Interview with EPT Copenhagen Winner Jens KyllonenNineteen-year-old European Poker Tour Winner Discusses His Victory with Card Player |
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Nineteen-year-old Jens Kyllonen can afford his dream apartment in Helsinki, and also to play in many future events after beating 462 players at the PokerStars.com EPT Scandinavian Open in Copenhagen last week. Card Player spoke to him after he destroyed the final table and took down the top prize of €878,057.
Rebecca McAdam: How do you feel now?
Jens Kyllonen: Really good. I don’t think I’ve realised yet what I’ve done, but it’s really great.
RM: Were there any key moments?
JK: Definitely the K-Q against eights coinflip, and probably the A-7 — It was a pretty close call, I called with A-7 against fives. So, those two coinflips were definitely the most important ones. I felt like I had an edge, so I just tried to keep the pots small after that, and played very aggressive.
RM: What about earlier in the tournament?
JK: It was the first day. Someone opened from the middle position — I can’t remember the blinds but he opened to like 2k, and then the player next to him reraised to 7k, and had a total of 30k stack, and I was on the button and looked down and saw A-K suited. I also had a 30k stack. I thought for a really long time, and I thought about folding it, but I still figured he could have A-Q or be on a bluff, so I just decided to stick it in, and he had queens, and I won that coinflip. It was like a 60k pot, it was really important. After that, it was just small pots, stealing, and stuff like that.
RM: How did you find playing against Rasmus Nielsen?
JK: He was very good for me actually because he plays very loose. He opens a lot of pots and with my stack I could just stick it all-in and there wasn’t much he could do except tighten up.
RM: You’ve been switching over to playing pot-limit Omaha online. How do you find playing hold’em in live tournaments, do you find you have more weaknesses?
JK: I’ve played a lot of online tournaments. Usually a Sunday is like a tournament day for me. I used to play only no-limit hold’em, so I’ve a very strong background in it, and I play high stakes cash games too.
RM: Who impressed you the most on your way to the number one spot?
JK: I don’t know. There was a few. This Jonas guy [Klausen], I think he played really well, and Jussi [Nevanlinna] obviously played really well all the way. Well, those two if I had to say right now. [Second place finisher Peter Hedlund butts in to say that Kyllonen had forgotten about him] Ok, Ok. He played well also [laughs]. He also got a lot of aces and doubled up with them. He played well.
RM: Were you happy with your own game?
JK: I came here with a short stack and tried to play the best game I could. I definitely didn’t expect anything.
RM: What’s the poker scene like in Helsinki? Are there many strong players?
JK: Yeah definitely. A lot of Finnish players are very strong. I don’t play that much live. Two times a year there are these tournament weeks, where the main event is like a €3,000 buy-in. I finished 16th out of 200 runners, which is pretty decent. I am still pretty young so I haven’t had a chance to play very many of them yet.
RM: What are you going to do with the money now?
JK: I’ll probably spend a big part of it on an apartment in Helsinki city. Just after this trip, I was going to move because I still live with my parents. I was in Thailand for three weeks and just came directly here, and had decided that I was going to move.
RM: What event are you looking forward to playing next?
JK: I don’t know. Monte Carlo EPT I think.
RM: So you’re setting your sights high then...
JK: Yeah! Obviously yeah!
RM: You’re not worried about being so successful so young, that it could be just downhill from here, or do you think you will have another really big win?
JK: Hopefully I will, but you have to run really good in these tournaments. As we saw I won a few big coinflips and stuff, so I just hope to get lucky again.
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