PLO master Jens “Jeans89” Kyllönen is one of the most profitable high stakes players of all time and is currently ranked 9th on the list of biggest winners on HighStakesDB with over $5 million in online cash games. He also has over $2.5 million in tournament winnings, including 1st place in the 2008 ECOOP Main Event and the 2009 EPT Copenhagen.
In 2014, Jens began making strategy videos for RunItOnce, a poker training site owned by Phil Galfond. In an interview with Bluff Europe, he explained his motivation behind joining RIO.
I felt that two or three years ago, I was so far ahead of the curve that it would have been stupid of me to show the things that I was doing, because I was doing a lot of things that people hadn’t figured out. But nowadays, there is so much information out there and so many other good players make videos. I don’t feel like there is some “super secret” thing that I’m doing which others don’t know about. I’m not worried in that way.
I was also recently thinking about buying a very sick apartment here in Finland, it’s probably the sickest apartment that exists here. That would have been most of my bankroll, so I figured I needed to get extra money from anywhere I could. So that gave me the motivation. However, I figured (buying the apartment) wouldn’t be the most sensible thing to do with how the poker market is looking. So, perhaps I’ll wait for a few years first.
Kyllönen had one of his best years ever in 2016, where he won a WSOP bracelet in the prestigious $25k PLO High Roller Championship for $1,127,035. He also added another $293k in online cash games according to HighStakesDB.
Kyllönen, also known as “Jeans89” on PokerStars and “Ingenious89” on Full Tilt, has won millions over the years but admitted he was ready for a new challenge, announcing his retirement to pursue a degree in Finance. As with most retired poker players, however, I’m sure we’ll see Kyllönen at the tables again. In an interview with PokerNews, he had this to say about his what he considers his greatest accomplishments throughout his career:
If I had to pick one moment, it’d have to be that one night I ended up winning a million dollars on Full Tilt in 2011, after almost a year of failed shot taking. I kept grinding it up at $10/$20 and $25/$50 but kept on losing at really soft nosebleed games just running bad. After that night, everything just clicked and I started dominating.
Other than monetary wins, I have countless memories from playing live events all around the world for eight years with great Finnish people. Some of which have become very close friends that I hang out with in Helsinki every week. I’m sure that will stay that way for life.
So it certainly seems that Jens is done with online poker as a full-time career, already announcing his retirement and indicating that he would like to take on an MBA at an Ivy League school in the United States. Having already secured his financial freedom with his amazing poker success, the world really is his oyster.
