30 Jul 10

Diamond Interview Series: Snodreliss

In our newest community interview, we had a talk with one of the so-called "veterans": Snodreliss. He joined us back in 2007, so we talked about what he's playing these days, his life in Norway and more.

Snodreliss is part of the older generations and he's been with us for about three years already. Since he reached the Diamond level, it was only a matter of time before I track him down and force ask him for an interview. He is from Norway - that country whose emblem is some sort of griffin holding an axe, which indicates that he's probably violent in day-to-day situations.

Apparently, he is a "press photographer" (I swear I'm not making this up!), besides playing poker, which means he's pretty much like Peter Parker from Spiderman, except for all the dudes in spandex costumes. Also, according to him, there are bears walking down the street.

This makes it seem like a very manly place to live (Wrestle a bear on your way to the office - what's not to like?), but that's bad news for the 10 tourists that wanted to visit Norway (nobody really goes to Norway on purpose, right?). More on this, as well as a picture of a dog biting Snodreliss by the nuts, can be found below.

Do you want to nominate a Diamond member for the next interview? Do you want to read the previous entries? In that case, click below:

Diamond Interview Series: archive, feedback and nomination

This interview was conducted by vhallee

Snodreliss: Diamond member and press photographer

PokerStrategy.com: Hello there Sondre and thanks for joining me for the Diamond Interview Series. How are you today? Is life treating you alright? Tell our readers a bit about yourself, will you?

Snodreliss: Hello Vali and all fellows pokerg33ks! I'm fine, just got up from bed. Sun is shining and I'm in the apartment with my friend - we rent it together. He's not a poker player though.

As for me, I'm 21 years old, living in a nice little city in Norway called Grimstad. I just finished my studies, so now I'm a press photographer searching for the perfect moments to capture on camera. Oh and I'm playing a lot of poker obviously. I can't get Clue to work (which is a translation program from English – Norwegian), so I have some problems answering the questions.

PokerStrategy.com: It's alright; I know you already have a hard time understanding your own language (just like the Danish, the Estonians, etc.). What does 'press photographer' actually mean? Do you chase some undeserving celebrities around and take photos of them in some embarrassing postures? I hope so, for the sake of awesomeness.

Snodreliss: Haha, Norwegian is pretty easy; at least we don't have all those funny and ugly sounds that Danish people have!

Being a press photographer is not only chasing celebrities, as I'm not paparazzi, but sure I have to do that too sometimes. Like this summer, I covered the festival called "Hovefestivalen" with a lot of famous music groups and going backstage with some of them. I was on a boat trip with the boy band "A1", which really is some crazy funny people. And they got their 12 year old girlfriends with them too! (laughs)

Most of the job consists of taking pictures for some news or other stuff which we cover and being a press photographer means I don't need to write all those boring articles! (smiles)

From $20 to NL 200

One of the benefits of reaching Diamond level: balls of steel. Get your Diamond rank today!

PokerStrategy.com: Danish hater! But seriously, "going backstage with some of them" - that sounds extremely bad for you. I hope I won't forget to remove this when editing. Moving on. How did you actually get into poker? Did you take some weird pictures of a poker pro or what?

Snodreliss: When I went to upper secondary school (Clue is working now!) One of my friends was pretty bored during the class, so he opened a $3 SnG at PokerStars. I asked some questions about the game and decided to try it out myself. I deposited 100 NOK (that's ~$20) and played.

At that moment I knew I would probably lose the money, but I just wanted to play for fun. And it was fun! So I kept playing, and didn't lose it too fast, I was such a box (smiles).

Of course I lost it after some weeks so I deposited $20 once more. Then I hit a sick upswing to about $80 and I thought I played really well! (laughs). But then I lost most of it, before some random guy on mIRC spammed me with a PokerStrategy.com link. I passed the quiz like a pro and started grinding SSS.

And no, I haven't taken any pictures of any poker pro except myself of course. But if PokerStrategy.com sends me to Vegas and pays me for my pictures, I'm always ready! (smiles)

PokerStrategy.com: From $20 to $80 - what a box, indeed. Regarding the Vegas opportunity, I don't think we'll hire people that followed boy bands around. About your game: what are you playing nowadays and how high?

Snodreliss: Hahaha! STFU! I've taken pictures of metal bands too! (laughs) I'm playing NL 200 FR Rush Poker and pwning all the Full Tilt red pros that also play that game regularly, easy money.

PokerStrategy.com: Yeah I heard that often: people complaining that it's hard to play against fish and they wanna take on the pros. Tell me more about your daily poker schedule. How many tables do you play? How many sessions? How long does a session last?

Snodreliss: It depends a lot, some months I might play less than 10k hands, which is pretty bad. I just play whenever I want and feel motivated to play, which I haven't been so much this year, mostly because of a sick downswing at NL 200 HU I had earlier this year where I lost $8k super fast. That was pretty sick and took a lot of time to recover from, But anyway, this month I've played over 50k hands and up to 5 hours a day.

