The Story of Stefan “Stefan11222” Burakov – An Online High-Stakes Legend

Stefan “Stefan11222” Burakov’s Poker Journey Began in 2013

He discovered poker during his third year at university. That summer, he and his classmates joined a construction team in Novoshakhtinsk (Rostov Region, Russia). With little else to do in their free time, the group found a new pastime: poker. For the month they lived and worked there, evenings were spent playing the game.

The game hooked Stefan. He began reading articles on poker theory, developing an intense, almost obsessive passion for it. While others thought his interest in poker would fade, it didn’t. Upon returning home, Stefan spent months studying theory, took a few free $50 starting deposits, and quickly began building his bankroll.

His ascent through the micro-stakes was meteoric, clearing limits in just days.

“This was my mistake: I should have started playing sooner instead of just studying the game. I thought I needed a solid theoretical foundation before I could begin. I didn’t know any poker players back then and was trying everything for the first time.”

Two months after discovering poker, Stefan11222 was already playing NL100.

In 2014, Stefan started a blog on GipsyTeam titled “Diary of a Talented Gambling Ludoman.”

“To be honest, I don’t consider myself a ludoman. I started the blog after a particularly tilt-heavy session and decided on the name as a kind of joke. The diary was meant for self-control, a place to write about my psychological state. At the time, I felt like I didn’t know as much theory as other players, but I was still succeeding, which is why I gave my blog that name.”

Initially, his motivation was simple: to make money. This goal brought discipline to his game. At the time, he didn’t understand what tilt was and didn’t make mistakes due to it. However, as his ego grew, so did his battles with regulars, and with them came tilt and losses.

“I never thought poker would become my life’s work. I always saw it as a temporary phase.” At the time, Stefan was playing NL400-NL1K on 888poker and PokerStars cash 6-max games. He likely had no idea that poker would dominate his life for years and that he would eventually be recognized as one of the best players, even by his fellow high-stakes regulars.

Stefan “Stefan11222” Burakov’s Thorny Path to High-Stakes Success

Stefan documented his journey to success in his blog. His path was anything but smooth. He lost and rediscovered his game multiple times.

• September 2015: Stefan experienced one of the worst moments of his career, losing $22K while playing NL200.
• November 2015: He adjusted his daily routine, quit alcohol, and it paid off: he turned a profit of $11K.

Mental game improvement has been a central theme throughout Stefan’s career. By the end of 2015, Stefan actively maintained his blog, with over a third of all his posts written during this period. Over time, Stefan has repeatedly opened and closed the blog. Currently, it is closed, but he remains active on his platforms — more details at the end of the article.

• March 2016: Stefan played NL2K heads-up and took a shot at NL5K, where he faced Mikita “fish2013” Badziakouski in heads-up matches. It didn’t go well, marking his worst month in poker.
• April 2016: Stefan had an even worse month, losing $40K and being scammed out of another $10K. He quit playing NL2K during this time. Offline, he traveled to Bali, Kharkiv, and Kyiv.

Has Stefan Ever Played Tournaments?

He has a single answer to that question, from May 2016:

Translation: NEVER FUCKING PLAY MTT!!!

• September 2016: Stefan overcame variance, rebuilt his confidence and game, improved his poker mindset, and closed his blog again.
• March 2017: He reopened his blog.

“The last year was intense. I played poorly and rarely. I couldn’t win anything — one of those periods where variance coincides with a tilt-filled streak. My game broke down. Solvers are crap — play street poker instead. I’m now grinding Zoom500 and NL400-NL1K. I’ve changed my strategy, stopped thinking in solver templates, and started playing like a thug. I like it, and most importantly, I feel like I’m returning to form.”

Around this time, Stefan rediscovered his game and began “arguing with solvers”:

“Most players don’t use solvers correctly and often misinterpret the information. At stakes below NL5K — especially under NL2K — everyone plays their own poker. Adapting solver calculations to specific opponents is challenging unless you’re a genius. Decisions based on intuition are usually more optimal against a specific opponent. Calculations made on the flop and turn (even on the turn, many make countless mistakes) become meaningless without understanding how to adjust ranges on the river. And on the river, no one except for a few geniuses (or bots/assist tools) can play perfectly. Instead, players make larger mistakes than they would by simply relying on intuition. When you play your own poker starting from the flop, you reach the river with a range that’s comfortable for you. You have an idea of how to distribute your hands. Solvers, however, lead to chaos if an opponent deviates on earlier streets — which happens 99% of the time. This results in solver-driven river decisions that look like absurd exploits, such as bluffing 100% and having 0% value (or vice versa). These extreme examples happen often. If you don’t understand how to make these exploits but instead try to mimic solver output, you’ll frequently make poor decisions.”

