On March 10, Roman Romanovsky opened the "From Hero to Zero" thread on our international language forum and announced one of the most ambitious poker marathons in recent years.
Since then, the thread has remained highly popular and has become a focal point for the entire Russian-speaking community.
Many prominent forum users have returned to discuss the debt, and memes about butlers, nannies, and "fucked up equilibrium" have already become part of folklore.
Roman plays hundreds of tournaments almost every day and is gradually building his bankroll, although not many believed in him.
storo08 summed up the general mood at the start:
"It's clear that the chances of success in this marathon are far less than 1%, even if the player were the best in the world. Judging by the feedback and the size of the debt, this is far from realistic. There are huge debts, constant pressure, and insane volumes. The quality of play inevitably declines, and the outcome is predictable."
There have also been numerous doubts about Romeopro's skill level.
Forum member fortdw watched some streamers' broadcasts and noticed that their comments about Romanovsky aren't always respectful:
"I often watch streams of English-speaking high-stakes MTT players. The overwhelming majority of streamers' opinions and tags on Roman are "Aggro / fish / reg," to put it mildly. More specifically, they include "disrespect for ICM," "stupid bluffs," criticism of limping strategies, and a whole host of other petty comments."
Accu, commenting on frequent re-entries with a short stack, updated a long-standing joke:
"RomeoPro walks by and sees seven RomeoPros playing in a PKO tournament. 'Oh, that's a good lineup, definitely a 20% ROI, I'll jump in with 10 BBs.'"
This hasn't stopped Roman: he's approaching the 100th day of the marathon, and he's already managed to increase his starting bankroll twentyfold. RomeoPro had a successful GGPoker World Festival, earning around $50,000 on the leaderboards alone.
We decided to get the opinions of top MTT players about the Romeopro Marathon and also asked them to comment on several hands played as part of the challenge.
Can RomeoPro Complete the Marathon?
The marathon's goal is to play over 50,000 tournaments a year.
How realistic is that, even for a grinder like Roman?
It worked for the first three months, but is it realistic to continue at this pace for the entire year?
💬 Anton aJarov: A couple of months ago, I would have said he was "delulu," but no one else would have lasted a week at this pace, and he's been doing it for three months now. His unique postflop simplifications help him win so much. Without them, there's no point in trying to replicate his performance—you'll end up stuck in sitouts in small pots.
💬 Alexey Avr0ra: For the average person, this is an incredible goal, frankly, I think it's close to impossible. Demonstrating such an ROI in such a hellish marathon is beyond human capabilities (just my opinion).
💬 Dmitry Kravchenko: It seems like a very ambitious goal. But based on the current pace alone, it's entirely achievable. However, the main question isn't the number of tournaments, but whether we'll be able to maintain the quality of our solutions over such a long period. It's one thing to endure for a month or two, another to do so for a whole year.
💬 Alexey Fiat: I'd like to point out that Roman racks up such a huge number of tournaments thanks to automatic reentries. Without them, the numbers wouldn't be so impressive. I'm very curious to see the average number of reentries per tournament. I think 50,000 tournaments per year are physically possible, but why bother?
💬 Ilya Pokanuktus: It seems he's already performing with more than enough, and judging by everything, he'll even skate more. I have absolutely no doubt about his performance.
💬 Anonymous ABI 100 reg: 0% excluding scam shares, just like everything else we've seen so far. Otherwise, 100% of GG wouldn't be playing.
💬 Andrey Stiger: If anyone could do it, it's Roman—no one else plays high-stakes tournaments; no one else plays that kind of volume. Mathematically, it's doable—you'd need to play around 4,800 tournaments per month (or roughly 250–300 tournaments per session, as he did initially). However, the main threat isn't the number of tournaments, but the poker-related environment.
Roman has risky bankroll management, huge debts, and, apparently, insufficient spending cuts. If these issues aren't addressed, a severe drawdown by the end of the year is highly likely. In reality, completing the marathon successfully is only possible with significant cost reductions.
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RomeoPro's Frequent Reentries
What do you think about Roman's frequent re-entries with a short stack, including in knockout tournaments?
How advantageous is that?
💬 Anton aJarov: He doesn't seem to do that at the high-stakes tournaments anymore. But at cheaper tournaments, the initial ROI reserve is enough to play for +rakeback. I think he realizes that a significant portion of his play is for +rakeback, but when we're talking about 20,000 +rakeback entries a year, that's a significant amount of money in any case.
💬 Alexey Avr0ra: I admit that it might not be as bad as everyone thinks, but it’s still much worse than max-late in regular tournaments.
💬 Dmitry Kravchenko: Intuitively, I think some late reentries, especially in PKOs, may be overvalued in terms of EV and don't yield the expected profit. But without access to the database and specific data, I wouldn't draw any firm conclusions.
