On November 30th, PocketFiver Tomgus456 took down the Full Tilt Poker Sunday Brawl for $84,843. It was a giant exclamation point on the month, which also included a win in the $55 rebuy, $40,000 Guaranteed on PokerStars for $12,831. He made the final table and finished fourth in the Stars $100 rebuy last month and also placed third in the $69 buy-in $40,000 Guaranteed on Full Tilt Poker. The native of Finland who also spends a considerable amount of time in Sweden is best known for winning the Sunday Million in February for $220,000 and then promptly following that performance up with a third place finish in a Full Tilt Online Poker Series event one week later for $67,000. PocketFives.com sat down with its 15th ranked player to learn more about his burgeoning poker career.
On his ride through the Sunday Brawl, Tomgus456 told PocketFives.com, “I had some bad luck when there were 13 players left, but as soon as I reached the final table, it felt like people were just throwing chips at me. I caught a nice run of cards and it just seemed like everyone thought I was bluffing every single hand.” On his competition, he commented, “Six of the nine players were really bad, but that’s the beauty of playing in a big tournament that has lots of satellites and a large guaranteed prize pool.” His massive score in the Sunday Brawl helped boost his position in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings from 19th to 15th this week.
Tomgus456 lives seven hours ahead of Eastern Time, meaning that tournaments on PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, which tend to gear their schedules towards North and South American players, often take place in the wee hours of the morning. He explained, “It’s the worst thing about poker tournaments right now. You almost can’t play and have a normal life if you are going to bed at 7:00 in the morning every single day. I actually don’t play in that many tournaments and mainly only on Sundays right now. Instead, I play in a lot of Pot Limit Omaha cash games.”
He further claimed that the time discrepancy translates into actual results in tournament play. He commented, “In bigger live tournaments, you can clearly see that Europeans play fairly well during the first few levels, but when we get down to 20 big blinds, we have a lack of experience.” On the virtual felts, he’s proven that he can close the deal late in tournaments despite the time difference. He won the $100 rebuy on PokerStars in September for $44,000 and also holds a victory in the Bodog $100K Guaranteed, that site’s marquee weekly event, for $25,000.
He got his start in poker back in 2006. He told PocketFives.com, “I started about two years ago with a €50 deposit on PokerStars. I grinded the $0.01-$0.02 No Limit Hold’em cash games and never took any big risks. I went up from there and to this day, it was my only deposit. After nine months, I had a $10,000 bankroll and after 18 months, I first tried playing in the $200-$400 Pot Limit Omaha games.” He won a Triple Crown on PocketFives.com in August, taking down tournaments on PokerStars, PartyPoker, and PokerRoom.
On how poker is viewed in Finland, he commented, “I spend a lot of time in Sweden and there you have to pay 30% on every pot or tournament cash. So if you get all in for $5,000 and win a $10,000 pot, you have to pay $3,000 and your net profit is really $2,000 minus the rake. You just can’t play with those rules. However, in general, things have changed during the last few years. People are friendlier now than they were ten years ago.” Perhaps the most famous Finnish player is Juha Helppi, who won the World Poker Tour Aruba Poker Classic during Season I and placed second in the Season IV Grand Prix de Paris, which was the year that Roland de Wolfe won it.
On what has led to his overwhelming success in the game of poker, he revealed, “I played a lot and studied hard, but I’m still not a pro. I really wanted to get good at poker and figured a lot of things out on my own. I probably have a talent for logic games like poker, but I still had to work hard to become successful.” He’s not a poker player by trade. Rather, he’s been working on other side projects. However, in the month of November, he amassed nearly $140,000 in tournaments that are tracked for the Rankings.
Look out for this fast riser in the PocketFives.com Rankings.
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