How many tables I play depends on what game I play and my mood. When I play rush games I play 4 tables, if I play HU, it's 1 or 2 tables, if I'm at the FR/SH tables I can play from 6-16 tables, but I prefer 6-8 tables. But I remember the days back when I just started grinding NL 10 SSS and played at PokerStars without HUD - I played up to 24 tables.

Going to buy an Audi TT from my poker winnings

I don't get it either, but he looks very confident. I like that a lot.

PokerStrategy.com: What's the perfect environment to make sure you're focused and in the mood to play your best? Do you listen to some music maybe? And if so, does that mean Backstreet Boys?

Snodreliss: First of all I have to feel good, which means I shouldn't be tired or sad/mad about some RL stuff, just make sure I focus on the tables 100%.

To make sure I focus at the tables, I listen to music, like A1 and Backstreet Boys… Ehrm, no. But music like Pink Floyd, The Temper Trap, Kent and such – they're nice and they get me in a good mood.

PokerStrategy.com: Pink Floyd, yeah sure. Since you started with just $20 and now you're cruising at NL 200, I want to ask you: what are your short-term and long-term goals right now? Do you have anything setup or you're simply playing and see where it takes you?

Snodreliss: Short-them, I'm going to buy an Audi TT from my poker winnings, which I'm really close to!

Long-term, I don't really know, I'm over-rolled for NL 200 and been that for over 1 year, but I'm going to stay here for a while because I simply make some nice money here and don't have to worry too much about Mr. Tax when playing this limit. But I want to cash big in an MTT someday, that would be very nice!

PokerStrategy.com: Speaking of MTTs, are you considering switching to live poker anytime soon? Maybe joining some of the big tournaments out there, like the WSOP, EPT, WPT?

Snodreliss: Not really, mostly because poker is banned in Norway. But I might play a not too expensive tournament if I don't have to travel too far and I feel I can afford it.

PokerStrategy.com: Let's say you eventually participate in one of these and you win $1 million. What would you do with the money? A gossip newspaper? Form a boy band? Buy lots and lots of cheese?

Snodreliss: Hmm, I would buy a nice house and car for sure, then put the rest of the money in the bank and focus more on my job and keep grinding NL 200 like nothing happened. And of course I'd travel a lot more and participate in more live tournaments.

PokerStrategy.com: How do you see poker going for you in the future? Do you plan on going pro eventually or just leave it as a hobby that makes you more money than the hilarious-sounding photo journalist?

Snodreliss: I'm just going to play poker as a hobby, I can't really see myself sitting inside all day long and playing a card game. I will keep playing as long as it's fun and I make some money. Being a photographer is much more fun and you never know how the day will be, which is great!

Bears, bike trial and Quake Live

Pictured: poker art on the toilet. Because why not. Shut up, you don't understand.

PokerStrategy.com: You're right, just look at Peter Parker or Clark Kent. But enough about that. What other stuff do you do in general? Got any other hobbies or something?

Snodreliss: I do something called bike trial; it's a great sport but needs a lot of practice to do well. I've been doing that for about three years now, and I can do things on my bike I guess many people never have seen before. Just search for “bike trial” on YouTube if you don't know what it is.

Nowadays I'm playing some Quake Live with my friends - very fun game. I would recommend it to everyone who likes FPS games. Besides that, I'm hanging out with friends when I got time, just like everyone else.

PokerStrategy.com: I hate FPS games but Quake Live is indeed awesome. That bike trial thing sounds awesome as well, so I might want to come and see you in action. If I do come to visit Norway, what sort of interesting stuff should I check out?

Snodreliss: There are a lot of polar bears walking down the streets, people always think that's strange and scary. Dunno what else… great nature here. You can also have a nice time at the beach during the summer and you can do some skiing during the winter.

PokerStrategy.com: Bears walking down the streets? That, sir, is pretty epic. Before we end this, what kind of advices would you give to new players looking to start with poker?

Snodreliss: To make it short: Play vs. me, you'll be learning by doing. (and learning from your mistakes -> playing vs. me)

PokerStrategy.com: Alright, thanks for the incredibly bad advice (note: never ask Snodreliss for life advices). That's pretty much it, so if you have something to add or some members to say hi to, this is your chance.

Snodreliss: Hi, everyone! (smiles). Joenaes, please don't play when I do.

PokerStrategy.com: Ok, well that was short (that's what SHE said!). Well, thanks for joining me and have fun with your bears and Norwegian boy bands.

Snodreliss: No problem, going to shoot a bear (or boy band?) now so I have something for dinner the next days (laughs).

Diamond Interview Series: archive, feedback and nomination