"I Learned a Lot From Spewing Away All That Money"
Orjan athilla Skommo (pictured) isn’t the first PocketFives member we’ve interviewed who hit it big, lost most of it, and then built up a usable bankroll. In fact, that trend seems to be rather common. But, it’s what you learn from the experience that defines you as a poker player.
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Let’s go back in time six years to 2008, when Skommo final tabled the PokerStars Sunday Million for $84,000. He noted, “The 2008 score was my first really big one. After that, I thought I was a lot better than I really was and lost most of the money within the next few months. I’m glad I had that experience, though, because I learned a lot from spewing away all that money.”
Four years later in 2012, Skommo finished second in the Sunday Million for $180,000. The six-figure score was retribution of sorts, as he told us, “The 2012 score came when I had been away from the poker scene for almost a year, prioritizing my studies. So, it was nice to run good when I started playing again.”
His latest claim to fame was in late March in a WCOOP Challenge $700 Pot Limit Omaha Cubed tournament in which he took third place for $80,000. “It had a pretty high buy-in,” Skommo said of the event, “and I expected a tougher field, to be honest. Yes, there were a lot of good players and PLO experts, but a lot of clueless people too. So, I felt I had a decent edge even though I’m not a PLO specialist.”
His bread and butter is in Hold’em MTTs and he plans to travel to plenty of live events this year. As Skommo said, he’ll “reinvest the money from the WCOOP Challenge” in various tournaments around the world. All told, the member of the Norway poker community has $1.9 million in tracked scores in his PocketFives profile, about 80% of which has come on PokerStars, where he plays under the screen name Aftret.
The Norwegian got started in the game after catching the World Poker Tour on television and, like other members of our community, firing up home games with friends. As he put it, “I won some money and got hooked. A lot of my friends are poker players and those who aren’t think all of my success is pretty cool. My family is very supportive.”
Away from poker, Skommo plays football for fun and watches copious amounts of sports on television. He also hangs out with friends and goes to movies. Incidentally, he has a degree in Journalism, so he seems poised for plenty of success down the road one way or another.
The Norway poker contingent here on PocketFives is over 1,000 members strong. The group has combined for $94.9 million in winnings overall across 149,000 cashes, including $3.7 million in the last three months. Skommo is its #6 ranked player.
The WCOOP and other big series run on PokerStars. If you don’t already have a PokerStars account, sign up through PocketFives’ link and make a deposit to get one free month of PocketFives MTT Training. You’ll also get a 100% up to $600 sign-up bonus. Click here for PocketFives’ PokerStars link.
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