Octopi Poker continues to improve upon its already-impressive management team with the addition of yet another high-level professional to its ranks: Thomas Boivin.
Boivin joins Octopi Poker in a dual role, serving as both its Head of Content and Head of Octopi Academy.
In a February Q&A session hosted by Victoria Livschitz and Matt Hunt, the former detailed the company's vision for Octopi Academy.
"We are not attempting to copy the competition," Livschitz asserted at the time. "We are attempting to sort of revolutionize how poker coaching and poker study through content is done."
With Boivin at the helm, Octopi Academy stands poised to do just that. In his introductory video (linked above), he explained, "The Academy is the new branch of Octopi Poker where the revolution of learning poker is gonna happen. Gamification. Leaderboards. Quizzes. Trainers. Drills. It's going to be a system, a holistic system."
PokerOrg reached out Boivin and Livschitz to learn more.
The poker coaching revolution
As a private poker coach to many of the game's best players, Boivin has quickly, and quietly, become one of the most sought after names in the space. While he's a force on the felt in his own right (more on that below), his talents as an instructor would attract the attention of any of the major companies that operate in the coaching world.
So, why Octopi Poker then? What separates them from any of the other sites?
As Boivin told us, it comes down to two things: revolution and ambition.
"Octopi is the platform that has the highest ambition in terms of revolutionizing the coaching industry," he explained. "Coaching, for poker, has been pretty much the same for many years. Victoria has very high ambitions, she wants to reinvent the whole thing."
Boivin's first course for Octopi Academy – Beyond the Solver: 15 Blueprints to Exploit Common Population Mistakes – will arrive on the site soon. Beyond the Solver is a three-week interactive course, split into 15 lessons.
When designing the curriculum, Boivin asked himself an all-important question: What poker concepts would he teach to improve a student's results if he only had 15 lessons to do so?
"Prospective students will gain a deeper, more advanced understanding of important concepts and heuristics," Boivin told us. "The most valuable part of the course is that for each of these lessons, for each of these topics, the student is going to learn the main exploits we can use versus most profiles – meaning not leaving money on the table."
Boivin's passion for coaching also provides him with the impetus to improve his own game. Through coaching, Boivin finds that he's constantly learning alongside his students – discovering new ideas to apply as a player as he works through the game as an instructor.
"It's been many years now that I've been coaching and I'm doing more and more because I see how much progress it brings me, how much growth," he added. "And how much positive pressure it is for me to keep learning and to deepen my understanding of the game."
The right candidate for the job
Octopi Poker's decision to bring Boivin aboard aligns well with statements made by Livschitz during the February Q&A.
"We are going to announce very soon – keeping fingers crossed – the roster of coaches who are going to be building Octopi Academy," Livschitz said. "I believe that we're going to have pretty much the best set of coaches and the best content on the market, but again, built with a fresh set of eyes and a fresh set of ideas and a fresh set of approaches."
The Belgian MTT specialist boasts a long string of cashes that stretches back as far as 2012, but its his results in recent years that speak volumes. In 2025, Boivin notched not one, not two, but three seven-figure cashes for a combined earnings tally of more than $5.5M. Along with the three standout scores, Boivin picked up a myriad of six-figure cashes to bring his year's tally well past the $8M mark – good for 18th place on The Hendon Mob 2025 Money List.
When PokerOrg reached out to Livschitz this week, she told us: "Thomas is well-recognized as a fast rising superstar, equally lethal in high roller and large-field events. Fewer people know he is also one of the fast rising superstars in coaching.
"He has a fresh and authentic perspective on the methodical approach to improving all facets of the game – from the foundational theory to solver-proven exploits to mindset to holistic well-being – and he is incredibly good at the delivery as well."
For Livschitz, it's not just about Boivin's coaching methods or his results on the felt – it's also about a shared vision and passion for teaching.
"We also share passion for the approach to teaching that we see as foundational for a large-scale global poker academy for everyone from beginners to elites," she said. "Whenever I thought about whom I'd love to collaborate with to build it from scratch – Thomas was my number one choice."
