crazy Pineapple, which he went on to win for €1,565 after agreeing to a three-way deal with Matthew Adams and Morten Lie. Let's just say that there is a good reason that in our coverage we dubbed this event the "Crazier Pineapple."
"It was fun last night," said Kanaker. "I came to Bratislava with a bunch of friends in Malta and five of us were on the final table of the event."
Three of these players were unable to make the money with Teemu Hietala, Adam Tomasson, and Dzintars Lacis heading to the rail one-by-one to start the final table. We will chat more about Tomasson soon, but the other player that came from Malta in Adams as we already mentioned was part of the three-way deal.
Meanwhile, there were multiple prop bets, the first of which didn't lead to a great result. In fact, the opposite was the case.
"Anastasia and myself initiated a stand-up game similar to what you see in cash games," said Kanaker. "It got a little confusing in the beginning with players moving tables and hitting the rail. People had to move to other tables due to balancing. However, the dust settled we tried the second time went off without a hitch because we were doing it across multiple tables. This didn't work out for me as I was the last player to win a hand and was unable to sit down until I paid every player involved a €5 penalty. I escaped the third time but my friend Adam (Tomasson) was less fortunate."
Although things started rough for Kanaker it was all fun and games and there were obviously much bigger things to come. In addition to winning the title, he felt pride in winning a separate prop bet against Tomasson.
"Adam suggested that we have a fun seven-deuce game," said Kanaker. "I thought it sounded like fun and agreed. What was even more funny is that we were the only two players to participate in the tournament with the rest of the players already knowing what bet we had going on. That was fun because our three-bets or large bets on various streets had people thinking does he have seven-deuce or really have a hand."
The bet was that the last player to table seven-deuce in a hand they won would be treated to a luxury dinner at a restaurant of the winner's choice. Of course, the loser in this case Tomasson, will have to pay up.
"It was much better winning the prop bet against Adam," said Kanaker with a little sarcasm. "Of course, I am happy to win the title to kick start The Festival in a good way but also now have bragging rights for the week with Adam while making sure he sees how much I enjoyed every bite of our meal later in the week."
Today, Kanaker plans to hop into Day 1b of the €250 Bratislava Deepstack. We wish him the best of luck in his quest to win a second title.
