My name is Claus Nielsen and I will be writing about my views on various topics ranging from Poker to a complete historic perspective on the American political process and provide you with a comprehensive analysis of the term Due process. This first post, however, is just a brief introduction to who I am and why I have been invited to write about my thoughts on this website. First a little about why I have been invited to join Vegasvikings. I fulfill the only three requirements of Vegasvikings, I am Danish, I reside in Las Vegas and I have a very strong opinion on just about every subject imaginable.

Who am I? I was born in Copenhagen long time ago, in what seems to be a previous life. When I was 20 years old, I moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in the Film Industry. I graduated from Film School, but never made the big impact on Hollywood that I had daydreamed about since I was a little boy, sitting too close to the Television watching and analysing Citizen Kane. I then decided that if I could not control the creative process, I would try to control the financial side of movie making. I realized that Hollywood was run by lawyers, so if you can’t beat them, join them. I graduated from Seton Hall University School of Law in New Jersey and moved back to Los Angeles. There I worked as an entertainment attorney for 6-7 years before I ended up back in Vegas (I lived here for a couple of years after film school, playing poker at The Mirage and working as a bartender at The Sands). I returned to Vegas in 2003, and made a living grinding fixed HE at Bellagio for 3 years.  I then got hired as a consultant by Martin Deknijff and ended up running his internet pokersite, Martinspoker, for a couple of years. I left that job in March 2008 and have since then been trying to figure out what to do with my life. I am currently working as an advisor for pokerplayers, where I help them with the business aspects of their career.

I really appreciate that I am allowed to write here and I am sure that it will save me thousands of dollars in Psychiatrist Bills that I now have a place to let my frustrations out, Thanks Vegasvikings.

Seeing this, I might still have a shot at becoming notorious

For me Sunday = playing online poker tournaments

For me most Sundays = dumping $$$ into the poker economy

Meaning that this year, so far, I have lost, lost, lost and lost playing the big Sunday tournaments. This is coming to an end today!

I am so happy that I do not play poker for a living, I really respect the psyche of the people who do, and know how to handle the frustrations of a personal economic downswing. I don’t know of any other occupation, where you bring money to work in the morning, and some days go home without any, at the end of the day. I at least have the privilege of being able to go to my regular job, and make money, every day, and not having to think about how to pay the rent next month.

The last couple of Sundays, I have been close….very close, to hitting a big one..so:

Today I plan on everybody else dumping $$$ into my economy 

So thursday the 30th of April had a sudden change that I will never forget.

At 4.00 PM I’m driving down Eastern Avenue, the sun is shining, I had just gone to the bank to take out some cash, it was time to have some fun

After driving for a little while, I notice a cop driving behind me, he keeps driving behind me for about 5 minuttes, but does not turn on his lights, and I was under the speed limit the entire time he was behind me. So when I had to turn left on easter to go into the mall, he followed me…Well, he is also going to the mall i thought. But nooooo, after the turn, he turned on his lights, and I was pulled over:

“Sir, license, registration and insurance”

Mehhhh, my insurance is not current, so I guess you have to fine me for that I said.

“Wait here” the cop said, and went back to his car.

I waited for about 10 minuttes, then to my surprise, another cop pulled up behind him. He got out of the car, and the original cop came back to my window.

“Sir, please get out of the car”

I went out

“Sir, please proceed towards the police car, and SPREAD EM!”

Soon after, I was in handcuffs.

“Sir, you have 4 warrents for your arrest, I have to send you to jail”

WHAT! Me in an american jail, that is impossible, that is my nightmare, what is going on here

In the car, the cop explained that actually I had 4 warrents, all regarding some simple traffic violations, that I thought had been taken care of a long time ago. Apparently not.

Well, the cop told me I was lucky, as I had warrent both for Nevada Highway Patrol, Clark County, and now also the city of Henderson, where he was taking me to their detention center, but Clark County had not decided to pick me up, I could be released after posting bail. Well, piece of cake, I’ll post bail and be out to make the early evening online poker tournaments.

Well, we get to HDC (Henderson Detention Center) where I was quickly convinced that I would not make any tournaments that day, as I got thrown in Jail, in prison clothes, had to stay in a small cell with lots of REAL criminals, no food, a shitter in the middle of the room, lots of smell etc. etc. for a loooooooong time.

