Simon Ravnsbaek

Hailing from the country that has produced legends of the game like Gus Hansen and Peter Eastgate, Denmark’s Simon Ravnsbaek found poker back in 2005. At this time – long before Black Friday Struck in 2011 – online poker was an absolute goldmine for those players with some technical ability. Simon was one of those people.

Although his beginnings in poker were very casual as he discovered the game over drinks with friends, he soon realised that he had a knack for it. He dived into the full-ring cash games on PartyPoker, and in his own words:

‘Went fairly rapidly from $0.50 / $1, to $2 / $4 . . . and finally, I was up on $5 / $10’.

Simon was studying at university while this poker journey was taking off, and impressively he managed to finish his education and earn his bachelor’s degree in 2008 whilst rising through the online ranks.

Ravnsbaek has played poker professionally ever since he graduated. He moved away from full-ring games to 6-max and heads-up cash play as these games grew more popular. Over time, Simon added MTTs into his poker schedule where the skills he’d acquired at short-handed play came in handy in the later stages of tournaments. Playing as ‘ministerborg’ on PokerStars, the Dane has multiple six-figure cashes to his name, including a SCOOP victory in 2012 in the $2,100 NLHE event where he earned a $344,262 payday. Ravnsbaek’s confidence in his heads-up ability was reaffirmed when he refused to make a deal with second-place finisher Chris ‘ImDaNuts’ Oliver – despite the huge pay jump between first and second.

Just a week later, Simon had a shot at making it two SCOOP titles in less than two weeks. He reached the final two of the $1,050 Main Event with a huge chip lead – almost four-to-one in fact. Despite this massive advantage, luck wasn’t on Ravnsbaek’s side when he needed it most and he had to settle for $417,339 in change for his runner-up finish (boo-hoo).

Simon’s online winnings amount to well over $1,500,000 in MTTs on PokerStars alone. His successes in the live arena have earned him a similar amount, with his most prideful achievement taking place in late 2011 when he won the Danish Championship. Reflecting on the win the following year, he explained:

‘The Danish Championship probably feels like the biggest win I’ve had . . . it was a really great feeling . . . it’s probably the only chance I’ll ever get to call myself Danish champion at anything’.

Ravnsbaek also has an EPT title in the trophy case and can add multiple WPT Main Event final tables to his list of live achievements as well. As the poker climate continues to get tougher with the general skill level of players rising each year, Simon has been honest about the fact that poker might not be a viable career choice for life:

‘I think when that time comes, I’ll find out what I want’.