about
My life story so far |
| Here, I am going to explain step-by-step how I worked my way up the poker ladder and got to where I am today.
Then I’m going to share my everyday poker experiences with you in my blog. I’m looking forward to hearing your feedback.
I was born on December 13, 1980 in Helsinki, Finland. Growing up I played soccer, tennis, and hockey. When I was 13 I decided I wanted to be a professional tennis player and started to focus only on tennis.
Upon graduating from Helsinki Business College (American high school equivalent), I served in the Finnish army. It was probably the toughest six months of my life.
The living conditions were not up to Bellagio standards, to say the least. Half of the time we were in the woods camping, the other half when we were on base, I got to practice tennis. Luckily for me, I was in the Army Sport division and was allowed this special privilege.
Right out of the Army I was ready to start playing professional tennis tournaments. But just before my first professional tournament, I suffered a terrible back injury.
When I was 15 I had a lot of back problems. I missed one and a half years due to a bulging disc. Now, right before I start playing pro, my back problems put my tennis dreams to sleep.
Luckily for me, when I was eleven my friends and I discovered poker. My passion for poker was almost as strong as tennis, and now that I could not play tennis, I was going to focus on poker.
The first poker games I remember playing were in my backyard when I was eleven. If you were catching cards and hitting your draws, you could win 40 to 50 cents in a day. Back then, none of us had good bankroll skills, the big winner would usually go straight to the store and buy as much candy as possible with his winnings.
tennis all day - poker all afternoon
At 14 and 15 we started playing on almost a daily basis when the game moved from the backyard to the Tennis Club. The stakes got a little bigger as well. I was 14, and now I was winning and losing up to $40-$50 a day. It was a great time in my life, right after school playing tennis and poker all afternoon.
In high school the games were running more often and the stakes kept getting bigger. We had to move the games back to our houses because it was getting too big to play at the Tennis Club. The games would often run until the morning until one of the parents came downstairs to leave for work.
When I was 17 my friend Mikko Pipsala, who was always trying to learn more about poker, discovered the rules to Pot Limit Omaha online and we were hooked. Mikko recently reached the final table of the WPT at Mirage and you can see him playing online under the name “Till_I_Collapse.”
A little after I turned 18 I discovered poker in the casinos. Every Wednesday night at Casino Helsinki they held a $25 No Limit poker tournament. I somehow managed to win that tournament the first time I ever played and took home $275.
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| Casino Helsinki only offered one game, a $2-$2 PLO game. I took many shots in this game and went broke several times. I would make money all week in the home games and then lose my winnings at the Casino.
I continued this cycle of making money in the home games and losing at the casino for almost two years. Finally, all my experience from the home games with my friends helped me to start making money in the $2-$2 PLO Game.
I look back at those Casino Helsinki days, because I was so new to the game. It seemed as if everyone at the table was speaking a secret language, talking about, "outs, gutshots, under the gun," and other words I never heard or knew what they meant.
all training was done at the poker table
My whole poker education was with my friends, I never read a poker book or took lessons from anyone.
I was finally building a solid poker bankroll and started taking the game a lot more serious. My buddies started playing together more often and the stakes kept rising. I was still going to Casino Helsinki, usually around once or twice a week.
In the Summer of 2002 I started hitting my stride and was winning on a consistent basis in the home games and in the casino. My bankroll was steadily increasing and it was a very exciting time.
In the fall I went to Italy for an internship. I worked in two restaurants, studying the Italian Food Culture and learning the Italian language. I did not play poker for three months, but I did manage to spend a lot of my poker bankroll enjoying the life in Italy.
The next event is what opened my eyes to what poker could do for me. In January of 2003 I made my first online deposit. I initially put in $200 and in two months my account had $20,000. The idea of being able to play anytime and more than one table at a time was unbelievable. I was hooked.
I started studying the game and my opponents even more and immersed myself in the game. I was attending Polytechnic college at the time, and decided to take a break from school and focus only on poker.
I cannot believe it looking back, but I was playing on average 12 hours a day, seven days a week. From March of 2003 to December of 2003 I watched my bankroll grow from $20,000 to $80,000.
I took a lot of shots when the bigger games were good. I would play bigger games, because I wanted to play the best online players and learn how they win. My overall understanding of the game improved so much that year.
heading to the USA for work - and poker
Meanwhile a lot of my Finnish tennis friends were playing tennis in American Universities. My back was feeling a lot better and I thought it would be a great experience to come to the USA and play tennis and work on my English.
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| Playing tennis and attending classes kept me very busy. I was only able to play 1-2 hours a day, but ran super hot and managed to win $150,000 playing $50-$100 limit hold ‘em, mostly heads up and short handed.
I also played $5-$10 PLO and $15-$25 PLO. My bankroll was now close to $250,000. Right before the WSOP I won an online satellite to the WSOP and as soon as school finished I was on the first flight to Las Vegas.
After spending 6 months in a tiny town in Virginia, Las Vegas was heaven. I met a lot of great people in Las Vegas, and some great players gave me a ton of confidence when they said I should really focus on my game, because they thought I had a lot of talent.
It is one thing to think you are doing really well, but when some of the great players tell you that you are very tough, it was a huge confidence boost. I was being touted as one of the most successful online players in the Europe.
After the WSOP I flew back to Virginia, packed up my stuff and headed home to Finland. I was ready to take on the online Poker world. My poker career was going well, I doubled my bankroll in the first two weeks, playing $200-400 limit games online, really focusing on short-handed games.
The next two years I played as much as I could. I really focused on studying my game and kept getting better with all the experience of playing online.
the good times just keep getting better
In the summer of 2005, I got hot on the tournament circuit and went on a run that still puts a smile on my face. In August I won the Ladbrokes Scandinavian Poker Championships, in Stockholm, collecting $66,261. In September I got 3rd in the EPT Barcelona for $145,000. In October I won the EPT Baden for $343,000. And finally in December I took 2nd in the WPT at the Bellagio for $1,045,000.
It was a very exciting time for me and my plan of moving to Las Vegas was in full effect. I have now been living in Las Vegas since January of 2006. I actually lived in the Bellagio for 12 months and then moved into my house this past December. Now I am living with my beautiful fiancée Maya and our new baby girl, Mila.
So that’s how I got to where I am today. For an update, check my blog on this site regularly as that’s where I’ll be sharing my news.
good luck!
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