Jesper Olsen’s got the sweet taste of victory in his first-ever Run It Up Reno event. Olsen, a local player from Reno took down the $125 3-card super no-limit hold’em event. He defeated Sarah Kenyon heads-up finish off his victory in the 136-entry field and earn $3,217.

Originally from Denmark, relocated to North Carolina to work for a Danish company about six years ago. About six months ago, he made the move from North Carolina to Reno to work for a different job. This is the first time he was living in Reno during a Run It Up series and he made the most of it.

“I actually came from Vegas,” said Olsen with a laugh. “I was there until yesterday. This is my first event here at Run It Up. It’s a good start. Unfortunately, it’s ending now.”

Olsen’s first victory came in a very unique poker variant. With the 3-card super no-limit hold’em, you can use all three cards in your hand, which makes the nuts on any given board nearly impossible to figure out.

The finance controller for Panasonic enjoyed that aspect of it. He embraced the challenge of figuring out an optimal strategy on the fly. Just judging by results, he seemed to figure out just fine.

“I had to ask about the rules when we started,” said Olsen. “But this was really, really fun. I like playing that. You have to think very different, I think. You have to figure out things. Three hearts, for instance, is a very strong hand. Three suits preflop. That was very interesting and very fun. I would like to do that again.”

The Dane found the game fun, but also enjoyed his time at a RIU Reno series. Between the victory and meeting one of the Team RIU ambassadors, Olsen had a blast at the Peppermill.

“I like it a lot,” said Olsen about his first time at Run It Up Reno. “I follow Andrew Neeme on his poker vlog and I met him yesterday. When I got back from Vegas, I came in here real quick and got a selfie with him. That was pretty awesome.”

Olsen came into the final table near the top of the chip counts and just cruised into heads-up play against Kenyon. According to him, in the few big pots he played, he ran pure and took it down.

“There weren’t really many hands I was involved in at the final table,” said Olsen. “When I went all in, three times, I won. So that’s good. I made a few stealing a few big blinds here and there. It was pretty smooth, so that was nice.”

Olsen lived in North Carolina for quite some time before moving to Reno. Since leaving the Southeast and getting out to Northern Nevada, he’s been able to get back into the game and spend more time on the felt.

“I love playing poker and this is a great place to do that,” said Olsen. “You can’t do that much in North Carolina.”

The 136-entry field paid out the top 24 players. Here are the full results:

1st: Jesper Olsen – $3,217
2nd: Sarah Kenyon – $2,125
3rd: DJ Fenton – $1,455 + seat into the Platinum Pass freeroll (winner of RIU gear last longer)
4th: Mark Mazza – $1,015
5th: William Burns – $725
6th: Joe Wegner – $535
7th: Kim Stone – $410
8th: Jesse Capps – $330
9th: Jesse Fullen – $270
10th: Rebecca Hardi – $270
11th: Kimberly Kilroy – $245
12th: Shawn Taplin – $245
13th: Crissy Sergeant – $225
14th: David Davis – $225
15th: Jimmy Pascual – $210
16th: Jagadeesh Vallashanean – $210
17th: Crystal McCarvel – $190
18th: Peter Dirksen – $190
19th: Timothy Keenan – $190
20th: Scott Janik – $190
21st: Joe Ogden – $180
22nd: Kevin Barrett – $180
23rd: Prabhjot Mall – $180
24th: Frank Carter – $180