Tournament Trail Q and A -- Jesper Hougaard

World Series of Poker bracelet-holder Jesper Hougaard (pictured left) rose to the front of the poker scene in a fast and furious fashion. Hougaard is a strong force to be reckoned with in any live or online event, but is at his best when playing Omaha. He talks to Card Player at the Citywest Hotel in Dublin, Ireland about his experience at the Irish Open, his recent accident, and future plans.

Rebecca McAdam: Tell me all about your Irish Open experience.

Jesper Hougaard: I came to the Irish Open for the second time this year. I enjoyed it very much last year. What I like about the Irish Open is there are so many good cash games running that it’s a good place to go if you want to play a lot of poker. That’s one of the reasons I took four players and staked them to come play here, because the Irish love their poker, and it’s very well run as far as the cash games go. My plan was just to play in the main event and let other people make money for me in side events and cash games, but my main event ended prematurely.

I started with the 10,000 and got up to 14,000, but just had a bit of a cold run of cards, and people were playing back at me. I managed to make one bluff, which got me down to 7,000 when the blinds were 150-300. A guy called Jani Vilmunen — who I was chatting to at the table the whole time, he’s a very nice guy — makes it 900, I have two queens and call, obviously to try to trap this guy, he has a big stack. And also because there was a young American online player who has been reshipping a lot behind. So, I’m trying to trap them both from the small blind, and it works out perfectly. He [the American] moves in for 5,000, Jani thinks for a long time and ends up calling the 5,000, and I have 7,000 and two queens. I actually kinda wanted Jani to fold now that he has moved in so I could just get it heads up with queens, it’s not that strong of a hand, but I decided I’m well in front of poker ranges, so I move my 7,000 in, and Jani says, “Oh, you trapped me! Oh this is a bad hand for me!” He calls, and the young American has sixes and Jani has K-Q. That’s a pretty good spot for my queens to get back up to 20,000.

The flop comes three small clubs, I have the queen of clubs which is the highest club out, so now they are pretty much drawing dead except for the king on the turn, which ended my Irish Open, so that was disappointing, but that’s how tournament poker is. My brother, in the last four major tournaments he has played, has gotten it in with aces and kings preflop and lost every single time, so we understand that at these events it does take a lot of luck and good timing.

RM: What did you think of the field?

JH: That’s the reason why I came even for a smaller buy-in than I normally play; the fields are pretty soft, but not necessarily because of the Irish, but because there are so many sites that do online qualifiers for this, a lot of networks that are generally known for having a weak standard of players do satellites for this. The more satellite players there are, the better the value, in general.

I did manage to make the final table in the Omaha event the day after. I got four-handed, and we were all pretty even in chips, there was one guy who was a little shorter. It was me and three Finnish chaps who knew each other very well, so I knew it was going to be pretty sick for me, because they’re not going to be colluding, but they might be soft-playing each other just a little bit and trying to go after me because they know each other. So, I actually suggested a deal, which two of them, including Juha Helppi, agreed to, but the short stack didn’t want to do it, which was a bit annoying for me because I would have got €27,000 or €28,000, which would have been nice. It ends up that the short stack declined and then he doubled up through me, and now I’m the short stack, and I end up just getting fourth place for about €10,000. A bit disappointing, but that’s how it goes. I enjoy Omaha tournaments quite a lot; it’s my main game, it’s what I play the best. In Vegas this Summer, I’m definitely going to be playing a lot of Omaha tournaments to see if I can win another bracelet.

RM: You had a bit of an accident recently and hurt your shoulder...

JH: I have a whole pharmacy in my bag! I have paracetamol and morphine and loads more... my shoulder’s in pain if I don’t take them.

RM: What happened?

JH: On the second day I was in Thailand with some friends, we decided that we were going to rent some scooters and drive out to a private exclusive beach where my friend lives. It has been a long time since I’ve been on a scooter, so I’m not that used to it. We drove about half-way out there, and there’s all these mountains, and I managed to fall out of the scooter, and I’m not wearing a helmet, which is ridiculous. So, my head is going towards the asphalt and I kind of have the sense to think, “God, this is going to hurt if my head hits the asphalt", so I turn my head away and my shoulder goes into the asphalt and I broke my shoulder. I thought it would heal in three weeks, but I’ve been speaking to people here and everyone knows someone who has had a broken collarbone and they said it’s going to take about a year and a half before it heals properly!

RM: Has it affected your game at all?

JH: It has definitely affected my online game — not the fact that I’m in pain, but the fact that I’m taking these painkillers. Since the accident, I’ve lost about €300,000 online, which has been horrible. It’s probably the worst downswing I’ve ever had. It’s purely for the reason that I’m eating painkillers, which means I don’t have the ability to say stop. Normally, if I lose a couple of buy-ins, I have the sense to say I’ll leave it for another day, but since these painkillers have taken over my body, I’m going crazy, tilting (laughs).

RM: What’s next for you?

JH: Next is San Remo, then probably Monte Carlo but I’m not sure because it’s taxable for us, we have to pay 60 percent on winnings there. Then I’m going to Venice for the World Poker Tour, and then a month and a half in Vegas. I’m actually just planning to book a really sweet huge penthouse suite with Michael Greco.

RM: Will you return to the Irish Open?

JH: I most likely will. My sponsor paid for this, Bet365, and they’re very eager for me to come and play in England and Ireland, and tournaments like that, so if they’re paying, I think I’m coming, and I think I’ll come even if they’re not. I really like Ireland; the people are nice, friendly, and not so good players (smiles). So, I think I’ll come back.

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