May has come and gone, which means we’ve anointed another member of the online poker community as the Monthly PLB Champion. In May, that honor went to Mickey mementmoriPeterson, who accumulated 4,172 points, the most since Yevgeniy Jovial Gent Timoshenko’s 5,521 last September. Peterson, who hails from Denmark, hauled in nearly a half-million dollars in tournaments that are tracked for the Online Poker Rankings in 121 qualifying cashes during the month of May, and sat down with PocketFives.com to recap his monumental run.
In Event #19 ($2,100 No Limit Hold’em Big Antes) of the PokerStarsSpring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP), Peterson chopped heads-up and officially took second place for just shy of $170,000. After that tournament, it was another trip to a SCOOP final table for the European, as Peterson finished fifth in the high-stakes version of Event #23, a $1,050 No Limit Hold’em Turbo with Rebuys. That final table appearance was worth $72,000.
Also during the month, Peterson finished second in the Full Tilt Poker$100 rebuy for $17,000 and took fourth in the $2,100 Mixed Hold’em event (#9) during the SCOOP series for $32,000. He defeated Greg DuckU Hobson (pictured) in the Monthly PLB leaderboard following his trio of SCOOP final tables and told PocketFives.com, “Even though it’s mainly just a contest in running hot, it feels amazing to win ahead of so many great players.”
His runner-up finish in the SCOOP event amazingly marked the first six-figure cash of his career. On adjusting to the Big Antes structure of the tournament, Peterson told PocketFives.com, “I didn’t change my game too much. Obviously, I opened slightly more pots than I normally would, but I found that a lot of people either under- or over-adjusted. One thing you have to look out for is regulars who adjust by opening more than they normally would and find stack depths where your 3bets put them in really awkward spots.”
As you’d expect, his friends and family have been over the moon at his recent domination of the virtual felts. After all, it’s not every day that you take down a Monthly PLB title. Peterson explained, “It feels really great and pretty surreal when you run so much above expectation in a single tournament series. All of my friends and family have been very happy for me and glad that I finally had some really big scores.” Peterson set the tone for May by closing out April with a final table appearance at a €5,000 No Limit Hold’em preliminary tournament at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Monte Carlo Grand Final for nearly $100,000.
On the final day of April, Peterson took down Event #22 of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) for $86,000. The $216 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max tournament featured a rock solid final table that also included RPM Pokerpro Aditya interventionAgarwal (pictured) and poker author Jon PearlJammer Turner. A total of 2,181 players entered and the cash bolstered Peterson’s spot in the Rankings, where he currently holds down the fort at #10 worldwide.
Gus Hansen‘s (pictured) domination during the first three seasons of the World Poker Tour (WPT), when he made five final tables and recorded three titles, caused many players in Denmark to become hooked on the game. Peterson gave us the lay of the land for poker in the Scandinavian country: “All things considered, we have a pretty healthy poker scene in Denmark. In the last six months, there’s been an effort to pass a law that would enforce the monopoly and only allow us to play on PartyPoker. Thankfully, it looks like it won’t happen since it seems like it’s in direct violation with the laws made by the European Union.”
Besides Hansen, other Danish poker pros include 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ Peter Eastgate, Hansen’s boxing foe Theo Jorgensen, and two-time bracelet winner Jesper Hougaard.
Check out a list of players who have won the PocketFives.com Monthly PLB.