Mario Mosböck and Olga Iermolcheva Talked Their Souls Out

How Family Supports Mario on His Poker Journey

Mario has one of the earliest known semi-official starts to a poker career: he started playing poker at 11 years old after watching the WSOP broadcast on TV:

“It was the WSOP Main Event, and I just loved everything about it. So, I looked it up online, and then I found out that there was Full Tilt Poker. And I started playing freerolls. It must have been 2008 or 2009, and I was hooked from day one. Anything you could consume for poker, any video — I just watched it all, and it was my hyper-fixation back then.”

At the age of 13, Mario won his first big prize — $30,000 — under his mom’s name. Later, his family invested that money into stocks. His parents were also very supportive of their son’s passion all the way through:

“They were absolutely brilliant, and I’m still thankful for the way they handled it. It was just brilliant.

This is the short version: I played freerolls every day for two years until I had my first success, and the first time I won, I went to my mom. I had money on Full Tilt — it was right at the time of Black Friday — and I didn’t know what to do with it. I couldn’t withdraw it because it wasn’t in my name, so I had to tell her. And I still can’t believe that they supported me from the start. I told them — of course, it helped that I told them — that I was playing for money at the time. They knew I was playing poker for money at 12 or 13, and they trusted me to do the right thing, so they said: ‘Okay, you can play. And the money — we just invest.’ And we put it in stocks. So, yeah — it was absolutely brilliant how they handled that.”

By the way, one of the coolest traits of Mario as a poker player — we mean the ability to play nicely under a lot of pressure and even feel joy from it — he considers having adopted from his family. And even though some players think that this trait is something Mario trains on purpose, he absolutely denies it:

“That’s true — I do enjoy the moments where there is a lot of pressure. But I think it comes from my childhood.

We have an amazing relationship with my parents. But I’m a Taurus, and my dad is a Taurus too. He’s very strong-headed, and I was also pretty tough to deal with as a kid, so we fought a lot.

I was very stubborn; I always wanted to know everything, and, I guess, it was not easy to raise me. There was always the opportunity for a fight somewhere.

Growing up, I realized that either we fought a lot in my childhood, or my parents fought. That created an environment where anything could happen at any moment. And I feel that gave me the ability to excel under uncertainty and pressure because I was just very much used to it.

It translated well into sports […] and to poker pretty well too.

When I played the live high roller tournaments, I realized that I do like playing the high rollers, I do like playing in the spotlight, and I think that stems from there.

I think it’s just how I was raised, to be honest. I didn’t ‘prepare’ it. When I’m in those situations — I just do enjoy it.”

How Poker Addiction Complicates Balancing Life with the Game

Mario does not hide that he has a very addictive and almost unhealthy relationship with poker. But it is not consistent. Sometimes he has a hyperfocus on the game and plays non-stop until full exhaustion. At other times, he can be fully life-oriented without much attraction to the game. He explains this rollercoaster through one curious story:

“Like a year and a half ago, I played online poker all the time. It was the only thing that was even.

At that point, I started playing Triton High Rollers without any big success, yet it was okay. I realized that I didn’t love how I was doing it at the time and that I needed to change something.

What did I do then? I just didn’t play for two months. I didn’t study for two months.

It was August-September, then I came back in October — and I absolutely loved it again. I loved the studying part, and I loved the playing part. And funny enough — that was, afterwards, the most successful six months of my career. 

And I remember [even when] I went to Monaco last year as a financial decision, but I would have played it anyway because I loved it.

I just know for myself that I perform the best. I’m not saying that this is because of that, but this definitely plays a role. And now I always make sure that when I play, it is really a conscious decision, that this is the one thing I want to do.”

Mario’s Experience of the Triton Poker Invitational

In 2023, Mario participated for the first time in the $200K Triton Poker Invitational as a pro player. This experience was nearly mind-blowing for him due to the level of organization and the vibe throughout the game:

“This is by far my most favorite tournament. I remember last year, it was right at the bubble — and the bubble was big, like $200,000–$500,000. A lot of the VIPs crushed the pros in that event. There were like 20 or 14 players left, and 8 or 9 of them were VIPs. At the bubble, I played with Danny Tang, and I remember Haralabos Voulgaris had his big poodle who goes everywhere. The cutest dog in the world — and he just sits at the table with us! So, this was for me the biggest tournament I’ve ever played — and it just felt like a home game.

It was brilliant. The atmosphere there, for a pro or for a VIP, is just unbeatable.”

Mario was also pleased by the poker pros who put effort into making this and other events interesting for all participants:

“The nice thing also about it is that pro players know how to create a good experience for the VIP players.

This event is a thing where you have to build a network and you have to build a relationship with people. But that doesn’t only stop at the invitational. You need to make sure that whoever plays as a VIP feels welcome and whoever plays as a pro feels welcome too. And that atmosphere, and in itself the dynamic, is absolutely brilliant for playing poker.

It’s for a lot of money, of course, but from a personal relationship level, it just feels really nice, and Triton is doing fantastically to put up the events.”

How Mario Defines the Toughest Opponents

One of the most popular topics in the poker community is the ranking of different poker players. A lot of poker pros create their own lists of the craziest opponents, toughest players, strangest personalities at the table, and more.

Surprisingly, Mario doesn’t share this passion for ranking personalities in the game. Instead, he uses a different tactic and a specific set of rules to define the toughest poker pros:

“It’s not as specific; it’s more like a group of players. It’s very hard to differentiate. I would say the toughest one is Timothy Adams, but Mikita Badziakouski is very tough to play against too.

In the high poker world, you have some players who are really good, but they have certain tendencies where you kind of know how to get them.

And then you have players who are just so well-rounded — it feels like you cannot really get a grip on them because they play so well in every aspect of the game.

The players that come to my mind are Jason Koon, Adrian Mateos, Huan Pardo. They are super good in different areas and also understand all the aspects of where they can be out of line and where they need to be in line. 

That creates a dynamic where, if you play against them, the only thing you can do is try to match. There’s not really a big angle that you can take against them. And I think in the live high roller scene, these are the very best players, and you do notice them. Like Seth Davies or Chris Brewer or any other member of this very elite group that plays poker on a different level. And I think many players don’t realize how good these players are.”

The Big Open Secret of High Stakes Players

While Mario considers high discipline one of the most important similarities between poker and other professional sports, he admits that he himself isn’t very disciplined in reality. And he has a good reason for this:

“I study maybe 45 minutes or an hour on average a day, and I can tell you that none of the high pros are working three or four hours every day. They’re not as disciplined as you would think.

There are definitely exceptions, but I think the key to becoming a high-stakes player is to work efficiently on the right things and make the time you work as productive as possible.

The time doesn’t matter that much. It’s more about how efficient the time you spend on it is.”

Mario understands that people tend to put high-stakes players on a pedestal and see them as someone out of reach. But he reminds us that in reality, even very high-skilled players make mistakes, so you don’t need to idolize or extol them on your poker journey:

“When you grow up in poker and go up in stakes, you play and then realize: ‘Okay, they have leaks here and there.’

I think it’s important to always challenge your beliefs and not put someone out of reach because, in poker, there are no unknowns — nobody is a secret. 

I think it’s important to believe that you can make that happen for yourself and just work on it.”