Many players come to the World Series of Poker as casual participants, while others come to the series to generate ongoing profits for their professional poker careers. A handful are driven to be the very, very best in the game. One such is Brazil's Yuri Dzivielevski, who has become one of Brazil's most dominant players, both live and online, over the past decade.
Dzivielevski's success has earned him an ongoing brand-ambassador deal with PartyPoker, and he's one of the most driven players around. On more than one occasion he's busted out of multiple WSOP events in a single day, and his response is usually just to hop back in the registration line for whatever's up next on the schedule.
This year, that's happened a bit more often. Dzivielevski endured a rough first few weeks of the series until breaking through in style with a bracelet win in Event #47 of the 2023 WSOP, $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. Dzivielevski earned $207,688 for the bracelet win, his third, but as he explains, it just made what was a lousy year more acceptable.
"This was probably my worst summer until the bracelet. So it was a good comeback," he told PokerOrg. "I was losing a lot, and it’s not good yet. It’s not profitable yet."
Dzivielevski added, "I’m making this easier, but the grind has been rough." He knows all manners of different grinds, too. In 2021, the last time we checked in with the Latin American star, he had just endured nearly a month of Covid-related international travel restrictions just to get to the WSOP, including a mid-trip 14-day quarantine in Costa Rica.
For a few weeks of run-bad to be worse than being quarantined in a foreign country speaks a lot to Dzivielevski's commitment to the game. Still, the bracelet win helped. "At least it makes me happy and feeling better to play, more confident," he said.
"I’m going to keep fighting to be the #1 player," he added.
In Brazil, we wondered? He can already make a claim toward that.
His goals are larger. "In Latin America," he replied. And with that, he was back in his seat for the next hand to be dealt.