💬 Alexey Fiat: I think it's a minus. The only pluses are cheap mega-field tournaments.
💬 Ilya Pokanuktus: For a solo player who's willing to smooth out variance with a huge/inhuman amount of time, this approach is much better. Essentially, each re-entry into a PKO becomes less profitable the later it is after the registration opens. But with his volumes, it seems Roman can be satisfied with a 2-5% ROI per $50 tournament plus rakeback, so in his case, this becomes acceptable. However, if your volume is closer to the standard 300 tournaments per month, don't even think about repeating it—you'll increase variance, reduce ROI, increase the likelihood of a prolonged streak, and so on.
💬 Anonymous ABI 100 reg: ******** (very) negative. Everywhere except the cheap mega-field tournaments.
💬 Andrey Stiger: It all comes down to buy-ins. Reentering a $1 or $5 tournament with 12 big blinds is acceptable. But when it comes to expensive $500 tournaments, jumping in with 10 big blinds when 70% of the field has already busted is a dead giveaway. The only exceptions are external factors, such as leaderboard competition, where you can mathematically calculate the benefit of points earned. But overall, if you have a choice, it's always more profitable to launch a new tournament than to resort to such expensive and late reentries.
RomeoPro's Limping Strategy
What can you say about Romeopro's strategy of frequent limps?
Is it a good way to confuse opponents or an unnecessary, near-break-even move?
💬 Anton aJarov: Apparently, Roman believes the field ends up in unfamiliar spots, spots he understands better than anyone. Remember the mentions about two computers and five servers? It's unlikely he was calculating push-folds there; he's probably been studying multiway spots one way or another.
💬 Alexey Avr0ra: Roman has a lot of tricks up his sleeve – limps and click-3-bets force you to play against him in wide ranges, where he knows what to do thanks to his experience.
💬 Dmitry Kravchenko: Limping has long been a part of modern strategy, so it's not a mistake in itself. It's just a question of frequency. I think Roman uses it more often than most strong regulars, but whether that's a good thing or a bad thing can only be determined by analyzing his results and EV.
💬 Alexey Fiat: I think it confuses opponents, although it's not the best strategy. Plus, when playing at multiple tables, this strategy requires even more attention. In short, it's a "woe from wit."
💬 Ilya Pokanuktus: Limps are standard for PKO tournaments; again, it's pretty hard to find a simulation that doesn't use limps at all. It's just that Roman has them significantly more integrated into his strategy, which means he's much better at navigating these situations than his average opponent.
💬 Anonymous ABI 100 reg: It's a decent strategy, but Roman's problem isn't with the strategies. As far as I understand, he plays until the late game without any adjustments. His problems start when he tries to demonstrate something he's calculated in an unadapted form in tournaments with 3k+ 25 entries. Plus, they say he takes zero notes.
💬 Andrey Stiger: If you plot a range tree, the EV difference between limping, raising, or folding marginal hands would be negligible. Since Roman plays many tables very concentratedly, he can afford to play a wider range from early position, unlike average players who autofold marginal hands.
RomeoPro's Current Level of Play
— Overall, what do you think about his level of play right now?
💬 Anton aJarov: Roman can definitely play very well. That doesn't mean he always plays very well, of course. But he can. He definitely sacrificed quality for quantity, which, in my opinion, is hardly an accurate assessment of the expectations from such loads, but time will tell.
💬 Alexey Avr0ra: I occasionally run into him in $200-$1k tournaments. In my opinion, Roman is a very strong player with a wide variety of strategies and a ton of his own unique tricks. His A-game and even B-game are very good. What percentage of time he plays at this level is a difficult question. Of course, sometimes he can't handle the number of tables, a tough run, etc., and his play gets worse.
💬 Dmitry Kravchenko: What impresses me most isn't any particular technical feature, but his work ethic and mental resilience. Very few players are capable of publicly setting such a difficult goal and then actually maintaining such a volume of play. Regardless of one's opinion of his strategy, this deserves respect.
💬 Alexey Fiat: I haven't played him much, but I've seen a lot of wild cards myself, and my students have folded occasionally. Of course, I think to myself that I've adjusted well. That said, such adjustments from strong opponents at low ABI and in mega-sized fields shouldn't have much of an impact on his results. But I have a hard time seeing how he'll beat the super-expensive ones with that kind of play. I hope he doesn't go downhill again.
💬 Ilya Pokanuktus: I personally haven't encountered him anywhere, but every self-respecting ABI 200 reg has a long history of meme-worthy hands against the maestro. It's fun, sure, but you have to remember that there's no better measure of skill than win rate. Which means (judging by the win rates he's posted), his strategies are working at the current stakes.
