Online POY Spotlight -- Lars 'Dsavo' BondingPoker Pro Talks About His Amazing Run in the PokerStars Sunday Warmup |
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The Card Player Online Player of the Year (OPOY) award honors the best tournament player across the major online sites in a given calendar year. Previous winners have included greats such as Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron, Alexander “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis, Steve “gboro780” Gross, and Taylor “ambiguosity” Paur. Here, we take a look at one of the current top contenders.
Tournament grinder Lars “Dsavo” Bonding has been on a tear lately in the $200 buy-in PokerStars Sunday Warmup. Over the last three months the Danish pro has recorded a fourth, first, and first in the tournament that consistently draws more than 4,600 entrants each week.
Bonding, who has $1,888,645 in career tournament earnings, currently sits in third place overall in Card Player’s 2011 OPOY. He is looking to become the first player born outside of the United States to win the award.
Card Player caught up with Bonding to talk about his impressive streak in the Sunday Warmup, as well as some changes he has made to his game.
Brian Pempus: As of Sunday, January 23, 2011, you were at the top of the Card Player Online Player of the Year Race. Despite it being early in the year, have you thought about winning this title?
Lars Bonding: The Card Player Online Player of the Year is a very prestigious title to win, and of course I would love to win it. But you really have to be consistent to compete, and you also have to put in a ton of hours and play to make it happen. I’m not sure I put in enough volume throughout the year to really be a serious contender in the race, but I might try to give it a chance this year, since I’m off to a pretty good start.
BP: Can you describe your online schedule?
LB: My Sunday grind usually starts with the Warmup, which is kind of the kick off for the day. From that point on I play pretty much everything that starts on Full Tilt and PokerStars with a buy-in of $50 and up. Depending on how many tournaments I’m in, I might choose not to start more up, since I don’t like to play much more than eight tables at a time. Often the last tournament I start will be the $750,000 at Full Tilt, since I will be deep (hopefully) in some other tournament, and I want to focus 100 percent at those. A simple thing as fatigue might kick in if I start up tournaments seven hours after I started up the first ones.
BP: What makes you such a good online grinder?
LB: Practice, practice, and more practice. Sounds boring, but that’s what it takes if you ask me. My recent results have come after a period where I put in a ton of hours online, and really got a better feel for the game. For a period at the end of 2010 I kept getting close in a lot of different tournaments, but I didn’t seem to be able to close them down. I changed my approach a little in the endgame, and I built in a little more patience in my game. It really paid off in a lot of situations. At the same time, I recently hired mental coach Sam Chauhan and even though we just started out, he has for sure given me some valuable inputs that have already helped me along the way.
BP: What advice would you give for up-and-coming players who want to play online tournaments?
LB: Bankroll [management] is essential, and when it comes to online tournaments the variance can really kill you. There are for sure some formulas out there, that will give you good advice to how much bankroll you need, and I would even put a little more aside than that, since the variance can be awful. The important thing is to start out where you feel comfortable and work your way up. There is no reason to rush things, since you have to acquire most of your skill level by practice. I’ve always been more on the conservative side which has allowed me to sustain big swings.
BP: How do you handle downswings and variance?
LB: These damn things hit us all, and we probably all deal with them differently. Some like to take a break, some like to grind their way out of it. Personally I take it from moment to moment. I didn’t have an especially good year in 2010 until the end, and that time around I had decided to grind it out, and luckily for me it worked out. The variance is really tough on all tournament grinders, and therefore I try to play some middle-stake cash games as well to have a little more consistent income, but my love and passion is to be found in tournaments, so I always return one way or the other.
BP: You’ve had an amazing streak of deep runs in the PokerStars Sunday Warmup. Can you talk about this amazing streak?
LB: The streak has of course been awesome. I would never have thought it was possible to go that deep in the same tournament over and over again. The combination of skill and luck at the right times is always a dangerous combination, and it has really worked out for me in this particular tournament. The most important change in my own game has been the incorporation of a little more patience in the end game. I have had tendencies to make too many “big” plays and risk a little too much, but my recent adjustments on that front has really paid off.
BP: Do you have any horses?
LB: I have backed different people for several years, some with success, some with failure, and some with really good success. For me backing is all about trust. I only back people if I can trust them 100 percent. I can’t keep up with everything they are doing all the time, so therefore trust is essential. So basically I will only back really good friends.
BP: Where did the screen name “Dsavo” come from?
LB: I used to play backgammon, and once I made a screen name there by randomly hitting the keyboard, and it came out as “dsavo.” When I started playing poker, I just made the capital “D” to the screen name, and that was it.
BP: Can you talk about the difference between online tournaments and live tournaments?
LB: Speed! The patience factor really kicks in for me when I play live. Online you will have several tournaments, and you will be dealt hands all the time and make decisions every other second. When you play live, you get dealt about 30 hands an hour so it’s a whole other ballpark. The beauty about playing live poker is the aspect of more reads. You can for sure pick up many more things that can help you along in your decision process. Online you are basically limited to timing tells and betting patterns, whereas in live play there are many more things to look for.
BP: What are your plans for the future?
LB: That’s a big question. My immediate plans are to play some live tournaments here in Vegas at the Venetian and Wynn and maybe go to the L.A. Poker Classic and NAPT. I’m not particularly fond of the Commerce because of its location, but I didn’t mind staying downtown while playing at the Bike for the NAPT last year. In between, a lot of online play will of course be on my schedule. Outside of the poker arena I will spend my time with my family and on the golf course, so I’m not sure I’ve got enough hours in the day.
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