Bernard Lee, ESPN Staff Writer 9y

Stephensen ready for final table

Poker

Felix Stephensen has lived by a single mantra throughout his entire life.

"Whenever I spend a lot of time doing something, I really want to be the very best I can be."

The 24-year-old from Oslo, Norway, is a top-level football player, an online cash game specialist and now a member of the elite November Nine. He'll enter the final table on Nov. 10 second in chips with 32.7 million.

Stephensen has always been passionate about the activities he becomes involved with. His first love was soccer or, as Stephensen requested, "let's refer to it as football." During his teenage years, he devoted the majority of his time to football on a top youth team in Norway, Vaalerenga. He believed that the sport was his future and acknowledged that his team "won basically everything in Norway."

While still playing football, at around 17 years old, his friends introduced him to another game: poker.

"It's pretty much the same old cliché," he said. "I started out playing in some home games, did alright there and I really enjoyed my time playing it."

As with any of his passions, Stephensen wanted to get better at poker so he took to the Internet to learn more about his newfound interest. He became enthralled with the game as he tirelessly watched numerous coaching videos and voraciously read the forums on 2+2. Eventually, he ventured to online poker. After a couple of failed initial deposits, Stephensen ultimately found success online and has continued to play ever since, under the screen name "FallAtYourFeet."

Eventually, Stephensen's desire and love for football gradually began to transfer over to poker. In the end, he decided to leave football for his new passion.

"My teammates were really surprised that I quit, but I hit a wall and lost motivation," he said. "I was not looking forward to going to practice anymore. I moved my passion to poker. I feel if you are going to spend that much time doing something, you should be enjoying it and poker was something that I really enjoyed at the time. Instead of doing two things half-assed, I'd rather focus entirely on one thing and be the very best I can be with that. And, at the time, that was poker."

Stephensen became consumed with poker, playing all hours of the day, including school hours. His truancy led to his dismissal from school with only a year and a half remaining. Nevertheless, his parents still supported him.

"My parents have always been super supportive of me in any way, maybe even too much, but that's great for me," he said. "They were a bit worried because I really didn't tell them I was playing as much poker as I was. My mother was getting kinda of worried why I was staying up all night ... if I was doing drugs or whatever."

After a couple of solid scores online, Stephensen decided to reveal his new lifestyle to his parents. His parents were relieved, shocked and ultimately proud that their son had devoted so much time to poker and had become successful. With their blessing, Stephensen decided to dedicate himself to the game.

Funded by his success, Stephensen and three poker friends decided to travel, using Thailand as a home base. They chose to live the lavish lifestyle, renting an eight-bedroom mansion with an extravagant pool, just for the four of them. During the year, the quartet played poker and traveled all around Asia, enjoying the freedom that poker offered them. During this time, Stephensen discovered pot-limit Omaha and after learning the subtle intricacies of the game, he decided to switch gears from no-limit hold 'em to his current game of choice.

"People were beginning to discuss that the poker economy was transitioning into PLO and I wanted to be in the forefront," he said. "The one thing that is really important if you are going to sustain yourself in poker is to stay ahead of the curve."

Once again, he devoted himself to learn this new game. Utilizing his current poker knowledge, he scoured the Internet for up-to-the-date information and strategies on PLO, developing a true love for the game. After a year of fun and travel, Stephensen settled down back in Europe. He moved to London for the online poker climate and continued to grind $5/$10 to $25/$50 PLO online.

"It was probably one of my best decisions in poker moving over to PLO," he said. "Except going to Vegas this year to play in the main event."

After grinding online for several months in London, he decided to take a break and made a trip to the WSOP. The original plan was to play several events, including the $10,000 PLO event. However, the temptations of Las Vegas sidetracked his summer tournament schedule. The 2014 WSOP main event was the only event he played for the entire summer.

It was definitely a fortuitous decision.

Similar to most professional players, the young Norwegian also loved the amazing structure of the main event and benefited from it as he failed to make significant ground during the first few days.

"When I play tournaments live, I tend to get a bit nervous so it takes me a little while to get into the zone," he said.

He maintained a below-average stack for a significant portion of the tournament. However, due to the nature of the levels, he still had about 30 big blinds for the entire tournament and was able to maintain focus and wait for his specific moment.

"Even though I was short compared to average, having 30 big blinds is like the chip lead if you go into final table on a Sunday Million," Stephensen said. "There's no rush to need a double up. Have a good time, just wait for good spots and be patient and let other people make mistakes."

On Day 6 his patience paid off as he ran his below-average stack of 1.3 million all the way up to a top 10 stack of 7.7 million. His Day 7 played out like a dream. During the final two tables, he utilized A-K suited twice to double up. With 18 remaining, he doubled through fellow 2014 November Niner, Mark Newhouse when Newhouse held A-9 and with 15 players remaining came one of the most decisive hands of his main event to date.

Sitting in the small blind, the young Norwegian pro three-bet squeezed with As-Ks to 2.25 million. Thomas Sarra Jr. didn't believe him and four bet to 6.7 million.

"I was just thinking that this is the hand that will decide whether I will go to November Nine or not," he said. "I jammed it in and he starts thinking and I realized that I was in a good spot here. I really thought he had some kind of pair like 10s. When he eventually calls and flips over K-Q, I was feeling pretty good."

Stephensen flopped top pair and nut flush draw the turn had Sarra Jr. drawing dead. Suddenly Stephensen was the chip leader with 14 players remaining.

"I had so many thoughts running through my head," he said. "I was trying my best to keep calm because at this point I'm in a really good position to put pressure on short stacks and make the November Nine."

The endless display of patience resulted in a tremendous image for Stephensen, who adjusted his game significantly at this point and was able to continue to build his stack. When the November Nine bubble burst, he was actually a little disappointed.

"I definitely opened up my game and took down a lot of pots uncontested," he said. "I had a pretty solid image and the chips to work with as well, so I was in a super good spot. So to be honest, I was rooting a bit for [Luis Velador to double]. Also, I didn't want Newhouse to get his hands on a lot of chips because he is sitting two to my left."

Now that Stephensen has achieved the dream of every poker player, making the November Nine, his mantra still holds steadfast. Admittedly, he doesn't have as much experience in no-limit hold 'em tournaments. So, he has decided to focus on becoming as knowledgeable as possible before the November Nine reassembles in the Penn and Teller Theater. He played all the no-limit WCOOP events online and also the EPT Barcelona and London events to gain more experience live, as well. He earned one cash from those efforts, finishing ninth in the 1,100-pound side event at EPT London.

"I have to focus entirely at getting better at no-limit," he said. "I want to be properly prepared. I want to put myself in the very best position I can to become the world champion."

Holding true to his mantra, there's no doubt that when the cards are in the air in November, Stephensen will be ready. He just wouldn't have it any other way.

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