At this point, Stefan’s lowest limit was NL1K.

Between 2018 and 2020, Stefan rarely updated his blog.

In 2020, Stefan conducted an experiment to base his game on subconscious instincts:

“I decided to try something I had unknowingly done as an NL200 regular: trust my subconscious. I began playing instinctively. Since then, I haven’t stopped, fully leaning into my talent. I believe my subconscious retains and interprets information about each opponent’s playstyle in various situations. This is what I define as talent. The strongest poker player is the one whose instincts are best suited for the game. Of course, there are caveats — other qualities, directly or indirectly affecting the game, matter too. But that’s not the point right now.”

At this stage, Stefan was playing NL10K, and his approach worked.

“Stefan11222” vs. “limitless” Challenge

In 2021, Stefan “Stefan11222” Burakov and Wiktor “limitless” Malinowski faced off in a heads-up challenge.

The storm began brewing in February 2021 when Stefan took the first shot. Referring to SmartHand data, Stefan called Wiktor a “fish.” According to the stats, “limitless” had played 100K hands on PokerStars over the past year with an EV bb/100 of -1.3 and an actual profit of 0.4 bb/100. Stefan argued that top regs don’t play with “1 EV bb/100,” concluding that Wiktor must be a fish.

The second accusation of “fishiness” was directed at Malinowski’s frequent reliance on intuition during his gameplay. Despite these criticisms, Stefan maintained respect for Wiktor as a player and opponent, even acknowledging “limitless” as a legend. However, a competitive fire was lit.

Wiktor responded in his signature bold style, stating:

“I want to show Stefan his place in the poker hierarchy. I even feel like quoting Khabib: ‘I want to make him humble.’”

The two agreed to play a 30,000-hand NL10K heads-up challenge on PokerStars. Stacks were reset to 150 BB, and players could surrender if they lost $1M. The challenge was set to conclude by summer, with a cross-book bet at 2x stakes in Bitcoin adding extra spice.

On June 24, Stefan announced the challenge’s conclusion. They had played 50,012 hands, with Stefan emerging victorious, winning $592,279. Including side bets, his total profit from the challenge reached $3M. However, in 2024, he reportedly lost all of it — a story worthy of its own article.

The duel ended with a crushing defeat for Malinowski but on a positive note for both participants. When asked about a rematch, Wiktor said it would depend on Stefan’s willingness. Stefan, however, clarified:

“Right now, I’m not even thinking about new challenges—I need more balance in life. There’s been too much poker, and I’ve stopped enjoying life. I only felt good when I was playing, and everything else seemed gray. It’s time to change that.”

Stefan11222″ vs. “Tuti88” Challenge

Héctor “Tuti88” Álvarez faced off against “Stefan11222” in a 50,000-hand ZOOM NL50/100 challenge during the summer of 2021. “Stefan11222” was giving a 4 bb/100 handicap.

In the first 25K hands, “Tuti88” won $150K. However, by the end of the challenge, he had lost 40 buy-ins ($400K).

In an interview with Poker-red, Héctor “Tuti88” Álvarez shared:

“I had one of the worst possible runs over the 50,000 hands distance. Of course, the handicap helped me a lot — I won’t disclose the exact amount, but it reduced my losses by about a third.”

“I consider Stefan one of the best exploiters in the world, and there was no point in trying to compete with him in that area. It’s very dangerous to try to exploit a player who is a master of that himself. I thought the handicap and playing GTO would be enough for me to win, at least in terms of EV. We played 6-7 hours a day, and then I’d spend another 2-3 hours in the solver before getting a few hours of sleep. By the end of the match, I even got used to that schedule, haha.”

“When you play against Stefan, who has a unique style, there’s no time to relax. Every night before bed, I analyzed his lines, trying to understand his thought process, why he played the spots the way he did.”

“I spent hours analyzing our hands in Pio and Monker and came to the conclusion that some of his plays just couldn’t be right. But I don’t want to say he played poorly in those hands because poker is too complicated a game. If you ask him, he could probably explain all of his actions, and I’d have to shut up. But I don’t find sense in them on my own.”

“My team analyzed his game in detail, and many of the spots seemed obvious to us. So I have no regrets; deciding to play with him was the right call, even though the result was unsatisfactory.”

“I wouldn’t repeat such a challenge again.”

“One of the most exciting hands from the challenge against “Tuti88,” with exclusive commentary from Stefan11222:

On the preflop, Stefan11222 3-bet with AK.
Flop: T75. Stefan11222 bet the pot.
Turn: 4. Both players checked.
River: 5. Stefan11222 went all-in for two pot-sized bets!

