From slow start to Finnish
I arrived late to the Empire Casino for the WSOPE Event 3 which was a Pot-Limit Omaha tournament with a buy-in of £5,000. Although the event drew 154 runners, only 3 were sitting at the Final Table by the time I took my seat to watch proceedings.
I was with a friend Anthony and we were chatting to one of Betfair’s very Senior Managers, Andrew Riddell, who was convinced Howard Lederer was about to win. Although Mr. Riddell is very savvy about all things gambling I told him you never know in poker.
Lederer had over 2m chips while his opponents had about 450,000 each. Mr. Riddell, probably distracted by other things, such as his beautiful wife, even offered me 50-1 which I was ready to take but didn’t quickly enough and thus the offer was rescinded.
As we all know in poker you are only one big hand away from doubling-up or heading for an exit and as it went Vilmunen doubled up and up and up and Lederer who looked very comfortable for so long exited in second place.
Thus, Finland’s Jani Vilmunen won his first bracelet at 2009 World Series of Poker Europe while collecting a very tidy £204,048.
Perhaps earlier, before Mr Lederer’s dominance, you would have had very good odds on a Finn winning this event as they dominated the WSOP Europe’s Pot-Limit Omaha Championship taking three of top five spots.
Vilmunen is a 36-year-old professional poker player from Helsinki. He is primarily a cash-game pro who spends most of his time playing at home online in the highest-limit Pot-Limit Omaha games in the world.
Vilmunen recently won a major online poker tournament, playing Pot-Limit Omaha and also won the Finnish Pot-Limit Omaha championship in 2008.
On making a big comeback heads-up against a solid player such as Howard Lederer: “When I had just 400,000 (to Lederer’s 2,500,000) the game was not good. I could not concentrate. I made some big mistakes. I made two calls that I would not make normally. I felt bad when I made calls I should not make….But when I was at 400,000 I still thought I was going to win this.”
On winning his first WSOP gold bracelet: “Of course, I feel great. I thought it would be an even greater feeling. But I felt all the time that I could win, and that I would win it.”
On why Finnish players perform so well in Pot-Limit Omaha tournaments and cash games: “There are a lot of crazy guys (who are Finns), but they are solid guys. Solid players can learn how to player against other good players (in Finland). Maybe they are just a little bit crazy.”
On changing his strategy by being more aggressive after recognizing that opponents were not bluffing a lot: “I always play aggressive. For me, to beat the players (like my opponents), I had to be overly aggressive. That is why I did not win tournaments before. But now I give my opponents to make mistakes. Before, I did not do this. I want to run over the table all the time. But you cannot do this all the time over a three-day period.”
The final table included two former WSOP gold bracelet winners – Howard Lederer (2 wins) and Robert Williamson III (1 win).
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