Introducing New Pro: MachtiSonni

Teemu "MachtiSonni" Alanen is the newest SNG instructor at CardRunners.  Check out his debut video here.

How did you get started in poker?

I was dealt into my first hand playing a live home game while I was in Australia in 2006. I really enjoyed the thrill and eventually gave online poker a shot after getting home. I REALLY sucked in the beginning.  I had no interest in studying the game and lost a few hundred Euros in the process. Eventually I Googled "ICM", started putting in the hours, and became a winning player.

As for playing professionally...well, a lot of it has to do with graduating during the economical crisis. I'm an airline pilot by education and I have been waiting for my career to pick up for two years now. At the end of my training in 2009 it started to be clear that I'm not going to be employed for quite some time after the academy, so it was time to make a temporary life plan. Going back to University was a total failure. Eventually the idea of making a living as a full-time grinder started to seem more and more attainable and exciting so I went all-in in June 2010.

What about SNGs made you interested in making these your special games?

What got me into it must be the constant change in the table dynamics. If a villain busts out or somebody doubles up there's usually a big shift in how the table behaves. I've never been much of a cash-player.

Your first series is titled "SNG Mythbusters", what do you have planned and what can members look forward to in the series?

Well...The series will dig into the "official SNG strategy" that has been developed in poker forums and video-training sites through the years. If you've studied SNG-strategy I'm sure you've heard lines such as "You should play tight in the early-game", "When you get down to around 10BBs all you can do is push/fold". Just like the original TV-show, I'll be taking a topic or two for each video and investigate if these statements are true at all.

Prepare for a few heart-attacks and a lot of WTF? moments! I'll show you moves that LOOK really -EV. However, once you understand the math behind it you'll slap yourself for not coming up with them yourself!

How have SNGs changed over the last few years?

I can't really say much. Back in 2008 the games were apparently really soft, but I was a huge donkey myself. Sure, the games are getting, at least somewhat harder, but you can always have an edge over any opponent as long as you know how they play. That will never change.

I guess one big change is that the more that everyone plays push/fold the more fish will pick up on it. Even if they don't have any kind of a clue of ranges and ICM, a lot of random players start push/folding since they've seen others do it. That'll take a piece of your edge away but there's still tons of money to be made in SNGs.

What does your screen name mean?

Well...the word "mahtisonni" is finnish for "a mighty bull". It also means "alpha-male" in a way. That was taken so I added a "c" in the middle to make it sound more...I don't know...powerful? In a german Rammstein-style? The "Mach" in the beginning is also a reference to my pilot-education.

How do you overcome the regs that seem to infest all the games now?

A lot of my videos will be focusing on how to exploit the weaker regs. Fish are easy to play against so we'll focus on how to have an edge over the other regulars. Fortunately, most of them play a robotic style without any capability of adjusting.

Each and every reg has leaks, including myself. You can always have an edge over an opponent if you know how they play. If you have a reg in your games who you play every day, one of the best things you can do to improve your results is to study his game and find out what he's doing wrong. 

There are a few breakeven/slightly winning regs out there that I really enjoy having on my tables. I've discovered the holes in their play and I make more money out of them than random fish.

You reside in Finland.  Can you please tell us how stars like Ilari and Patrik have helped grow the game of poker in your native country?

Having stars like Ilari and Patrik give young lads someone to look up to is a huge driving force. I guess a poker pro is a modern-age self-made man. You have your whole life in your own two hands, you look up to no one, answer to no one and have the possibility for a huge income. I guess that's pretty easy to dream about and idolize when you're growing up figuring out what to do with your life.

We're also a small and a relatively "insignificant" country. Finns have done pretty well in the international high stakes games. Whenever we do well in something there's always a big surge of national pride. We just won the Ice Hockey World Championships for 2011. You should've seen the celebration. The whole country went absolutely nuts. 

Can you share some graphs of your results with us?

This first graph is a picture of my results using the standard SNG method.

Here are my results as I improved my own game:

Favorite Food:
Mum's salmon soup

Favorite Country:

New Zealand

Favorite Poker Pro:

Phil Ivey

Favorite Movie:

Office Space