Valdemar 'Luigi' Kwaysser plays online at Full Tilt Poker

Like many students, Valdemar 'Luigi' Kwaysser often found himself with very heavy eyelids while attending classes at the Corvinus University of Budapest. But unlike his classmates, the lack of sleep was not down to the excessive hours spent residing in Budapest’s student bars. Valdemar was instead spending his twilight hours hunting down the best online poker action.

Having grown up in Budapest, Valdemar began playing poker in 2005; mainly micro-stakes Five-Card Draw with friends, before moving onto No-Limit Hold ‘em. He quickly became a student of the game, devouring every book, video or article he could find, while building up his experience by playing Freerolls.

After some success playing at low stakes and buoyed by his marked improvement through his poker studies, Valdemar made the difficult and risky decision to put his studies on hold and turn professional. Throughout his poker career, Kwaysser has continued to study the game intensely, no more than in March 2006 when he took a whole month off to learn how to play MTTs.

Within a couple of months, Valdemar took down a $133K payday in an online tournament which enabled him to play bigger live and online tournaments regularly.

Kwaysser’s first live success came when he won the $2,000 No-Limit Hold ‘em event at the Latin American Poker Tour in San Jose, Costa Rica. Kwaysser had won his seat playing online in a $200 satellite and bested the field of 398 players for a first prize of $274,102.

In March 2010, Kwaysser was once again taking the winner’s acclaim, this time at the Italian Poker Tour in San Remo. Valdemar entered the €2,000 No-Limit Hold ‘em Main Event with 488 players, where he fought back from being the short stack at the final table, to claim the first prize of €227K.

In June 2010, Kwaysser once again headed to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker. The Hungarian had four WSOP cashes prior to 2010, with a 53rd place finish in the $3,000 No-Limit Hold ’em – Triple Chance in 2008 his best finish.

However, that all changed when he entered the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold ‘em event on June 20th, 2010. The tournament attracted 268 entries and despite a self-confessed lack of experience with the pot-limit version of the game, Kwaysser was the last man standing for the coveted gold WSOP bracelet and the first prize of $617,214.

Valdemar is an active member of the Hungarian poker community, providing similar videos and articles to those that he devoured earlier in his career. His advice to beginners follows a similar tack, "Spend most of your time learning, working on your game without playing and you are going to improve much faster than the others." Of all the skills a top-class poker player needs to acquire, Kwassyer puts one above all others, "The ability to forget your own hand and focus on your opponent’s range."

Away from the poker tables, Kwaysser is a keen sportsman, enjoying running, playing soccer, table tennis and billiards, plus go-karting.

Valdemar 'Luigi' Kwaysser can be found playing online at Full Tilt Poker