Lee Davy catches up with the Swedish sex bomb, Martin Jacobson, to talk about life in the High Roller fraternity and the challenges it brings.
He has since popped up in a few more Super High Roller events, with mixed results, including an eighth place finish in the A$100,000 Aussie Millions Challenge for $313,468.
So is Jacobson a fully paid member of the elite these days?
“The One Drop High Roller was my first Super High Roller. I figured it would be a good one. It had a much bigger field than the ones on the EPT circuit. I played London and Barcelona, but not many more since.”
Do you have ambitions to play in the ONE DROP?
“Yeah…I do. I was going to try and sell some action, if I did well in the spring but that didn’t happen. I did try the Satellite, but it wasn’t meant to be. Now it’s ended I’m pretty happy about it because it was quite a lot tougher this year. Everyone was expecting a bigger field but as it turned out it was smaller.”
Does the step up to the Super High Roller brigade create more bankroll stress for the usually suave, smooth, Swede?
“No…not really. Since you sell action you don’t usually have that big of a piece. Sure it’s a bigger buy-in, than a regular buy-in, but I’m good at relieving the pressure and still being able to play my best.”
So who is buying the action? Impartial investors, players or a bit of both?
“It’s a bit of both I think. Mostly players buy from other players but there are also some investors behind this that have a lot more money than poker players. It’s very high variance buying big pieces.”
Do you need to be more careful whom you do business with?
“Yeah, of course, you need to know who you are buying off, how they compare to the field, if they are a good buyer or not. You need to make sure the person you are buying off is trustworthy, which can always be a gamble. I mean dealing with money you can’t always be 100 percent sure.”
If the Super High Roller games are going to continue, are we going to see a much more formal process for managing money?
“I haven’t heard of anyone contacting lawyers and stuff. If there was a dispute, maybe, but not buying pieces here and there. It could become more formal, but it would be unfortunate if we needed to, coz I kind of like it as it is, where we can trust people. If there are more incidents where people don’t pay; it does seem like the logical way to go about things.”
