In November 2012, Emil Ohlsson (pictured), known on PocketFives as Smeckten, came out on top of the field of the World Poker Tour Copenhagen Main Event for $230,000. There were 229 entries in that tournament and he was one of two Swedes to land in the top eight. Flash forward to the first day of this month, when he trumped the field of the Winamax High Roller for $15,000 following a two-way deal, a victory that earned him 270 PLB Points.

“It’s a €300 six-max freezeout that runs every day of the week,” Ohlsson said of the High Roller tournament. “It’s generally very good value and has a good structure, not too fast and not too slow. I try to include it in every tournament schedule I play.” Ohlsson and his chopping partner, Winamax’s LeVietF0u-PA, both received $15,000 following the deal.

“I felt like the guy I was facing heads-up had some sort of mental advantage over me,” Ohlsson said of the chop. “He had been playing very well throughout the whole final table and kept check-raising me every hand. So, I felt it was a good idea to take $15,000-ish each and play for another $850.”

The 2013 calendar year has been monumental for Ohlsson, who recorded final tables during the stanza in the Full Tilt Super Sized Sunday, PokerStars Sunday Supersonic, and PokerStars Sunday 500. All three were worth at least $25,000. “This is kind of my first year as an MTT player,” Ohlsson admitted about the year that was. “I’ve basically played cash games my entire career. But, in November 2012, I got talked into playing WPT Copenhagen by a couple of friends and was fortunate to win it. So, I thought, ‘What the hell? Let’s give MTTs a try.'”

The week after he decided to move to MTTs, he won the PokerStars Sunday 500 for $74,000 officially in what we’d consider a pretty good omen. He noted, “2013 has been my best year financially, with very good results online and couple of deep runs on the live tour. So, I can’t complain.”

Nowadays, he continues to prefer MTTs to cash games, as he put it, “because I feel the cash game regs are way better players than the tournament regs. But, from the perspective of time and social life with friends, family, and my girlfriend, I still prefer cash games because I’m not that stuck to the computer as I am in tournaments.” You can still find him playing Zoom cash games on PokerStars and ring games on Winamax under the user names Emilohlssonand Mrnasri, respectively.

His live WPT win in Denmark remains the highlight of his poker career. “That was incredible,” Ohlsson said of the victory. “I went there with a couple of well known MTT players from Sweden. I wasn’t really that keen on playing a tournament in that moment, but Copenhagen is just 45 minutes away by train, so I took a shot and was fortunate enough to go all the way. It was very fun playing since my friends inhoo, N1clasM, and MRJimmy were also still in the tournament with 14 players left. I ran very well in the table draw and came to the final table as the chip leader.”

What provoked him to play in Copenhagen? What were the words of encouragement that pushed him over the edge? “Come on, it’s going to be fun.” Yes, that’s all it took for him to head to Copenhagen to play in a live WPT main event.

The member of the Sweden poker community got his start in poker during the beginning of the boom with daily freerolls on Microgaming. “I was probably a losing player in the beginning,” he admitted, “but I was dedicated and kept on learning until I was winning.” He has come quite a long way since, passing $1.6 million in tracked online MTT scores and ascending all the way to #6 worldwide on PocketFives. His highest ranking was #5, also set this year.

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