Sofia L?vgren on Playing With Celebs, the Ladies Event, and Plans for the Future
We caught Sofia L?vgren’s recent bust out from the Celebrity Invitational tournament. She and Leo Margets both went all in without looking at their cards and they were called down by another player at the table. Once the flop hit, they all turned up their hands one by one. L?vgren held while Margets was holding . Unfortunately, both of them had run into and were drawing dead by the turn.
After her bust, L?vgren was kind enough to speak with us about her time in Brazil and some of her initial impressions of the city and the poker so far.
Is this your first time in Brazil? How do you feel about the city so far?
“Yes, and it’s my first time in South America as well. My first impressions are that I think the city is very cool. I’ve heard that it can be dangerous, walking outdoors, alone at night, but when you are in groups it’s totally safe.”
How about the poker? How are you feeling about the Poker here so far?
“I like the poker here so far. I’ve only played the High Roller and the Flop O Mania tournament, and now the charity tournament. And it’s been great fun.”
What are your impressions of the players that you’ve played with?
“Actually I played with a lot of the teammates from 888. So I played with some good friends and yeah we had a good laugh. It’s been some fun poker.”
What about the celebrity event? How did you feel playing with all of these different celebrities?
“Of course it’s really fun when some big soccer legends join the poker game, and it’s been really fun. Denílson and Cafu, they both have big personalities and great personalities.”
Is this something new for you? To play in a celebrity tournament like this?
“I’ve been in a couple of celebrity tournaments before, but it’s the first one that I’ve played outside of Europe, with some Brazilian celebs.”
You guys were playing “fun” poker, not so serious obviously.
“We for sure don’t play that serious. It’s just for fun. We don’t play that serious. Like I was making raises with and I made a bluff with . And I got called down. You know, it doesn’t matter. And then we made a couple raises blind. I mean it doesn’t matter if you lose or win this tournament, it’s just to hang out and have a laugh.”
Are you planning on playing the Ladies Event?
“Yes for sure, it’s tomorrow, and actually it’s added the 13,000 Euro package to the World Series of Poker Europe, so that’s some extra value and for sure it will be good to win it. It’s nice.”
When you play a Ladies Event, do you have a different strategy? Do you approach the game a different way?
“I think when you play the Ladies Events, it's usually more shots at the tables. In general, I think the ladies event is a little softer than other tournaments, because more women just play for a hobby. Depending on the table I think I’ll play like usual. They are limping a lot and they like to see a lot of flops. So I like to raise bigger with bigger hands and then maybe put smaller bet sizing when I don’t have any hands. I probably shouldn’t say much more. I just play, there isn’t a really big difference.”
What are you looking forward to most for your time here in Brazil?
“I talked to a couple of local guys here in S?o Paulo and they suggested me some really good Brazilian restuarants. I definitely want to check out those. Some really good steakhouses. And then I have some Brazilian friends, like Bruno Foster and Nicolau Villa-Lobos, they know the good places here in Brazil and in S?o Paulo so I think I’ll get some advice and go hang out with them.”
What’s next for you?
“Actually this year I’ve been playing mainly cash games, so cash games in Macau and some places in Asia. So I’ll go back to Asia and play some cash games after Brazil. Then I will play World Series of Poker Europe in November, beginning of November. I will also play ACOP in Macau. I will also be in London for 888Live’s Festival there too.”
That’ll wrap things up for our coverage here today at 888Live S?o Paulo. Tomorrow we’ll conclude Day 1d with updates on chip leaders and total number of players. Currently 191 players have entered the event filling almost every table in the venue. Tommorow Day 1e kicks off at 2 p.m. local time while Day 1f, the turbo flight, kicks off at 8 p.m. Once Day 2 begins, we’ll start back up with our normal hand for hand coverage. So stay tuned!