This Poker Life Part I -- Thomas PedersenWCOOP Main Event Champ Discusses Recent Takedown And Poker Beginnings |
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Thomas Pedersen hit the poker headlines late September when he won the $5,200 main event of the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) receiving $1,260,018 for outlasting a strong field of 1,627 opponents.
But online poker success is peculiar. Despite Pedersen’s prestigious victory he was no celebrity when part of Team Victor Chandler Poker at the recent European Masters of Poker (EMOP) in Barcelona. A couple of gentle acknowledgements and the odd hand shake — it seemed like the previous night’s side event winner was getting more recognition. This hardly mattered to the affable Dane. Being made an overnight millionaire appears to restrain any social neediness. Having won such a landmark tournament earlier in the week, he was free to relax and breathe the sweet air of success, for he is now an online poker world champion.
Pedersen’s buoyancy is infectious. Nimble, he seems to float around Barcelona’s Gran Casino without having to lift his feet. At 28-years-old he has, just a few days previous, won close to the lifetime earnings of the average Dane at one online tournament sitting. It’s no wonder he’s cheerful. His final table performance at the WCOOP was awe-inspiring. Using his chip lead to full advantage, Pedersen knocked out six of his eight final-table opponents en route to his online championship bracelet. A poker pro for the last three years, this is his coming-out party as he now enters the upper echelons of his country’s poker talent. “I played poker for about six years but I began playing for a living about three years ago,” he explained. “Before I started poker I was a sports bettor and it was a natural transition. I was a part-time waiter, about 10 hours a week, but more importantly it was beside where I did my sports betting at that time!’
Reserved, Pedersen’s speech is calm and deliberate as he sits patiently taking in the warm Barcelona afternoon sun. Like a rockstar, being interviewed poses as much of a challenge to him as opening a window. He exhibits the confidence and poise of a man who is clearly at ease with his recent success. He appears like poker glory was something which he was anticipating rather than something which had crept up on him.
Following on from his sports betting endeavours, Pedersen found poker and from it he would find both enjoyment and profit. “At the start it was fun and you could make money on it. This was the start of my poker career,” he says.
Cash Game Beginnings
From there Pedersen searched for a niche within the game as he continued to dabble with his poker pursuits. Weighing up his options between poker tournaments and cash games he would also have to decide if hold’em or Omaha would be the game of choice on which his poker career would be built. “I am a cash game player and not a tournament player that much. I started playing shorthanded hold’em and converted to pot-limit Omaha [PLO] heads-up and that’s what I’m doing now for cash games.”
A warrior at the tables ever since, it’s no wonder Pedersen chooses Gladiator as his favourite film of all time. His performance at the WCOOP main event has been his biggest battle to date and it was one which did not begin as planned.
“I started playing a satellite and I was pretty unlucky when a maniac called me in a big pot and I got unlucky. I then reloaded in the satellite and the same guy called and busted me again.” Pedersen had also endured a tough WCOOP prior to the main event. Despite playing plenty of events, his results were not encouraging. “I played some PLO events — the heads-up event and the shorthanded and also some hold’em ones. I played about eight or 10 events at the WCOOP. I cashed in the PLO heads-up event, I think I got 16th, but that was my only cash besides the main event.”
Combining the poor series with having failed to satellite into the main event, Pedersen was pretty unsure about even entering the tournament he would ultimately win. “I actually hadn’t planned on playing, a friend of mine alerted me to the tournament and three hours into the late registration I signed up and next day I was world champion.”
Check back tomorrow for part II of Card Player’s interview with WCOOP main event champion Thomas Pedersen.
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