WPTDeepStacks Immokalee Winner Michael Tureniec Trades Miles For Dollars

By Matt Clark

A stoic table presence and impressive tournament results are to be expected for the average Swedish professional poker player. The location of Michael Tureniec’s latest victory is not. The 32-year-old claimed his first WPTDeepStacks title this week in the WPTDS Immokalee Main Event as part of the Season XVI WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown.

On the list of cashes lined up on Tureniec’s HendonMob.com profile, there’s a trend of American flags that have grown in the last few years. Tureniec pivoted from playing a heavy European schedule at the start of the 2010s and the results back up his decision to put in the miles.

There are few Europeans in the Season XVI WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship field, and Tureniec doesn’t mind the limited competition.

Tureniec keeps to himself at the table and his reaction after closing out the WPTDS Immokalee final table was subdued. A simple transaction in a long line of them.

The WPTDS crown is the latest in a series of trips to the payout desk for the value-hunting WSOP bracelet winner and European Poker Tour champion.

The decision to skip the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS event in Barcelona was intentional for Tureniec, who has found a second home in Florida.

“I was tempted to go play [WPT] Five Diamond two years ago and then I saw that Florida had this Rock ‘N’ Roll Poker Open so figured why not start here?” Tureniec said. “Since they were scheduled right after each other, I stopped by here and played the main and a few sides.”

Tureniec let out a smile when he added, “I liked what I saw and then came back for most major series ever since.”

Travel across the Atlantic isn’t done solo by Tureniec. He partners with WSOP bracelet winner and fellow Swede Peter Eichhardt as they attempt to conquer the western world. Eichhardt’s Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown series has been positive, with a fifth-place result worth $76,129 in the $1 million guaranteed opener the highlight.

The pair met each other through poker and then decided to team up for trips after living nearby at Palms Place in Las Vegas during a summer.

“We’ve made a lot of US trips the last two years,” Tureniec told WPT.com. “It’s usually based around Florida or Vegas and try to combine it with some other stop as well that are close by or have a great venue or guarantee.”

Eichhardt and Tureniec played the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open in January at Seminole and flew north immediately afterward to play in the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open.

Tureniec won a $1,100 turbo side event to close out the LHPO series.

Money is on the mind of Tureniec. Both in terms of what he saves and spends on a given trip. He still calls Sweden his formal home and offsets the repeated costs of traveling abroad by playing lower buy-ins than he would in Europe.

Tureniec’s tab stands at two $3,500 entries in this WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship, but he is still saving money from the €10,300 he would have spent to buy-in once to the Barcelona Main Event.

“I think except for this one in Barcelona, it’s a lot more action here in the US,” Tureniec outlined. “It’s pretty big fields and even though the buy-ins are smaller than the tournaments in Europe, it’s way lower variance. In Europe, I feel like it’s easy to drop $20, $30, $40K at a stop. Guess that’s possible here as well, but not so likely.”

The field Tureniec beat to win WPTDS Immokalee fits into his established skillset. The combination of a smaller buy-in and large field is what he feasts on.

Tureniec’s bracelet came in a field of 4,360 in the 2016 $1,111 Little One for One Drop. Last summer, Tureniec overcame the herd of 8,120 to finish seventh in the $888 Crazy Eights event.

When asked about what he’s figured out in order to achieve consistent success in events of that structure, Tureniec hid his secrets and offered the standard line of “run really good and try to take a lot of flops post-flop.”

Tureniec’s map is dotted with where the best value lays, but he is mindful of what a WPT title would do for his career. He is two-thirds of the way toward completing poker’s live Triple Crown and noted that the achievement is an “added bonus” toward his schedule decisions.

The pending result of the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown does not sway Tureniec’s schedule prior to the Las Vegas summer.

Florida poker continues to grow and Tureniec is going to be a Seminole fixture for years to come, much to the dismay of his opponents.

For more on Tureniec’s recent WPTDeepStacks victory, read the event’s recap right here on WPT.com.

Click here for more coverage from the Season XVI WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown Championship.

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