Deep into the second day of action at the 2010 Ladbrokes.com Irish Poker Festival, 2007 World Series of Poker fifth Jon ‘Skalie’ Kalmar is gradually building up a war chest of chips as he prepares to launch an assault on the final table of one of Ireland’s most exhilarating poker tournaments.
Skalie knows there is still more than 24 hours of gruelling action remaining if he is to take home the 75,000 Euros, but it is something that Kalmar is used to and the Irish Poker Festival would be another fantastic addition to an already glittering CV.
Weeks of tutoring Hollywood superstar Nick Moran has paid off with the Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels star making it to the break on the first day of proceedings and now Kalmar can focus on building up a stack of chips worthy of one of the UK’s leading poker superstars.
We manage to grab a quick interview with one of the game’s more popular players and talk to him about life as a poker player, the key tips he gave Nick Moran and what the future holds for ‘Skalie.’
You’ve obviously played in the Irish Poker Festival before, what do you think makes it such a good event?
It’s an amazing venue in an amazing part of the world and it’s always a good drink when you come to Ireland. I absolutely love it! I think because the tournament has a nice friendly buy-in size of 550 Euros, there is plenty of people that can sink their teeth into the event, unlike the high-roller events like the EPTs and the World Series of Poker. That is obviously one thing but it’s also the social aspect as well and everybody seems to know each other.
I suppose that is the good thing about Ladbrokes and the community really stands out. There are loads of people who have become friends on the Ladbrokes site and some of my closest mates are people I’ve met online through Ladbrokes Poker.
Have you managed to go out in Killarney at any point?
Not this year because obviously I’ve been in the poker but we all went out in 2009 and had a fantastic time. I was hopeful it would be different this year and I wouldn’t get chance to go out and that has been the case.
You were given the task of training up Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels star Nick Moran in the build up to this tournament, what were the key things you taught him – what are the ‘Skalie’ words of wisdom?
Basically I told Nick that the key to the game is control, position and cards, in that order. I would argue that if you’re the raiser then you have far more chance of winning the hand than if you’re the caller. So essentially, if you’re playing in a pot try and be the raiser and not the caller and make sure you stay in position.
It looked like you both had a really good time on the Ladbrokes Poker videos, how did you find working with him and did you enjoy it as much as it appeared?
Definitely, we had some great banter when we were filming it and we had a real laugh in the videos. There was lots going on and the director was letting us do our own thing, actually, I think some of the outtakes would be pretty good to be fair. We just seemed to get on really well and we were bouncing off each other and having some serious banter.
I was happy to see that he made it to the break, especially as this is his first proper event. He has played online a fair but aside from a sit’n’go with a few journalists he has barely had any experience. I would have absolutely loved it if he had made the money but take it from me, there will be plenty of people better than him and probably better than me that won’t make the money at this event.
Nick Moran was 400/1 before the tournament started, did you have a little flutter yourself? He couldn’t believe it when I told him.
[Laughs] No, I didn’t think there will have been many people betting on that!
Ladbrokes have obviously put on another fantastic show for everybody in Killarney this year, sponsorship is such an important thing in poker these days it must have been superb when they came in for you. How did it change your life?
Well it takes a lot of pressure off you for starters. When you know you have some events already paid for things can be a lot less stressful and it can help cover expenses at these big events. People don’t realise quite how expensive it is to go and play poker all over the place and it is things like hotels, petrol and flights that can end up eating up huge chunks of your money.
With so many people becoming involved with poker these days and with a roll of honour at major events filled with online qualifiers, do you think it has helped to make the game more exciting or do you think poker has suffered as a result?
Well, I think I suffered as a result because everybody seems to be getting too damn good at the game. I think it is obviously great for the poker industry with loads more social players becoming involved at the tables and anything that pumps money into the industry is good for poker. On the other hand, everybody is getting better and the younger kids are especially good these days. I think it must be like anything else and it’s gradually becoming a younger man’s game.
Six years ago I used to get away with murder with some of the stuff I used to make money doing but these days that is pretty old hat and players can see straight through it so you have to adapt your game and keep up with the times.
Like you say, poker is a game that is constantly changing. What would you change about poker if you had the chance?
