9 days to London - Meet Pontus Dargren

12 days to London – Six Plus Hold’em will be spread

March 18, 2016

7 days to London – Meet Raigo Aasmaa

March 23, 2016

Published by Alexander Nilsson on March 21, 2016

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Cash Game Festival: Hi Pontus! Could you start by telling us what you do for a living?
Pontus Dargren: I have been playing poker full time since October 2012, which was when I decided to move to Malta and dedicate myself to it. Before that I played poker half time whilst working as a substitute teacher in a school in Hässelby, Sweden where I grew up. I also temped at the school as a gym teacher and janitor. It was a really fun experience and worked well with playing poker on the side.
I studied civics/economy in high school and I have a polytechnic degree in business/IT, so working as a teacher and then choosing poker maybe wasn’t the most logical option. 🙂
CGF: How long have you played poker and what made you start playing? Are you a cash game or tournament player mainly?
PD: Since I was 18 years old, so almost 10 years. I read the Swedish book Pokerhandboken by Dan Glimne when I was 17 as a preparation to try poker out when i reached the legal age for gambling and I guess I watched some TV shows like everyone else to inspire me.
Card games and also board games have always been a big part of my life when i was younger, playing both with my friends and especially my dad. The range was from standard 5 card draw to Chicago and whist.
Online I play almost exclusively MTTs, but live I like to mix it up a lot and play cash games when on trips quite regularly.
CGF: How would you classify yourself as a poker player? Strength/weaknesses? Different approach in cash games/tournaments?
PD: I definitely come from the tighter school and I’m constantly working on developing my aggressive side of the game. In tournaments I tend to be tighter and I open up a lot more in cash games. Obviously game strategy depends on my opponents for the day and it’s always good to put pressure on weaker players. It’s also not as valuable to chase hands in MTTs. In general I play more hands live, mainly because of the slower action due to just sitting at one table. Less hand means I become a bigger action junkie. Online I have a much higher volume and pace of hands. This makes you more restricted and also you base more decisions on what the poker software says rather then for instance live tells when not playing online.
My strengths are definitely money management and game selection, combined with my short stack play. So on the lip side I would say I maybe need to work harder on my deepstack game and as I mentioned earlier to be more aggressive in general.
CGF: Do you have any other game or sport interest as a hobby/profession? And if so, does that interest help your poker skills in any way?
PD: Just like most guys I guess I like sports in general and football in particular, and I do some sports betting for fun. Computer games I gave up when I started playing poker, although I was never really great at Counterstrike or similar ones and mostly played different football manager games. Recently I picked up playing floorball again, a game close to my heart since my brother is very successful at it. It’s also a great form of workout.
I wouldn’t say that these interest have helped my poker game, but maybe my money management from poker has helped me in a sense with the same while sports betting.
CGF: Do you have any interesting memory/story/poker hand to tell us about that you have experienced in a live environment?
PD: I have lots of stories based on hands I have played that I find interesting from a game theory perspective or that meant something because they were important in that specific tournament/game. But I’m not sure they translate as well to the readers. But I have two quite fond memories from tournaments I played the last few years.
The first one is from SuperWeekend in Tallinn 2014 where I was playing cash game at a very fun and friendly table. Drinks were flowing and the level of banter was high. For some reason I don’t remember I got a penalty and had to sit out a few hands/or a full orbit. When I came back to the table after the penalty all my chips were gone and I started questioning what had happened and accused the casino for taking them. Nobody at the table could help me and after a while I went back to my hotel room, angry and decided I would just sleep and forget about it. Next morning I woke up and found lots of (all) chips in my pocket. Sweet! 😀
Second situation is from the main event at Battle of Malta. I get all my chips in covering my opponent with pocket 8s…he tables queens and starts screaming “Yes yes yes” pissing me off. Dealer puts up the board and on the last card I find an eight, with the guy having to leave the table totally baffled over what happened. Full of adrenaline I stood up in the heat of it and screamed back a massive “Yeeeeeeeees” that could be heard across the tournament area. Needless to say I got the last laugh and all of the table agreed he had it coming after showing bad poker etiquette.
CGF: Can you tell us your favourite poker destination(s) and what makes it the best stop/place?
PD: I mean Vegas is Vegas. Prague has it all and I’ve lived on Malta where I was surrounded by poker all the time. But if I should pick something more unique I’d say Åland Islands, in between Sweden and Finland. It’s cheap and easy to get to from Sweden and the events I play there always are filled with friends and friendly faces. Because of this it gets very unpretentious and many have a few more drinks then usual when they play. All in all great fun and good value at the tables if you keep your focus on poker.
CGF: These people are all involved with Cash Game Festival in London: John Scanlon, Warren Lush, Enri Orav and Martin “Franke” von Zweigbergk. Choose one/more of them that you have some sort of relationship to and tell us your view on his impact on the poker scene/industry? Any fun stories to share about them?
PD: I’m really not that updated on who’s who in the poker scene, but I know Franke for sure. He’s a fun guy, has a great drive and is a real mood lifter. Everyone seems to love him. And he has a very characteristic 5+ laugh you won’t miss if you ever share the same room with him.
Franke was actually at my cash game table in the story I told earlier when I pocketed chips without remembering it. And at the Norwegian Championship in Dublin 2014 we ran in to each other and started discussing what side events to play. I had just read about the odd event called “Inbetweenies” and I updated him about the rules of the game. Needless to say he obviously went on to win it… 😀
CGF: What do you think about the concept of a cash game only festival compared to the standard tournament festivals where cash games isn’t the focus?
PD: It feels super reasonable to have a dedicated event to cash games. After all a huge amount of poker players aren’t in to long tournaments and like the option of choosing when to sit in and out themselves when they feel the urge to play. Cash Game Festival has good terms when it comes to the max rake which makes it more attractive than regular cash games. I also think players traveling to these type of events are there as much for the fun as they are for the game, which usually means good value for professional players.
Actually I just came back yesterday from this years Norwegian Championship and they had loads of cash games tables running, around 30+ I think. I ended up playing less tournaments because it was such a great atmosphere and I think London will have a similar vibe since they are expecting a high number of tables running at any given time during the festival.
What did you think about the past event(s) in Tallinn and what do you expect from the upcoming events in London and Malta?
PD: Because I’ve was living in Malta when the first three Cash Game Festivals where arranged in Tallinn, I haven’t been to the festival yet. At first I was planning on going to London but friends convinced me to join them to Dublin last week and that we should set our sights on Malta in June instead. So I will be looking forward to catching up with friends in Malta and also to five days of great cash game fun and plenty of sun. It will also be very interesting to check out the new casino that the festival is being arranged at. They opened it a few months after I left the island. So I have high expectations for that week…
CGF: Thank you Pontus! Hope you end up coming to London as well, but see you in Malta for sure!