Jens Kyllonen Quits Poker

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Mar 02, 2017 6 min read Last updated Mar 31, 2017

In a recent interview with Finnish tabloid newspaper Iltalehti, Jens "Jeans89" Kyllönen has announced his retirement from poker.

The Finnish superstar, who splashed on the scene with a win in the PokerStars EPT Copenhagen back in 2009 for over $1.1 million, is now studying finance at the Hanken School of Economics in Helsinki.

"Life is, after all, quite short," Kyllönen said, looking back on 10 years in poker. "It would be nice to try something else. It also one of the reasons why I decided to apply for the school."

"Life is, after all, quite short. It would be nice to try something else.

Early on in his career, Kyllönen said he was thinking of retiring after poker. While that was his initial goal, once he had made enough to do so he decided to pursue other interests instead of giving up on working altogether. He applied for the school a while ago and got in.

Part of the reason for quitting poker, according to the article, is he had gotten too involved in poker. With the monetary goal no longer in place because he accomplished that some time ago already, he didn't have the same drive as before.

"The fact is that the global poker market has been declining for a long time and interest in the sport has declined as well," he said.

On top of those reasons, Kyllönen said that the unorthodox rhythm he had as a poker player was part of the reason why he quit. With him starting a session while his wife got out of school, he felt his profession didn't have a positive impact on his relationship.

Kyllönen famously bought in for the inaugural $1,000,000 buy in Big One for One Drop back in 2012 without selling any action. He busted on Day 1, being the third player to go home.

Kyllönen made the biggest score of his life last summer, winning his first bracelet in the $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller for $1,127,035, bringing his total earnings live to $2,822,256. He currently sits in fourth place on the Finnish all-time money list behind Juha Helppi, Patrik Antonius and Jani Sointula.

Online, Kyllönen played the majority of his time on PokerStars. Under the nickname "Jeans89," Kyllönen profited $5,226,571 according to his HighStakesDB profile. The majority of the 635,522 hands he logged were in Pot-Limit Omaha, making for an average of $8.22 a hand since the site started tracking him in 2011. Kyllönen played as "Ingenious89" on Full Tilt Poker. He played over 152,555 hands and he won $222,240 for an average of $1.45 a hand.

Just last January, Kyllönen won the Player of the Year award at the Finnish Poker Awards in Casino Helsinki.

The Last Two Weeks' Biggest Pots Online

1) Jacob "Lottenice" Rasmussen Wins a $138,365 Pot (345 Big Blinds) Of Luke "Bit2Easy" Reeves
^{($200/$400 NLHM 6-Handed)}

Mustapha "lasagnaaammm" Kanit opened the action with a raise to $1,200 from first position. Jacob "Lottenice" Rasmussen called from the cutoff before Luke "Bit2Easy" Reeves squeezed the button to $5,358. Both blinds got out of the way, Kanit and Rasmussen called.

With three players to the flop, the pot was already $16,674 as the software dealt 5♥9♠8♦. Kanit checked but Rasmussen bet out $8,167.81. Reeves called; Kanit folded.

The 10♠ hit the turn and Rasmussen over shoved the pot, risking $52,677 into the $33,009 pot. Reeves had his neighbor covered and called.

The two of them ran the river twice and both times a card in favor of Rasmussen hit. The 4♠ and 2♥ were both inconsequential and the 345 big blind pot went to Rasmussen.

2) Philippe "takechip" D'Auteuil Wins a $128,548 Pot (321 Big Blinds) Of "wilhasha"
^{($200/$400 NLHM HU)}

Philippe "takechip" D'Auteuil opened his button to $1,076 only for "wilhasha" to three-bet to $3,800. D'Auteuil called to create a $7,600 pot going into the flop.

wilhasha bet out $3,000 on 10♥6♣7♠ and D'Auteuil flat called.

The same happened on the 4♦ turn as wilhasha bet $9,200 into $13,600 and D'Auteuil called.

A bit more action was seen on the 4♣ river. wilhasha bet $9,000 again but this time D'Auteuil would shove. He moved his stack of $48,274.10 forward and wilhasha called. The latter showed 10♠9♠ for top and bottom pair. D'Auteuil tabled 8♥9♥ for the straight and took down the sizable pot.

3) "wilhasha" Wins a $123,589 Pot (308 Big Blinds) Of Pascal "Pass_72" Lefrancois
^{($200/$400 NLHM HU)}

Ben "Sauce123" Sulsky opened the button with a raise to $1,044. Small blind wilhasha three-bet to $4,800 before big blind Pascal "Pass_72" Lefrancois cold four-bet to $11,600.

This got Sulsky out of the way but wilhasha wasn't planning on doing the same.

Instead, he shoved all in for $61,275.04 and Lefrancois called.

It was a classic kings versus queens situation, with added benefit to wilhasha that he had Lefrancois' diamonds covered.

The two ran the board twice and both times no help appeared for Lefrancois. It came 10♣7♦4♣A♠7♣ and 3♥7♠6♣5♦A♣ and the entire pot went to wilhasha.

Online High-Stakes Action the Last 2 Weeks

Ben "Sauce123" Sulsky dominated the second half of February. He came out on top with a surplus of over $222,000 in profit. He was down the year before that, but now is up $184,000. With $5,037,388 in winnings, he's the second on PokerStars since HighStakesDB started tracking the site. Only Jens "Jeans89" Kyllönen has won more with $5,226,571 in profit. Since Kyllönen has given up on playing poker, it seems only a matter of time before Sulsky will take over as PokerStars' biggest winner.

The 2017 Leaderboard

The 2017 leaderboard hasn't changed much. The top 3 biggest winners is unchanged with Timofey "Trueteller" Kuznetsov still up top. While Kuznetsov lost a bit in the last two weeks, he's still firmly in the lead being up $432,270 for the year.

While Dan "w00ki3z." Cates has been winning the last two weeks, he's still this year's biggest losing player. New in the Top 3 is Dani "supernova9" Stern, taking a spot held by Dario "Secret_M0d3" Sammartino two weeks ago. Sammartino hasn't logged any hands since, but he's now in the seventh spot since Alexander "joiso" Kostritsyn, Sergey "St1ckman" Vasiliev, "8superpoker" and Stern all lost considerable amounts in the last two weeks.

The above top winners and losers in online poker for 2017 only consist of PokerStars accounts. All public data courtesy of HighStakesDB.com. If you want to opt out of being listed in this update on high-stakes action, send an email with your username to [email protected].

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