Well, I still don’t have to go to county jail, which was good, as the cop on his way told me that County was a lot worse.

9.00 PM was my release…or so I thought, everybody got release except me. I was told that a cop was coming to pick me up and bring me to county!!!! The next release was at 3.00 AM

Come 3.00 AM, the next batch of prisoners was release, but again, not me, I was not released until the cop came, and he was late, so 4.15AM I left HDC, more than 12 hours after I got there. But I was not going home, I was on my way to CCDC (Clark County Detention Center)

Can you imagine what type of people are at a detention center 4.30 in the morning in Las Vegas??

Drug Dealers, very drunk people, cracked up, methed up, coked up, gangsters, violators of any kind, hookers, hookers, crack hookers, more hookers…and me, with 4 unpaid traffic tickets.

Well, after waiting for about 4 hours in that room, I was sent to the booking, which is getting your picture taken, all your property bagged, your health checked, your INS status checked, yur fingerprints taked, your gangster status, your tatoos checked etc. etc. this “only” took about 8 hours, so before even hitting my cell, I was going at 12 hours in at the worst place I’ve ever been. totalling 24 hours now, with no sleep, no food, no shitting (I already had to take a dump, but no way I was doing that there)

I then went to a the best room in the Jail, a room that actually had a TV. So the next 3 hours, I was the least scared, stressed out and frustrated, compared to the other part of this sureal journey.

Then came the words I had been waiting for since 9.00 PM the previous day, “Kim Frederiksen” you are released.

Well, so I though, as I had to wait for another 3-4 hours in the worst room in the entire jail, a room, with concrete walls, 20-30 other people, no air con, and no information about when we were getting out. I at one point thought they forgot us.

Finally I got released back into freedom, having paid my fines.

Conclusion:

The most positive about my trip to jail, was, that the thing I was the most scared of, turned out to be the best part of everything: All the other inmates, even the guys that looked like the would like to kill the whole world (and was working on it) actually, without exception, were extremely nice and helpful.

Also, I am really grateful, that my wife Malene and my friend Stacey were there for me the entire time, helped me get out of there as fast as possible (believe me, getting out of CCDC in 18 hours is really fast) Thanks guys, I owe you one.

And…I will from now on, always check the status of my warrents, even in Alaska, just to make sure.

So, yesterday, after another sunday playing online poker with very little success, I decided to play the $200 rebuy on Pokerstars as my last tournament of the day.

Close to the money I am second in chips, very close to being first, when the following hand occurs.

I raise UTG with

The chipleader calls on the button, and the big blind calls.

Flop:

Even though the flop did not hit me, I decide that it should be a good flop to represent on, as my hand could definately have hit that board, so I fire 2/3 of the pot. The button (chipleader) calls me, and the big blind folds.

Turn:

Now all of the sudden, I have a double belly buster, and the since the button did not raise, I put him on a fairly week holding, like a semi weak ace. I fire 1/2 the pot. The button calls me again.

River:

GIN!

I now decide that I want to look like I’m bluffing, rather than have a made hand, and I go ALL-IN! The chipleader insta-calls me, with a flopped set of 7’s.

I now have the dominating chiplead, which holds up until just before the final table.

The final table was unfortunately not working at all for me. I lost all-in preflop with:

AK vs A6
A5 vs A3
A6 vs 89
and finally busted in 5th place with:
Q10 vs 99, flopping my queen, but with him turning a devistating 9.

I’m fairly happy with the result, as I did not make any mistakes, but just got sucked out on, on top of that, the final table was packed with players that are concidered the best in the world.

Hopefully I will have an even better story next sunday

Well its official.. Im no longer in Vegas…how sad is that.

I went into Mccarran Airport waaaay to early saturday morning, And now im in Copenhagen.

my trip was delayed 2 hours in New York though beacuse of a failure in the plane.

I Would like to say thanks 1000 times to all of you who made my trip into something I will never forget..cant even start to tell all the things that have happened the last few months.

Well See you all later, this was just a short post but i will be back in here…Even if Im no longer a Vegas Viking