Interview with EPT Copenhagen Winner: Mickey Petersen

CardRunners Tournament Pro Mickey "mement_mori" Petersen, a Tem Online pro at PokerStars, claimed the EPT Copenhagen Title last Saturday, February 25th. Besting a field of 299 players, Petersen outlasted fellow PokerStars Pro Pierre "Zoutechamp" Neuville in six hours of heads-up play after his A-5 held on to best Neuville's A-4.

Where does this tournament rank among some of your other big tournament wins over your career?

I have had some scores over the last couple of years I have been really proud of. I have been very happy with all the runs I have had in SCOOP over the last two years, winning two FTOPS, and my first decent live score in Monte Carlo for 97k but nothing has come even close to winning EPT Copenhagen. Not only is it over twice as big as my 2nd biggest score but its also the first time I have  won a live tournament.

What does it mean to you, winning in your home country?

I would obviously had been thrilled to win any EPT but doing it in my home country made it all the more special. A dane hasn't won the tournament since 2006 so I had a ton of people hoping I would finally be able to break that curse, the support I received during and after the tournament was amazing.

Can you talk us through the tournament? Overall thoughts on the field, opponents, and how you played?

Copenhagen has a reputation for being the toughest of all the EPTs due to all the Scandinavian players and the relatively small field. I definitely think the quality of players is higher than say San Remo or Deauville but at the same time it still has its fair share of weak spots and random scandis who try way too hard to win every pot.

Was there a key hand that really made you feel that this was your tournament to win?

I played a hand on day 3 against the defending champion (and best player left in the field) Michael Tureniec with 14 left where a really aggressive Fin opened the HJ to 24k, Michael called on the button and I made it 78k from the big blind with 300k more behind with AQo. The fin folded and Michael tanked for a while before shoving 66, I snapped him off and was fortunate enough to win the flip.

At that point I realized I had a shot at winning the whole thing. Its an interesting spot because its a really good squeeze spot for me since I have a tighter reputation and the fin is almost never gonna 4-bet me light. Plus Michael's range is really capped (and we both know this).

What were your strategies headed into both the Final Table as well as the HU portion?

I didnt really have any set strategies going into the Final table, I felt like I was probably the player at the table with the most ICM experience but besides that everyone was pretty good so it mainly just came down to me running good in the right spots and being on the right side of two huge coolers.

As far as the heads-up went I was very happy with my overall gameplan (although I butchered up two of the big pots). I was opening around 85% of buttons, cbetting 80% of flops with a half bet and in general just trying to play the long game and trying to reduce variance. Then after we came back from dinner break I changed my strategy a lot as stacks were getting a bit shallower and started putting in a lot of light 3-bets and shoving over a lot of his opens.

Finish this sentence, the hardest thing about the tournament was _____?

Finding a place to charge my Ipad? Honestly nothing really seemed hard for me during this tournament, I ran good in all the important spots for five straight days.

The broadcast made a point to mention the manatees / (or seals?) on your shirt. Any specific reason you were sporting them?

They are actually sea lions! I was in Oakland a couple of weeks before and went to Pier 39 in San Francisco and instantly fell in love with the shirt in a souvenir shop. Its obviously my lucky shirt now!

How hard was it knowing that the tournament was being broadcast across the world?

Honestly I didn't really think about it, at all. I just tried to play my best and hoped I wouldn't end up looking too silly on tv. When you are playing such a big final table I just try to put 100% of my focus into playing the best I can.

Plans for 2012 both online and live?

My bread and butter is still gonna be online tournaments on Pokerstars, and I'm especially looking forward to SCOOP that's coming up. I am definitely going to play a fair share of live tournaments but I haven't planned too much ahead. I am almost certainly doing EPT Madrid, Berlin, Monaco, Irish Open, some UKIPTs and a couple of months in Vegas during the summer.

(Photo Courtesy of PokerStars)

How did you celebrate? Any plan to make any big purchases?

After playing for 13 hours and doing interviews, pictures etc all I really wanted to do was to go home and get some sleep, so that's what I did! I have been out with some friends since though to celebrate, but nothing too excessive. I'm not really planning on making any big purchases, it was obviously a huge score for me and a great bankroll boost but its not like there is anything I really want that I can buy now that I couldn't buy before I won.