Anssi “Baadger” Mustonen is a fresh SuperNova Elite on PokerStars who plays PLO $2,5/$5 ZOOM as his main game. He recently visited Joey Ingram podcast, check out the link at the end of the Snapshot.

About You

1. What is your name, age and where are you located? What is your personal twitter account?

Anssi Mustonen, 25, Helsinki Finland. I don’t use twitter yet.

2. What are Your online poker Screen names?

baadger on pokerstars

3. How would you define yourself as a poker player? / What poker games do you normally play?  Are you learning any new games?

I’m an online PLO 6-max grinder, playing stakes from 1-2 to 10-20, but mainly 500zoom on stars where I’m reaching supernova elite this year for the first time. I’m not learning any new games, sometimes I try to luckbox Sunday donkaments.

4. What do you most enjoy about your job?

Freedom and being your own boss, self-employed, and money of course. It’s really nice to work in your own livingroom.

5. Who are the top 3 players in your main game from your home country in your personal opinion?

EEE27, bustoville, I_MR_U_BEAN, although their main game is 5-10+

6. What reg in your game do you respect most? Can you briefly describe why?

Jeans89, he has all the qualities of successful poker player, works hard and also knows how to enjoy life.

7. Besides yourself who do you think the most underrated poker player is?

duubadaaba

Past

1. Why and when did you start playing poker?  Do you still play for the same reasons?

I think I started 7 years ago with 5e sitngo’s with my friends after seeing the WPT broadcasts on tv. I wanted to be the guy on TV that binks 1 million score. Then it was money and fame, now mainly for the money.

2. What were the best and worst months of your poker career? What happened?

My best month was when I was 7th in an anniversary Sunday Million 2012 and we made a deal in the ft. which got me 239 000$. From cash games I have couple months +50-100k, and some -20-30k. Nothing special on those, just heaters / doomswitches.

3. Are you satisfied with the last 12 months of your poker play?

I decided to go for supernova elite on stars this year. It’s been a tough grind and harder than I thought, I miss the freedom of not having to grind. I’m not satisfied with the level of play I brought to the tables, way too much autopilot and B-game. That and not studying probably why I didn’t quite make my monetary goals.

4. How did Black Friday impact you? How did you adapt after Black Friday?

I had couple thousand stuck there, but got them back later. Didn’t affect me much.

5. What was the biggest factor in your development as a player?

It’s been a steady improvement, figuring out things as I play. I used to only think spots in a vacuum, but now I also think how playing certain spots affect my overall gameplan and ranges.

6. What was the biggest mistake(s) you have done as a poker player?

Not grinding and studying the game hard enough 5 years ago.

7. What’s your biggest prop bet?

I bet 2k on the yaarny prop bet, have not done any big prop bets myself. Some sport bets against friends.

Present

1. How do you prepare for your poker activities?

I wake up, drink coffee and water, go through my bookmarks in my browser, put some good music or podcast on and start grinding.

2. If you could pick the brain of anyone in the world for 3 hours, who would he/she be?

Ben86 and use it as free coaching

3. What 3 poker pros should PokerStars sign to their team online roster?

Ilari_FIN, Isildur1 and Dan Bilzerian

4. What is your favorite way to relieve stress when running bad?

Hanging with my girlfriend, sports, watching good tv, travelling.

5. How much volume are you playing on Eurosites?

All my volume was on eurosites 2010-2013, 2014-2015 almost all my volume has been on Pokerstars. 2016 I’m probably gonna play around half of my volume on eurosites.

6. Why are you not playing mid/high stakes already? If you are, what are the 3 most important things that got you there?

You have to be extremely talented or hardworking or both to get to high stakes, and I’m neither.

7. What is the most important positive change you’ve made to your poker approach this year?

Grinding attitude, being able to put high volume even on bad months.

Future

1. What are your poker and other goals for the next 12 months?

Poker wise I still want to be a winner next year, less volume but better quality of play. Other goals are to travel and to finish my University of Applied sciences degree, where I’m only short of thesis and couple courses.

2. Are you confident that you will meet those goals? Why?

Yes I’m confident, you need to have confidence in yourself in everything you are doing.

3. Do you see yourself still playing poker in 10 years?

As a professional no. Probably playing live poker couple times a year.

4. Do you have any ambition to coach/teach other players?

Only if I’m in need for money, which probably doesn’t make me a good coach then. So no. I did like 20 hours of coaching couple years ago and it went ok, though.

5. What’s the poker dream for you?

I WANT MILLION. Seriously though, getting my own apartment and money to travel is enough for me.

6. How do you see the poker landscape changing in the next five years?

Online gets tougher every year, but I think 1-2 and smaller will be decently beatable games, as long as the bots don’t take over and the rake doesn’t get higher. It’s too small for the crushers to drop down to. Live poker will be soft always.

7. How much time are you putting into studying financial issues like investing. What are your preferred sources for this? What investments are you making with your poker winnings? 

I’m not putting any time to it currently, I have money invested in my apartment.

Other

1. Do you have any regular non-poker hobbies? Whats your favorite way to spend your spare time?

I go to crossfit, floorball and other sports like badminton. I also like to watch good tv-series, football and Dota 2.

2. If you could give you from five years ago (make it ten if over 30) one major piece of advice, what would it be?

Study and grind hard now to make a lot of money when it’s still easy. Don’t play so much computer games.

3. What are the 3 things everyone should have on their bucket list?

Travel around the world, watch breaking bad/wire/game of thrones, do a bungee jump/sky diving etc.

4. Do you follow any poker podcasts or poker players on Twitch?

Joeingram1, jnandez87

5. If you could change one thing with online poker, what would that be? What if you could change one thing with live poker?

I was thinking about a system for a 6max table, lets say there is one person sitting, and then a (fun) player joins the table. Then there would be a 30second timespan for everyone else who clicked to join that table would be added to a playerpool, and after 30seconds site would randomly pick 4 next players to the table. Live poker maybe chess clock or something to make it go faster.

6. What is the best place and the best restaurant your have ever visited?

I really enjoyed Las Vegas, also La Grave in the Alpes was really nice. Farang in Finland is the best restaurant I have been.

7. Who do you challenge to do the Poker Player Snapshot next and why?

eee27, he’s such a beast grinder, and not many people outside Finland know much about him.

Anssi as Joey’s guest: