A 19-year-old Finn shocked the Scandinavian poker world to its core coming from out of nowhere to take the PokerStars EPT Copenhagen title in Denmark Saturday.

“I feel really good,” Jens Kyllonen told PokerListings following the impressive win. “I don’t think I have realized yet what I have done. It feels really great.”

Marked by an aggressive Scandinavian style of poker, the final table actually took just five hours to play out, in contrast to the epic 14-hour battle won by Tim Vance in Copenhagen last year.

Play began just after 2 p.m. at Casino Copenhagen with Dane Rasmus Nielsen stealing the headlines by making back-to-back final tables here following a fourth place in 2008.

But after losing a huge pot to fellow chip leader Anders Langset in the first level of play, the Dane seemed rattled and it wasn’t long before his dream of an EPT title was dashed.

Another Dane, Jonas Klausen, was actually the first player to exit the final table stage and the only non-Scandinavian at the table, Frenchman Eric Larchveque, was also out before Nielsen took sixth.

Swede Petter Petterson went out fifth before the previously quiet Kyllonen began making his move towards the title.

First he won a coin flip against fellow Finn Jussi Nevanlinna after making a rather loose call with a weak ace. Then, once Nevanlinna had bowed out fourth, Kyllonen won another massive flip to take the lead from Langset.

“I felt like I had an edge on the players so I tried to keep the pots smaller in general and played very aggressively,” Kyllonen said. “I won key coin flips and I think I played pretty well.”

Eventually he would finish off the rather inexperienced Langset, who claimed he’d only been playing poker three weeks before the tournament started, getting the Norwegian to push in drawing dead.

Starting heads-up with Swede Peter Hedlund with more than a 2:1 chip advantage, it didn’t take long for Kyllonen to finish him off.

Donning a pink “Teenage Millionaire” hat, Kyllonen grabbed the 6,541,920 DKK first place prize and all the glory of the EPT Copenhagen title when his pocket jacks held against the rather entertaining Hedlund’s ace-jack after about two dozen hands.

“I’ll spend a big part of it on an apartment,” Kyllonen said. “I’ll also be playing the rest of the EPT circuit this season.”

Source: PokerListings.com

EPT COPENHAGEN FINAL TABLE PLAYER PROFILES


Seat 1 : Jussi Nevanlinna, 30, from Helsinki, Finland - 894,000 chips

Jussi just turned 30 and he is getting one of his best birthday presents ever – a seat at the EPT Copenhagen final table. Jussi started playing poker three years ago and turned pro after a year. He mainly plays online - anything from $10/20 to $50/100 No Limit cash games. He previously played in a few EPTs including San Remo and the Monte Carlo Grand Final last season, as well as London and Budapest this season. His biggest result so far was making the final table at The Helsinki Freezeout
2009 – he placed 8th for €14,045. He won even more than that for his second place finish in a side event at the same series - € 25,171 in the €200 PLO event. In his spare time, Jussi enjoys tennis. He is a Helsinki local where he has been living with his girlfriend for two years.

Seat 2 : Peter Hedlund, 40, from Stockholm, Sweden - 367,000 chips

This is Peter’s second EPT final table after his 7th place finish at EPT Season 3 in London where he netted £36,000. He first started playing poker live in Las Vegas around 1992 but it took him two years to really get the hang of the game. By 1997 he was playing semi-professionally, juggling poker with working in the finance. He has been full-time pro for the last five years. He is being cheered on in Copenhagen by his friends including the seven-time speedway world champion Tony Richardson. Peter’s mother and girlfriend are supporting him from home - he doesn’t want them here as they will be a distraction. Away from poker, Peter enjoys playing the piano and cooking.


Seat 3: Jens “Jeans” Kyllönen, 19, from Helsinki, Finland – 366,000 chips

Jens has been playing poker for two years and started playing full-time once he completed his national service in the army. He used to mainly play No Limit Hold ‘em but nowadays his main game is Pot Limit Omaha. Jens is aiming to compete at all of the remaining EPTs this season as he really likes the EPT atmosphere. Nevertheless his best results so far have come from playing online - EPT Copenhagen is only his second big international tournament.


Seat 4 : Jonas Klausen, 22, from Odense, Denmark - 262,000 chips

Jonas is best known as an online player where he competes under the username Tulkas. Results to date include going deep in the $215 Heads Up tournament, 3rd in the Sunday Million, 6th place in the $320 PLHE WCOOP event and 7th in the $530 $250,000 guaranteed tournament – all on PokerStars. Now Jonas has turned his attention to live events and has already achieved quite a record. Coming from the same hometown as world champion Peter Eastgate, the poker pro from Odense finished 11th at EPT Barcelona and 12th at EPT San Remo last year. Jonas also made two final tables at the national Danish poker championship and cashed at the WSOP last year. He enjoys both live and online poker and is considered one of the very best Scandinavian online players. Nevertheless, if there was no such thing as poker, Jonas Klausen says he’d like to train has a police officer.

Seat 5: Eric Larcheveque, 35, Puteaux, near Paris, France – 221,000

Eric has only been playing poker for two years but has already final tabled in three major tournaments. In 2007, he came 6th at the Master Classics in Amsterdam for €87,000 and the following March came 8th at the Irish Open for €75,000. He also won a $500 tournament at the Bellagio last summer for a further $50,000. Eric, who runs an online entertainment company, recently created a small poker team with his friends Sébastien Decamps and Thierry Tregaro. The team is named Cenacle after the poker table brand. EPT Deauville was Cenacle’s first outing but none of the trio cashed; Copenhagen is a different story however and now Sebastian and Thierry are happily cheering on their captain as he reaches his third major final table. Eric’s wife Yveta is supporting him from home in Riga, Latvia, where she is looking after the couple’s five-month-old daughter Anastasia.

Seat 7 : Petter Petersson, 28, from Malmo, Sweden - 407,000 chips

Petter Petersson has been playing poker full-time for the last five to six years. He mainly plays online under the screen ID “Slaktarn” and is best known for beating Patrick Antonius in a $25k heads-up PLO tournament. But the taciturn Swede is now turning this attention to live events and has played in several EPTs already. This is his best live result to date and although he is thrilled to make the final table, he says it was a pretty tough journey to get there. He is planning to compete in all the remaining EPTs this season.

Seat 8: Rasmus Hede Nielsen, 27, Copenhagen, Denmark - 1,031,000 chips

Rasmus plays online as ‘Jungleras’ - named after a Danish comedy series. He has been playing poker professionally for two years and already accrued some great results with three major final tables finishes: 4th place here at EPT Copenhagen last season, 2nd place in the WSOP $1,500 NLHE event for nearly $400k and 5th place at the Master Classics in Amsterdam for €106k. . 2009 also got off to a great start for him when he became a father for the first time to daughter Silja. His hopes now are to cement his achievements by winning a major poker title. Rasmus studied business at college but has never used his degree as he has focused on poker instead. He said: “I haven’t seen all the other players, but I have great respect for my fellow countryman Jonas Klausen.”

Seat 9: Anders Langset , 23, Eidsvåg, Norway - 1,119,000 chips

Chip leader Anders has pretty much surfed his way to the final table of EPT Copenhagen. He reckons the total number of hands he’s played online is around 3,000 and his only live experience comes from playing in the card room in the “Ocean Sands” casino in the Dominican Republic where he has been holidaying for the last few months. Anders was bought into EPT Copenhagen by his father and it’s his first ever live tournament. Anders graduated in logistics from university and is planning to continue with his studies next summer. He is currently working as the manager of Norway’s third-biggest cycling club. If he wins EPT Copenhagen, he plans to sail around the world with his buddy.

With the blinds threatening to eat his stack alive, Mikael Lundell was forced to shove all in from early position with Ace Ten off suit, Jussi Nevanlinna picked up pocket nines on the button and decided to take a chance to end the day and get to the final table.

After the flop of Q diamonds, 6 diamonds, 3 clubs Lundell was left with slim odds, needing to catch an Ace, Ten or running cards to stay alive and double up. The 5 of hearts on the turn was no help and he was left with 6 outs. The Jack of diamonds on the river sealed his fate and we have our final 8 players for tomorrow.

We’ll have final chip counts and info about our 8 finalists up shortly.

Rasmus, who has been playing nearly every pot, raised to 24,000 from late position, Tom Johansen made the call from the big blind. After a flop of Q J 7 with two diamonds, both playrers checked. On the 6 of spades turn, Tom checked it to Rasmus who bet 27,000. Tom made it 60,000. Rasmus looked disgusted and contemplated the call and finally tossed his chips into the pot. After the Q of hearts river Tom instantly moved all in for his last 181,000 into a pot of about the same size, and Rasmus made the call.

Rasmus showed down Jack Nine and tom Jack Four, amazingly the 9 played sending Tom Johansen home. Amazing call!

Calling an all-in before the flop with Ace Jack of clubs Anders Langset tried his best to suckout, having flopped a flush draw. However the turn and river came down blanks and this monster stack is a wee bit smaller. Playing his first major tournament the young pro is nevertheless playing a great tournament and appears poised and comfortable at the table.

After four players saw the flop, Andreas Hoivold shoved all in on the 5 6 8 two club flop. Petter thought for ages and let it go but Rasmus made the call. All folds and Rasmus tabled 4 7 for a flopped straight, but he was not in the clear as Andreas showed down 3 5 c c for bottom pair and a flush draw. The turn brought a 5 of hearts giving Andreas an incredible 19 outs, but the King of spades on the river sealed his fate and Andreas Hoivold is our 11th place finisher.

The last PokerStars qualifier standing, Michael Aston from the UK, has met his master. Shoving all in for his last 150,000 from early position he was called by the SB Nevanlinna who agonized for ages about the call. This was an act though to try and get the big blind, Anders, involved. Nevanlinna instantly showed his hand when the BB folded and Aston was not lucky enough to run down the aces and is our 13th place finisher.

Last years winner, Tim Vance, was a PokerStars qualifier but it looks like this year the winner will be a real live Scandi.

These two love playing big pots together, and Petter again got the best of Rasmus. Raising before the flop with King Queen of hearts Petter was faced with a decision for all his chips when Rasmus three bet him all in. Petter made the call and saw he was a slight underdog to the pocket 8’s of Rasmus.

The flop brought down no help for his King Queen but the Q on the turn gave Petter a big lead in the hand. After seeing that another player had folded an 8 before the flop, Petter just had to dodge the case 8 on the river to double up and stay alive. The 9 of diamonds on the river brought a bit of a shock to the room, but Petter has doubled up and now has a much healthier stack

On the feature table Rasmus just dodged a big bullet. Before the flop Rasmus called the raise of Petter Petersson. After the flop of 5 8 5, Petter bet, Rasmus called. The turn came down another 8, Rasmus calls again. On the river of 6, Petter moved all in and Rasmus fairly quickly let it go. Petter showed his quads. Rasmus jokingly said that he folded quad fives.

Somebody on the rail asked if Rasmus folded a 5 and he said, in Danish ‘There is no fucking way i’d fold a 5′.

Raising before the flop with 22 Jonas got a call from Rasmus. After the flop of A 7 7 Jonas bet again and Rasmus came along. They checked through the turn and river and showed down their hands. Rasmus scooped the pot with his pocket fives.

Shoving all in before the flop with 8 7 offsuit and happing showing it down, he is trying hard to make the final table.

Jonas and Rasmus are bantering and joking back and forth. Both players wishing they had bet the five diamond board they just checked down together. Everything is funny when you’ve got lots of money! Both players have a very strong stack as we near the final table.

And we move up in the money again. All 14 players left in the tournament will make at least 29,765 Euros.

Right after Eric busted out of the tournament Mikael Lundell was heard celebrating wildly at the second non-featured table. He has a strong stack now and a real chance to make the final table and win the tournament.

Going all in before the flop with King 7 off suit he was called and though eh picked up a flush draw on the turn, the river did not improve his hand and Ace hi was good to take down the pot.

We are at a new level having raced off all of the 500 chips. Average stack is 288,000 so just over 30 big blinds. That is some room to play but not as much as I imagine the players would like.

After raising pre-flop and getting called by Andreas and Jonas, Rasmus bet into them both on a flop of King Four Three. Both players deliberated and let it go, the chip leader showing down 9 7 and scooping the pot, shaking his head and how easily they are letting him cruise to the final table.

The majority of the chips are on the feature table with Rasmus Neilsen, Petter Petersson, Andreas Hoivold, Johan van Til, Eric Larcheveque, Tom Johansen and Jonas Klausen. 7 more players to go and we have our final table.

Rasmus Nielsen, Danmark 784.500

Anders Langset, Norge 654.000

Petter Petersson, Sverige 494.000

Jens Kyllönen, Finland 378.000

Jonas Klausen, Danmark 278.000

Michael Aston, England 260.000

Jussi Nevanlinna, Finland 258.000

Andreas Hoivold, Norge 244.000

Christian Saxin, Sverige 237.000

Fredrik Boberg, Sverige 215.000

Peter Hedlund, Sverige 206.000

Johan van Til, Holland 161.500

Eric Larcheveque, Frankrig 140.000

Mikael Lundell, Sverige 135.000

Tom Johansen, Norge 100.000

Erik Karlsson, Sverige 65.500

The Danish pro has taken his stack from 254,700 to its current height of 784,500. Anders Langset, who came in as the chip leader today is still holding strong at over 650,000, a nice improvement on the 326,800 he started the day with.