💬 Anonymous ABI 100 reg: He reminds me of Zipelectro, who I often run into. His name is also Roma, by the way. He plays the same strats at the same 20 tables. Against the same player, he uses the same exploit over and over again. It fails every time. It's a very good exploit! However, it works better if the opponent doesn't know about it. Roman has a similar problem with his game plan, in my opinion, but his being a better player somewhat compensates for this. But the plan itself is flawed from the start.
Also, since he's completely switched to GG, he's been missing out on fantastically good tournaments, like the ACR and SCOOP Main Events. He won a large field tournament in PLO at GG and then skipped the SCOOP PS Main Event at $109 (also PLO). No one else would do that. So, it seems like his entire business plan is based on stakes.
💬 Andrey Stiger: The difference compared to last year is enormous. While his game a year ago resembled "tilt-poker," he's now in very good shape. Of course, some hands remain questionable (as with any player), but overall, his ideas and decisions are very logical—he plays well in both limp and raise pots. Those specific characteristics of his game are now only to his advantage.
The marathon's distance and his determination are truly admirable, but there are serious concerns about his mental state. Human capacity is limited, and overloading the brain is extremely dangerous. Even in my lifetime—I've been playing poker for 15 years—there have been at least three or four people who've gone crazy. Roman needs to ease the pressure on himself to move forward in a slightly more relaxed state.
Hand Analysis #1
Bounty Hunters Forty Stack HR at $400, 6 players, ITM: 5.
💬 Anton Ajarov: Preflop is the most classic example of a justified limp: the chip leader is in the big blind, shorts are between us, and we're second-stacked. We're unlikely to steal the blinds, and there's little desire to invest extra. What happens after the flop bet is something I'm not quite sure how to comment on. "It was what it was"? Maybe he's irritating him?
💬 Alexey Avr0ra: Bluff – Roman tried to push out top pair by faking AA/AK, which he limped in with. It's not exactly a bad bluff: he won't get shoved, and he might get there (which is what happened). The only logical inconsistency that can be noted is that if we were originally planning to push out top pair, it wasn't a very good plan (against this opponent), since he didn't fold even on that river.
💬 Dmitry Kravchenko: Roman was apparently expecting wide check-raises from the chip leader here. In theory, a bet/3-bet is appropriate here: on the turn, we'll already knock out some of the threes and gutshots. And the river is a lucky break.
Hand Analysis #2
Daily 7-Max Special for $200, 18 players, ITM – 10 :
💬 Anton aJarov: Preflop is default, even though we're giving the raiser too good odds (I'd three-bet 5BB). Then, we micro-sized the amateur and knocked out random combos that ended up being called, and there were too many of them. We realized our bets for the price, didn't bluff on the completely empty river, and still won about 10% of the pot by checking. A good hand. If it's in this collection, then it's not that crazy, is it?
💬 Alexey Avr0ra: This isn't a click, but a standard ICM 3-bet at these stack sizes. A click is when he 3-bets 2bbs into 3bbs, which he sometimes does even with 150bb stacks. Postflop is also standard in this hand; a good two-street bluff.
💬 Dmitry Kravchenko: Standard draw – questions only about sizing.
Hand Analysis #3
The final hand from the live bubble of the $200 Daily 7-Max Special final table. Damir Gabdullin opens from the hijack, and Roman is in the big blind with the shortest stack.
- Flop: Roman checks, Damir bets 1 BB, Roman calls
- Turn: Roman – check, Damir – check
- River: Roman all-in, Damir call
💬 Anton aJarov: I'll probably even reconsider my calibrations if that's all you found. There's absolutely nothing to criticize here: you can't fold preflop, you can't fold on a 1BB flop, there's nothing else to bluff with on the river—we even folded offsuit hands to 2.7BB preflop. The upcoming blind rollover at the final table, of course, doesn't affect the decision in any way.
💬 Alexey Avr0ra: I like the way it's played, I'd play it the same way anytime: we're at the bottom of the range, we'll never win by check-checking, so we need to try to knock out the queen on the river and hope there aren't many traps. We should call preflop, even with a larger bet, the ICM pressure isn't that strong here with a short stack. A call is near-breakeven, of course, but it's definitely not a mistake.
💬 Dmitry Kravchenko: Preflop is standard. In theory, if Damir folds some T-hands and some queens, the bluff should work.
As Ilya Pokanuktus previously pointed out, many ABI 200+ regs have meme-worthy hands against Roman. Alexey Fiat shared one of them :
Anton aJarov, however, has never seen anything like this from Roman over the years of his career:
"Ahahaha. For years, I can't figure out why, but I never have hands like that with him?"
However, it's better to draw global conclusions over the long term.
💬 Andrey Stiger: " Judging a player based on three random hands out of hundreds of thousands is pointless: he's not bad in the game, but his problems lie in the poker-related sphere."
