John Bouzalas

John Yiannis Bouzalas (Ιωαννης Μπουζαλας) (born September 12, 1982) is a Greek professional poker player who has achieved twice the first place in Greek Poker Tournaments and once in Greek Poker Championship among other notable performances. He is often spelled as Ioannis or Yiannis / Giannis Mpouzalas.

5th Greek Poker Tournament - 1st Place

2nd Greek Poker Championship - 1st Place

1st Greek Poker Championship - 1st Place

Bouzalas attended the 2009 World Series of Poker Europe main event in London but never made it to the final table as Daniel Negreanu lost to Barry Shulman

In November 2009 Bouzalas covered the Card Player Magazine © (greece) which included his longest interview yet

Personal life

Bouzalas was born in Tripoli, Greece and currently lives in Athens. Bouzalas got a civil engineer's degree in University of Thessaly of Volos in 2007. The following year he completed post-graduate Civil Engineering and Construction Management studies in Heriot-Watt University of Edinburgh He is a bowling enthusiast and can often be seen promoting bowling events in local alleys of Athens. Yianni's hobbies include Greek stihima, kafenio, and basketball. In August 2009 he participated in the Skiathos island first and only so far, drinking competition named 'Last Man Standing' which was held in George's bar of Koukounaries, where he finished first earning a lifetime's supply of beer in the same bar. He later denounced it and passed it on to the runner up after his back-then fiancee insistence on health issues risk, as witnessed by the crowd.

Poker and Greek Law controversies

The Government of Greece has placed a formal ban on all online poker sites operating out of jurisdictions that are located outside of the country. This effectively bans Greek citizens from playing on any online poker sites that are not registered through a state-sponsored firm. Texas hold 'em and its variants are not officially allowed in gambling areas like e.g casinos and card clubs making them illegal under circumstances leaving professional players no choice but gambling outside the country's frontiers.

John Bouzalas is an activist who tries to persuade such authorities as the government and supreme court to make all poker variant game styles legal, and has been coined by fellow poker players as sharkastic (sic)

As of June 2010, Bouzalas has not agreed in promoting any poker affiliated companies. Along with his card playing either in casino tournaments (live) or online, he holds an article writer position in non-profit pokercity.gr

more live statistics on John Bouzalas are available at http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=111536