From a Danish Island to Life as a Poker Pro

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 18th, 2011 at 1:26 pm

Jonas Klausen

How does one start a blog like this? Well, that is hard to answer and when I looked it up the cookbook for boys there was no recipe for this international dish. But let me start by introducing myself. I am Jonas Klausen, a 24-year-old poker player originally from Fyn (an island in Denmark). I represent Titan Poker as a member of Team Titan. I am Danish and like most other kids I spent my childhood in elementary school and high school. To say it short, I was raised in a small and safe environment.

It was during my time in high school I started playing poker. I began in 2001/2002 with 5 Card Draw. This was the beginning and I mostly played for small money in my hometown. This game was quickly replaced by the game we all know and love: No limit Texas Hold’em. I quickly found myself totally devoted to the game.

From Home Games to Online Poker

The world around disappeared and in addition to the home game I went to Odense (the biggest city on Fyn) and I started playing on the Internet. During high school, poker was an excellent way to make a little extra money beside from my SU. I guess a short explanation about SU is needed for the people who are not from Denmark. Well, in Denmark we get paid to study. Every month a certain amount is deposited to your bank account. This amount is based on the income of the parents, whether they are divorced or not, etc.

When I finished high school I moved to Odense and within the first month I had my first breakthroughs. I reached the final tables at the Sunday Million and a couple of other big tournaments. Three or four months later I finished second in the same tournament, which gave my bankroll a huge boost. From the beginning I saw myself as a tournament player since I never had any interest in competitions but after the big boost I started playing cash games. Back then the game was still soft and I played $25/50 pretty hard. I kept playing regularly in the tournaments and after a long downswing in cash games, where hundreds of dollars were thrown back into cyberspace, I started focusing on my favorite hobby again. Since then, tournaments have been my main source of income.

Traveling Poker Pro

For the past 7 years I have been traveling all over Europe and the United States, competing in different tournaments: EPT, WPT as well as WSOP. A couple of times I have been very close to the big win but it seems like I am just missing the last bit in the final stages, a feeling that many of you probably know. The closest I have ever been was the summer of 2009 where I was runner up in WSOP $1500 Event 43. A very bad setup against Eric ”Basebally” Baldwin where my QT gets 44 on a QT4 board and determined the heads-up game. A very intense game.

So where I am now? I just moved to the capital of the country, Copenhagen. I needed a change and I took the step. Copenhagen is my home now and I already love the city. But this is my first blog so I better not reveal too much.

A bit about my blogs and what they will be about. I will spend time to introduce you to the life of a poker pro and how I experience it all. From time to time I will share some thoughts about poker. I want to take this opportunity to invite everyone out there to send me an email at: titanteam @ titanpoker.com. If you have any suggestions or any criticism about my blogs or if there are some subjects you would like me to address, let me know.

A Legendary Hand

The poker part of this week’s blog posting is a bit short. I started the year by winning Boss Media’s Sunday €75,000 GTD for €17,000. I beat around 550 players and after 9 and a half hours, I was the last player standing. The last hand was won in a legendary way. Blinds are 10,000/20,000 and I have around 2,000,000 chips. My opponent has 600,000 in front of him and he is looking at 40,000. I pay in BB with J9o, the flop is QT3, he bets 60,000 and I pay. Turn is 8. Here I can’t help thinking about Johnny Chan and Eric Seidels’ heads up in the legendary 1988 WSOP main event. I check again and right away he bets 155,000. I stop and think for 10 seconds and then I call. River gives an off suit Ace and I consider stopping because I don’t believe that he will bet another Q. In the end I choose to go all the way like Johnny Chan and I check. Then something strange happens. He only bets 55,000 and is left with 350,000. After having considered for 20 seconds I go all in and he is quick to pay with QQ. A huge set-up which I am happy to take. A perfect way to start the year and I really hope that 2011 will be much better than the horrible 2010 I experienced.

Lastly I will like to congratulate my team mates Sam Trickett, Marvin Rettenmaier and Sorel Mizzi on a great 2010 to say at least. I am mostly impressed by Sam Trickett’s many deep runs at the WSOP and the other events he participated in. That is really great and I hope they can all continue the same way in 2011!