In the May 23rd running of the weekly Cake Poker $100,000 Guaranteed, Swiss PocketFives.com member Nils Ty4donatiionSoderstrom came out on top for the $20,000 top prize. Heads-up, he defeated fellow community member xxd33pxx, who hails from Canada and walked away with more than $14,000. A total of 524 players turned out for the $162 buy-in tournament, meaning that an overlay of more than $21,000 was up for grabs. The member of the Lausanne Renards Crew sat down with PocketFives.com to recap his weekend victory.
Cake Poker is the flagship site of the network of the same name and happily accepts players from the United States, Switzerland, and all parts of the globe. Soderstrom proudly told PocketFives.com, “Cake is the nuts.” On the field that turned out for the weekly event, Soderstrom elaborated, “It was pretty soft for a $162 buy-in event, especially in the late-game.” Also appearing at the final table was recent Triple Crown winner Andrew higher wattage Watson (pictured at left), who finished in sixth place for $3,800.
Soderstrom entered the final table with just seven big blinds, doubled up with A-K suited, and never looked back. He was helped in part down the stretch 30-handed when his pocket queens held against A-Q. The $20,000 cash marked the largest of his online poker career and accordingly, he was elated: “It was like I touched the sky. Really, it was huge for my crew and I.” Other recent cashes include a runner-up effort in the PokerStars $3.30 rebuy for $4,800 and win in the site’s $8.80 rebuy for another $3,400; both occurred in April.
Soderstrom was turned on to poker a few years ago after playing in home games with friends. However, he’s only begun to take online poker seriously in the last eight months. It’s been all gravy from there. Soderstrom recalled, “Four months ago, I began playing poker full-time with my crew and it has been very profitable so far.” All told, he’s racked up $25,000 in tournaments that are tracked for the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings since the beginning of April.
Soderstrom is on the verge of cracking the top 10 in the Sliding PLBfor Switzerland. He can be found at #13 at the time of writing and Ronald ronaldgrauer Grauer leads the European nation. Here’s a look at the Swiss Sliding PLB:
The Swiss poker scene is still emerging. Soderstrom explained some of the hindrances to its growth: “A lot of people are playing home games, going to casinos, and having small live tournaments. However, Swiss law doesn’t allow people to organize events with buy-ins over $500, so there are not a lot of very good players.” One of the top names in live poker from Switzerland is Chris Bigler, who made two final tables during the inaugural season of the World Poker Tour (WPT).
The aforementioned Renards Crew includes Soderstrom, LiquidSw0rd, RoyalJiks, AtrophiedFin, J_RAHFF, Benjamin benjaphon Cherix, Stefan Iamsound Huber, Michael YrrsiN Huber (pictured at right), trontron, and DanSalvatore. He’s quite proud of his association with the Crew, many of whom have made waves in the online poker world.
In case you missed it, here are the top 10 from last weekend’s running of the Cake Poker $100,000 Guaranteed:
1. Ty4Donatiion – $20,400 (Ty4donatiion)
2. xxd33pxx – $14,400 (xxd33pxx)
3. georgeous13 – $9,700
4. mScrewinUrGf – $7,200
5. SPWilson – $4,950
6. mouthoff1tym – $3,750 (higher wattage)
7. overboen – $2,800
8. steamingnow – $2,130
9. PleaseTilt – $1,800
10. do6pbl – $1,520
Visit Cake Poker for more details.