As Stefan explained, the river bet was for value. Here’s the reasoning behind this decision:

“This was a very interesting hand; I’ll remember it forever.

The idea was that I expected him to make wide bluff-catches with AQ and AJ. At the same time, I anticipated that he would overuse block bets with his top pairs and second pairs on the turn. Intuitively, it makes sense: when an opponent bets the pot on such a board and then checks the turn after a blank comes, they often have overcards planning to check-fold.

Thus, Tuti88 with his vulnerable pairs seemed inclined to use a block-bet strategy. At the same time, overcards like AQ and AJ would also play through block-bets according to the solver. However, humans often reason differently: since they have showdown value and still want to hit their Queen, Jack, or Ace to dominate and our broadway hands like KQ or QJ.

I realized that, in practice, he would deviate from equilibrium on the turn. There would be a bias toward check-bets with strong Broadway hands and block-bets with pocket pairs. Moreover, on the river, facing a shove for two pots, he would be inclined to overcall with overcards because solvers tend to favor calling with them — they block our strong hands like AA and QQ. Meanwhile, he’d overfold pocket pairs, especially those that don’t block my value hands like AA and QQ, as they have no value as bluff-catchers.

Tuti88, being a fan of solver concepts, would likely fold his pocket pairs but call with AQ and AJ.

I figured my shove with AK was printing money. Plus, Tuti was tilted, having lost 15 stacks in that session. It was the last session, where he ultimately lost 20 stacks and asked to quit because he ran out of money on PokerStars and needed a month to reload. I agreed.”

Stefan “Stefan11222” Burakov’s Strategy: Opinions from Other Players

As Héctor “Tuti88” Álvarez pointed out, Stefan is a master of exploitative game. His plays push opponents out of their comfort zones. Here’s what other players have to say about Stefan:

Sergey “MunEZ_StaRR” Nikiforov:
“He has been experimenting a lot with his strategy based on how his opponents play against him. It feels that nowadays he has found his sweet spot. He has also found ways to deviate, and I’m pretty sure he adjusts to every single opponent he plays against.”

“You can analyze Stefan, but if Stefan bases his game on your game, analyzing Stefan obviously helps to some degree. It’s probably better to analyze yourself than to get into Stefan’s head and think, ‘If I were Stefan, how would I play this hand against me?'”

“I analyzed Stefan’s game five times throughout my career, and Stefan is still a head or even two above me. It always went the same way: we played for a while, I studied his game, then he left and came back with a new strategy. And I had no idea how to counter it.”

Nikolay “Dyrdom1” Evdokimov:
“Stefan is insane in poker. The reason why it’s so hard to play against him is simple: he doesn’t care about the money at all. He’s a very rational guy. I’ve met him; he reads a lot, studies theory, meditates, and all that. But at the table, he couldn’t care less about the money. The only thing that matters to him is the competition, whose mind is stronger. I really admire this quality. Stefan isn’t afraid of going broke; he doesn’t even think about it. For example, I always fear losing everything or that something will go wrong. There are many players in poker who are passive and fearful. Stefan is the complete opposite.”

Kayhan Mokri:
“Every time I play against Stefan, I need aspirin. I’ve played heads-up with him a couple of times. This guy can play the same spot 15 different ways. He’s a very smart guy. He knows exactly what he’s doing. He just forces his opponents out of their comfort zone. And he’s been doing this for years. He understands how opponents react to his moves. If you’re ‘lucky’ enough to meet this guy in the right frame of mind, he will leave you with nothing. He’s a monster. He plays a very exploitative strategy, but he knows theory very well. He’s a very interesting character; I love playing at the same table with him. He always makes you think. To play against players like Stefan, you need to be confident in your own game.”

Alexey “Avr0ra” Borovkov referred to Stefan as “the father of online poker.”

These players’ opinions are supported by the community on YouTube. Stefan11222 is one of the most popular players, with many hand breakdowns featured on YouTube. Here are just a couple of videos:

• «The Difference Between Stefan11222 and GTO» by 2 Card Confidence
• «Stefan Burakov: Top 5 Sickest Hands (2023)» by Saulo Costa
• Genius bluff from Stefan11222? – May 2023 High Stakes Review (/w Avr0ra) by A-Game

Stefan “Stefan11222” Burakov in 2024: Like Dr. Dre, but in the Poker World

Stefan takes players from the streets and turns them into world-class stars.

In 2024, Stefan “Stefan11222” Burakov returned to poker. He is participating in the Cash Game World Championship on CoinPoker.

But more importantly, Stefan11222 launched his own school — Signum Club. Players from any limits, even beginners, can join Stefan’s school. To learn more, follow the school’s social media:

Twitch

YouTube

Stefan Blog

School Channel

School Chat

School Support