Let's start with a bit of history. You were living in Korea as a progamer for several years. Could you name a few of your most memorable experiences you had while in South Korea?
Hehe. I can tell it's a long time ago by now as my memory is almost failing me here. But I remember one time when I had just been featured on the nationwide 9 o'clock news on KBS, the principal network TV channel, and some guy in the public sauna I used to go to recognized me and introduced himself as being my fan, then wanted to shake my hand (we were both nude of course). That was special to say the least - I never went back there again!
Why did you leave Korea? Was there no more money in progaming for you?
Sure there was money. More money than ever, but it had gotten very hard to win tournaments/events. More importantly I had lost the passion for the games (StarCraft & Kingdom Under Fire primarily). Without passion it's hard to motivate that kind of life-style in the long run.
Do you still stay in touch with your old pro-gaming buddies or teammates?
Sadly I can't really say that I do. Well many of them have moved over to Poker and we still keep in touch, but a lot of them I haven't heard from in years. It became somewhat difficult to keep in touch with my Korean friends too, once I moved back to Sweden, as I no longer played StarCraft and due to distance etc.
You run the poker site RakeMeBack.com - what type of services does your site offer?
We help poker players get some of the rake they pay to the casinos back (rakeback). It's basically a refund service that we offer. We feel that all poker players should have a decent deal so that's what we have specialized in. We also help players get sponsored.
Since you no longer play StarCraft, what was your motivation for sponsoring a StarCraft tournament?
A couple of years ago I was one of the admins for GosuGamers (GosuGamers at the time) and I spent some time trying to get companies such as nVIDIA back us up with money/hardware to put up as tournament prizes for our players. Unfortunately it proved to be quite difficult and eventually due to lack of time I gave up.
Now that I have my own business and we’re ready to promote/market it, I thought it would be a great way of giving back to the game I played religiously for several years of my life – StarCraft and its community. The obvious place for me to do so was GosuGamers of course!
In my mind StarCraft is an almost perfect game and deserves the love!
What got you into poker?
I was hearing all these reports about former StarCraft players doing really well. At first I was ignorant and thought "well it's just a game of luck" but then I decided to give it a shot and started doing well for myself almost immediately. The more you play poker the more you realize that it’s a game of skill and not luck. At least in the long run.
Do you think that other StarCraft players will have similar luck?
Of course! I am equally sure that many will fail or give up before they get there. I do believe that those who have mastered StarCraft (or other games) have an edge over those who have not dedicated themselves in this way before when picking up poker.
Do you personally know any other progamer-turned-poker-players, like Elky?
It really depends on how you define "pro-gamer". If by pro-gamer you mean those of us who went to Korea at some point then progressed into poker, well we weren't that many so naturally I don't know many. I do however know a lot of very skilled StarCraft players in Sweden who have become extremely successful in poker. We serve rakeback to quite a few of them.
Did the switch from progaming to poker seem like a natural transition to you? Did any of your StarCraft skill help you in poker?
I can't really say that it felt like a "natural" transition for me. There are some skills that I honed with StarCraft which I think have been vital to my success as a poker player as well - quick decision-making, multi-tasking capabilities and hand-eye coordination, to name a few. Being able to draw conclusions and put it back into strategy also helped.
Does playing online poker resemble Battle.net - with newbies, gosus, trolls and such?
Sure it does. But players are less prone to chatting in general; a lot of players have chat turned off while they play as to not get distracted when multi-tabling. When I play 10 tables of $5-10 NL or higher I prefer to have chat off as I’ve noticed it helps me focus better! Occasionally I will have MSN running or even answer emails while playing but it depends on what I feel like.
Hehe. I can tell it's a long time ago by now as my memory is almost failing me here. But I remember one time when I had just been featured on the nationwide 9 o'clock news on KBS, the principal network TV channel, and some guy in the public sauna I used to go to recognized me and introduced himself as being my fan, then wanted to shake my hand (we were both nude of course). That was special to say the least - I never went back there again!
Why did you leave Korea? Was there no more money in progaming for you?
Sure there was money. More money than ever, but it had gotten very hard to win tournaments/events. More importantly I had lost the passion for the games (StarCraft & Kingdom Under Fire primarily). Without passion it's hard to motivate that kind of life-style in the long run.
Do you still stay in touch with your old pro-gaming buddies or teammates?
Sadly I can't really say that I do. Well many of them have moved over to Poker and we still keep in touch, but a lot of them I haven't heard from in years. It became somewhat difficult to keep in touch with my Korean friends too, once I moved back to Sweden, as I no longer played StarCraft and due to distance etc.
You run the poker site RakeMeBack.com - what type of services does your site offer?
We help poker players get some of the rake they pay to the casinos back (rakeback). It's basically a refund service that we offer. We feel that all poker players should have a decent deal so that's what we have specialized in. We also help players get sponsored.
Since you no longer play StarCraft, what was your motivation for sponsoring a StarCraft tournament?
A couple of years ago I was one of the admins for GosuGamers (GosuGamers at the time) and I spent some time trying to get companies such as nVIDIA back us up with money/hardware to put up as tournament prizes for our players. Unfortunately it proved to be quite difficult and eventually due to lack of time I gave up.
Now that I have my own business and we’re ready to promote/market it, I thought it would be a great way of giving back to the game I played religiously for several years of my life – StarCraft and its community. The obvious place for me to do so was GosuGamers of course!
In my mind StarCraft is an almost perfect game and deserves the love!
What got you into poker?
I was hearing all these reports about former StarCraft players doing really well. At first I was ignorant and thought "well it's just a game of luck" but then I decided to give it a shot and started doing well for myself almost immediately. The more you play poker the more you realize that it’s a game of skill and not luck. At least in the long run.
Do you think that other StarCraft players will have similar luck?
Of course! I am equally sure that many will fail or give up before they get there. I do believe that those who have mastered StarCraft (or other games) have an edge over those who have not dedicated themselves in this way before when picking up poker.
Do you personally know any other progamer-turned-poker-players, like Elky?
It really depends on how you define "pro-gamer". If by pro-gamer you mean those of us who went to Korea at some point then progressed into poker, well we weren't that many so naturally I don't know many. I do however know a lot of very skilled StarCraft players in Sweden who have become extremely successful in poker. We serve rakeback to quite a few of them.
Did the switch from progaming to poker seem like a natural transition to you? Did any of your StarCraft skill help you in poker?
I can't really say that it felt like a "natural" transition for me. There are some skills that I honed with StarCraft which I think have been vital to my success as a poker player as well - quick decision-making, multi-tasking capabilities and hand-eye coordination, to name a few. Being able to draw conclusions and put it back into strategy also helped.
Does playing online poker resemble Battle.net - with newbies, gosus, trolls and such?
Sure it does. But players are less prone to chatting in general; a lot of players have chat turned off while they play as to not get distracted when multi-tabling. When I play 10 tables of $5-10 NL or higher I prefer to have chat off as I’ve noticed it helps me focus better! Occasionally I will have MSN running or even answer emails while playing but it depends on what I feel like.