Good question, I think one of the problems at the moment is that there is probably too much choice for players and lots of events end up getting diluted down. You can only do one thing at once and gone are the days you’d turn up at event and know who was going to be there.
I suppose at an event like the WSOP you have a pretty good idea of who will be there but with so much on offer it does make life difficult keeping tabs on who will be where and when.
Playing poker for a living is obviously something that would appeal to a lot of people, how do you feel it compares to a more typical nine to five job?
Well people seem to think that playing poker for a living is a bit of a jolly but anything you have to sit down and do for 40-60 hours a week is a job at the end of the day. If you’re sat there with a camera on the scene of a porn film but you still have to get up and do it, it’s a job isn’t it? Don’t get me wrong it is a job I absolutely love but I think it’d be like anything else and the minute you get up and you’re not enjoying it anymore is probably the minute you should do something else.
Some of these guys that make their living playing online can be sitting there playing for twelve hours seven days a week – now nobody would want that as a job. Sure, I’ve got no intention of going back to work and there is plenty of perks to the job, but anything that you have to put that many hours into is a job.
Was it something that you always wanted to do? How did you get into the game and when did you realise you were good at it?
It was certainly something I had been interested in and I started playing more poker to curb my gambling. I started playing $5 sit’n’go tournaments on Ladbrokes and just started getting better and better at the game. I suppose I was lucky to meet some fantastic players along the way and I was given some superb tips in my early days. It ended up that I was winning what I was earning and I thought that if I didn’t give up my job and give it a go I would spend the rest of my life wondering.
I thought I’d give it a go for a year and it started really well with me winning £50,000 in Vegas and I won another £60,000 on the Ladbrokes Cruise in January. So my wife gave up work as well and it is pretty much all we’ve done for the last five years.
Your fifth in the 2007 World Series Of Poker was obviously one of your greatest achievements to date, how did it change your life becoming a household name and a world famous poker player?
That was obviously my second cash in the WSOP, I cashed in 2005 in the same event but you don’t know if you’re ever going to go deep again so I think a lot of the experience I had first time helped me through the second time.
It helped me because it was the greatest result from a Brit for quite some time and while that wasn’t going to last long it was still a fantastic time for me.
Is there one player you fear most on the poker circuit and is there any player you particularly enjoy taking chips off?
Ha, I’ll gladly take chips off absolutely everybody and anybody. I mean there are loads of great young players at these sort of events and some are particularly phenomenal at the tables but I wouldn’t say I’m scared of any of them. If you’re scared of a player it’s your fault not theirs and I think I can mix it with anybody to be honest, though there are obviously some players you have to shower greater respect to than others.
There are plenty of players hailing from all over Europe in the Ladbrokes.com Irish Poker Festival, do you feel you can predict how a player will play based simply on where he is from?
Yes certainly there is definitely an element of that. The Irish can be quite wild and the Scandinavians are almost always pretty aggressive but it can be difficult to know whether they’re Finnish or Swedish and the Swedish players can be a lot tighter than players arriving from Finland. It can be important to find out which part of Scandinavia they’re from and it is probably wise not to assume they are definitely Scandinavian – some of these guys could be German!
Stereotypes work a lot in poker and if you can play outside your particular stereotype you won’t do too badly.
If you weren’t a poker player what would you have liked to have been? I know you used to be in a punk band called Nameless, any chance we could see them back in action?
In all honesty I think it would be fair to say I was a pretty frustrated punk star, but yes definitely, if I could have made money being in a band I would have loved to have done that.
The bass player and drummer have both moved into a new band so I get pretty jealous when I see them play.
I’m sure they must get quite jealous when they see you finishing fifth in the WSOP though. What does the future hold for Skalie? Is there anything exciting coming up on the calendar?
Well we’ve got the Ladbrokes Poker Cruise coming up in January and there is a few events coming up in the UK. I’m playing in Brighton this week and then I’m off to Blackpool which is obviously a personal favourite of mine.
I think I’ll get Christmas out of the way and then a lot will depend on my bankroll. One of the good things to come out of the fact there is so many planned tournaments on the calendar is that now I can take a step back and decide which ones I want to take a pop at!
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