Thursday, 28th March 2024 19:16
Home / Amel Husnic’s big surprise: A Platinum Pass to the PSPC

Time to report on another Platinum Pass winner from Germany. Amel Husnic, aka “Liska_1987”, earned his pass a week ago during PokerStars’ Platinum Madness promotion and will be playing for millions in prize money at the PokerStars Players No Limit Hold’em Championship (PSPC) in Barcelona in August.

Amel “Liska_1987” Husnic: Cash-game grinder scores major tournament ticket

Husnic is 32 years old and is the independent managing director of a construction company in Hesse. He first came into contact with poker at the age of 17 at a barbeque with friends. At 18 he created an account with PokerStars, initially playing only for play money before moving on to real money games.

Poker had to take a back seat for a few years as his job became increasingly busy, but he rediscovered poker in the past few months and then scored his ticket to the once-in-a-lifetime trip to Barcelona.

Robin Scherr (PokerStars Blog): Hello Amel. First of all, congratulations on your Platinum Pass. You won your pass through the Platinum Madness promotion. How exactly did you do that?

Amel Husnic: First of all, I had no idea that I had won anything. I had seen the promo, thought “Oh, something with platinum, I’ll sign up.” After that I just continued playing cash games and had all 49 fields on the board game full within two days.

Then a pop-up window opened, but I thought this was a ticket for a freeroll and I clicked it away to concentrate on my cash-game session. I also deleted PokerStars’ first email because I thought it was some kind of advertisement.


MORE ABOUT THE PSPC:
ALL PSPC COVERAGE | WINNERS SO FAR | NEXT PLATINUM PASS TOURNAMENTS

The Friday after, Melanie [Moser] from the Player Engagement Team at PokerStars wrote to me, and I slowly realised what I had won. It was a complete chance somehow, complete luck.

But did you know what the PSPC is? Did you watch the first version in the Bahamas?

To be honest, I haven’t been active for the past two or three years, not even online. That only changed again last fall, and in January I started playing at PokerStars again. So I was pretty much out of the whole story, I didn’t know about the PSPC either. I then starting learning about it by reading online, and it became obvious how crazy it is what has happened to me.

You already mentioned that you play cash games. What are your limits and do you play tournaments at all?

When I play online, it’s mostly cash games from $25 to $100 no limit. Simply for reasons of time. I am not a professional who makes a living from it and therefore cannot play eight hours a day. In the cash games I can play two or three hours and then it’s good. I played tournaments in the past, but currently hardly at all.
 
Have you already prepared a rough road map for how you will prepare for the PSPC?

I’ve played tournaments before, and I’m going to start playing online again to get myself into the right mode. You need a lot more patience and a different strategy. In the coming weeks I would also like to play live tournaments. In March, for example, I’m in Prague, celebrating my birthday there and will see if there are any tournaments in the casino. I hope to be able to play one or two live tournaments a month. Of course, tournaments with large fields would also be good, so that I don’t come to Barcelona and I’m just too overwhelmed.

PokerStars also invited you and other German Platinum Pass winners to Cologne in March, where Felix “xflixx” Schneiders is hosting a boot-camp.

Ramon Colillas’s Platinum Pass took him all the way to the title

Yes, Melanie invited me there too. This is a nice bonus and I will definitely take it up. It will also help me make contact with the other winners. There is a tough road ahead for all of us when it comes to training and preparation. The PSPC is a unique opportunity and I’ll go there to win, not just for the experience. That approach wouldn’t make much sense to me.

Last time a Platinum Pass winner also won the PSPC. And there are numerous other examples of EPT, WPT and WSOP tournaments won by people who are not known at the time. Why shouldn’t I be one of them? Ability is of course an important factor, but luck also counts in a single tournament, and that’s often overlooked.

I am simply looking forward to this opportunity and to Barcelona. I was there twice last year and it’s just awesome.

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