On March 11th, the Netherlands’ shevmouse(pictured) was part of a four-way chop of the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up. Once as high as #50 worldwide in the PocketFives Rankings, shevmouse can currently be found at #413, but he is quickly gaining steam once again. With a $72,000 bankroll boost in tow, shevmouse was bounced in third place from the PokerStars tournament, which he played in under the screen name Bandano.

PocketFives: Talk about the decision to chop the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up.

shevmouse: The bustouts on the final table were pretty fast and within an hour, we ended up four-handed and talked about a deal. Everyone knows the Warm-Up has a pretty crappy structure, which caused me to take a look to the numbers because otherwise it’s such high-variance flipping.

I was the short stack with 4.8 million, around 20 big blinds, while the chip leader, alexzervos, had 15 million. The calculator gave me $58,000, which was really low in my opinion. I calculated some on my own and set my desired amount at $70,000. There was not a way to get that, so we played on.

A few hands later, I doubled up. Then, I lost some and won some and the stacks were closer to each other, so we looked at the numbers again. I was still the short stack with seven million, while the chip leader had 11 million. I asked for $72,500, which was more than third place, and after a while, the three other guys agreed to give up $2,000 each. That deal gave me a bit more than $72,000 and there was still $10,000 left to play for. I thought I made a good deal and had a profitable Sunday.

PocketFives: Where did you enter the final table in chips and how did it play out in general for you?

shevmouse: I started the final table fourth in chips, but the stacks were really close and there was no huge chip leader. I just grinded my way down to the last four players without any big pots or showdowns. After I won a flip and then lost a flip, we agreed to the deal. There wasn’t anything special at the final table just because there’s not much room to play creatively.

PocketFives: You were once ranked as high as #50 on PocketFives. Is there any chance of you getting there again?

shevmouse: I don’t think I am getting ranked that high again. I’m not a sick grinder who is playing a million MTTs every day. I did that two years ago, but I have been playing sit and gos and cash games lately. I don’t feel like playing every day for 12 hours straight anymore.

PocketFives: What poker players from the Netherlands do you admire and why?

shevmouse: The only Dutch poker player I really admire is Johan busto_soon Van Til (pictured). That guy is such a machine and, in his eyes, everything is standard. If you have a tough spot, you can always show him the hand history and he knows what to do. Besides busto_soon, there are a lot of good tournament players from the Netherlands who are definitely crushing MTTs.

PocketFives: What do you do outside of poker? What else keeps you busy?

shevmouse: I am still in school and need to take a few exams to graduate. I definitely want to graduate as soon as possible, but playing EPTs and traveling to play live poker tournaments have kept me from doing that. I also play tennis. A few years ago, I spent six hours per week on tennis training, but since I started playing poker professionally, it has come down to two hours per week. Being healthy is important to me and tennis is helping me with that.

PocketFives: How did you get started in poker?

shevmouse: The first time I saw poker on television, I was really interested in it. I have always played a lot of card games, so that’s probably the reason why poker instantly attracted me. Surfing the internet for information about poker was the next step and ended in me creating an account on PokerStars. I also had some friends who liked the game and we played some live sit and gos for a few Euros. I was a losing player for a year-and-a-half, but after I won a $3 Rebuy in 2008, it was uphill from there.

PocketFives: What has been the hardest aspect of poker for you to learn so far and why?

shevmouse: I think the hardest aspect of poker is recognizing your opponents. You have a lot of different kinds of opponents and the important thing is to know how to play against everyone. It’s such a hard thing to play optimally against every single opponent in every hand. I think that’s the hardest aspect in poker and requires a lot of practicing and experience.

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