Online Poker: Interview with Soren 'Kongsgaard' KongsgaardTalks About Sunday Million Win Last Sunday, Being Under 21, and When to Make Big Bluffs |
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Danish-born Soren “Kongsgaard” Kongsgaard is one of a slew of under-21s who have been making a killing in European and online poker tournaments, all while biding their time before being able to enter in live events in the U.S. Kongsgaard solidified his spot among the top young Internet players last Sunday when he took down the online poker world’s most sought-after weekly title, that of the PokerStars Sunday Million.
The 20-year-old poker player landed almost $160,000 for his win, but it wasn’t his first big cash, by any means. His biggest-ever online cash was for $262,000 for finishing as runner-up in the Full Tilt Online Poker Series VI $2,500 buy-in two-day no-limit hold’em event in November 2007. Just before that, in October 2007, he had taken down the Full Tilt $1 million-guarantee event, a win worth almost $200,000. Even those big numbers pale in comparison to his single live cash. He came in third place in last year’s European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monte Carlo, which earned him more than $800,000.
The Danish prodigy took up poker three years ago when the game hit the Danish media hard. He started out playing for pennies with friends, and after reading some poker books and watching poker on TV, he was hooked, and it didn’t take him long to get the truckloads of cash that he has today. He did, however, take the time to finish up a business degree along the way — busy man that Kongsgaard is.
Card Player caught up with Kongsgaard after his win to talk about the Sunday Million, being underage, and how he got so good at poker.
Shawn Patrick Green: Congrats on taking down the Sunday Million! How did the early stages of that event go?
Soren Kongsgaard: I started out pretty well, and I got my stack up to like 25,000, but then I made a bluff where a guy called me, and I was down to 3,000 after a few hours. After that it was pretty rough, but I tripled up with jacks versus tens and A-J. After that, I just cruised, kind of.
SPG: Could you talk about the dangers of making really big bluffs and whether they’re worth it most of the time, and what factors you consider when making a big bluff like that, which could cost you a huge amount of chips?
SK: Usually I don’t really make many big bluffs for most of my stack early on in the tournament, because I don’t really think it’s worth it, especially in the Sunday Million, where there are a lot of players who will call with almost any kind of hand. I don’t usually do it, but I guess [in this instance] I thought it would be a good bluff for reasons that I don’t really remember right now.
SPG: What about the later stages? What was working for you then?
SK: I won a few minor setups, of course, where I had aces versus some smaller hand, but usually I just raise a lot of hands and kept stealing blinds. I was really lucky with my [table] draws; I never really had any tough tables in the beginning or middle stages. So, I just picked up a lot of small pots without really risking my stack.
SPG: There is a lot of advice out there telling people to raise a lot preflop — that if you’re going to enter a hand, you should be raising — and it sounds like that’s your philosophy, as well, that you were raising a lot of hands preflop late in the tournament?
SK: Yeah, I did. Against the big stacks, I could take a lot of flops in position and try to outplay them after the flop. And, I guess, that worked out very well for me. In the later stages it became very tough for me, because terken89, another good player, was at my table, so I had to almost move all in preflop to pick up the pots.
SPG: When you’re raising pots preflop, what factors do you consider when deciding whether or not to continuation bet when you miss the flop?
SK: It’s pretty tough. I try to find out which guys fight for the pots when they miss and who just gives up when they don’t hit the flops, and that’s kind of a big factor, of course. And stack sizes, as well; I don’t continuation bet if it’s a big part of my stack, but if I have a big stack, then I don’t worry about it.
SPG: You’re not quite 21, yet, so you can’t play in live events in the U.S. How many live events do you play around the world?
SK: Actually, I’m playing pretty much all of them. I have a sponsor here in Europe, Betsson, who pays all of my entry fees and travel expenses. So, that’s great for me, and it helps me a lot, of course. So, I’m playing the EPTs and all of the big tournaments in Europe.
SPG: Are you playing in a lot of Asian Pacific Poker Tour and Asian Poker Tour events, as well, or no?
SK: In the last year I’ve been traveling so much that I haven’t really had time to go to those. But it would be a lot of fun, so I’m going to try to go to a lot of them next season.
SPG: Your biggest-ever cash was, of course, for third in the EPT Grand Final in 2007. How do you deal with the grueling hours of a tournament like that, especially coming from the online poker world?
SK: In the beginning, I just listen to music and read books and stuff like that, because it’s not really that interesting, but later on there a lot of factors that matter, so you have to look at your opponents and find out when they do what and look out for betting patterns. So, even though it doesn’t really look that interesting, if you try to work things out, it’s actually kind of interesting.
SPG: What was the benchmark that you set for yourself for when you knew you’d be ready to play in major live events?
SK: Actually, I started playing in major live tournaments right after I turned 18. I qualified for my first EPT event one month after my 18th birthday, so already there it had caught my attention. That was interesting, so I wanted to qualify for a few more of them. I guess I played like four EPTs when I was 18.
SPG: So, it didn’t take much, then, because you were just qualifying for them. You didn’t even have to risk a major part of your bankroll to play in them, basically.
SK: Exactly. I was traveling to smaller tournaments around Europe where I could play some €500 and €1,000 buy-in tournaments in, for example, Dublin, Amsterdam, and Paris to learn a bit and gain some experience. I also, of course, played a lot of tournaments in Denmark, as well.
SPG: What were you doing in your early stages of development as a poker player that got your skill-level to where it is today?
SK: It is, of course, pretty hard to tell. I was playing a lot both online and live to get a lot of experience. I don’t know, it’s just reading a lot of books and doing whatever it takes to improve my game.
SPG: You mentioned before that you read a lot of books. What books did you read, specifically?
SK: I started out with Harrington on Hold’em, like almost any tournament player, I guess; that was very important to me. When you improve your game, you start to look at the books with new eyes, and you become more critical. Now I might not agree with Harrington, and I can discuss it with my friends and in online forums in an effort to work out different strategies. But that’s all once you’ve learned reading these books.
SPG: What do you still have to work on?
SK: There are, of course, a lot of things to work on. I guess I’m pretty good at playing against bad players, but against good players I could improve my game a lot. Right now, I’m trying to improve with that.
SPG: In what ways can you improve in playing against good players? What steps can you take to improve your game there, and what have you already learned about playing against them compared to playing against bad players?
SK: A lot of [the good players] are very scared of risking their whole stacks, so maybe I can put on a bit more pressure against them at some point, as compared to worse players. That is, at least, something I could work on.
SPG: What mistake do you see players making most often in poker tournaments?
SK: A lot of cash-game players don’t really know how much it matters to not risk your stack and to keep building your stack without risking anything. They may be too willing to risk their stack in a marginal situation.
SPG: Thanks for doing this interview!
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