The BBZ student who became a SCOOP champion

Of the many BBZ Poker success stories from the Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) 2023, our favourite has to be the victory of one of our students.

Jonatan Fors, known in the BBZ Discord as “Juppe__” and on PokerStars as “JuppenPuppen”, took down a $109 NLHE event (#77-M) for a whopping $63,288, defeating a 4,440-entry field with no deal.

“Seems like joining BBZ was a good investment,” he wrote in the Brags channel. And we’d have to agree.

Fors is a student and aspiring poker pro from Lahti, Finland, currently studying for his Master’s degree.

But since the lockdowns of 2020, he’s also been applying his study skills to poker.

Fors’ origin story is pretty typical. He discovered poker at high school during the poker boom era and played a lot with friends. Then he went to university and poker got pushed to the side. He’d occasionally make a deposit but admits he had no idea what was he doing.

So, for a while, he was mainly losing. But a self-confessed “sun run” in a $215 buy-in Progressive Knockout event saw him bank $12,000 – “purely by luck,” according to the 32-year-old.

With that, he was riding high, but soon his bankroll was running low. He lost around half of the winnings back and realized something needed to change if he was going to be successful in poker in the long term.

“I really loved the game and knew I needed to study,” he says. In early 2021 he discovered BBZ Poker and after a year of studying BBZ’s products, Fors began to take the game seriously in 2022.

“I noticed I was a lot better,” he says. “I also loved the game more once I had a deeper understanding of it.”

We spoke to Fors about his incredible win and what this means for him moving forward.

BBZ Blog: Hey Jonatan. You’re a SCOOP champion! Can you start off by telling us how it felt to win that event, and what the title means to you?

Jonatan Fors: Obviously, it felt pretty amazing. During the final table, it looked like I would end up 3rd or 4th and I had kind of accepted I would not win, but it will be a good score anyway.

When I won I was in disbelief and it was a huge moment. It was around 4 am and I was walking around my apartment and might have done a few spontaneous dance moves as well. Naturally, I sent that one screenshot to all my friends, family and Discord communities. I did not get much sleep that night.

Winning a SCOOP meant a lot as I’ve had quite a lot of near misses from some big events before – and in normal schedule tournaments as well. For a long time, I felt I just couldn’t win a big tournament for some reason. While I felt ecstatic, I also felt a sort of relief after it finally happened.

How does this score impact your life/poker situation?

It’s big. I now have my bankroll set up for a long time and I can use the extra money for investing, living expenses and probably a good holiday sometime soon. I can now also comfortably pursue becoming a professional poker player.

When and how did you start studying with BBZ Poker? What attracted you to the site?

It was sometime around early 2021. I was watching streams mostly from Lex, Spraggy and Fintan. The way they talked about the importance of studying made me realize I need to do studying as well.

I believe it was Lex who promoted BBZ at the time but I’m not 100% sure if it was through him I discovered it. I had also come across it earlier by Googling it after seeing the BBZ logo on someone’s avatar on Pokerstars.

What BBZ Poker products do you use and how have you found them useful? Were there any particular moments in the SCOOP tournament you felt prepared for because of your studies?

I use the preflop charts and the bundles. I have also purchased the ICM master class and I will be revisiting it soon since it was a while ago I studied it.

The preflop charts have a huge value and after studying them almost daily for two years now I still manage to discover something new and mistakes in my own preflop game from them. Also, the bundles have done a lot in improving my game. Particularly the Apestyles Bundle, it made me take big leaps as it was the first item I studied.

Other bundles are also great for obtaining some more in-depth knowledge about the game. Especially the BBZ bundle and Lex bundle.

It’s hard to pick a particular moment but generally having confidence in what I’m doing and knowing the decisions I make are the right ones in the long term. Also knowing short stack play and understanding shoving and calling ranges from each position has helped a lot. Finally, not punting on the final table from knowing at least some ICM really helps a lot.

How cool is it to get to post a Brag like that in the BBZ Discord? Has the community element of BBZ helped your progress?

Not going to lie – it was pretty cool. While it was fun to brag it was also a way to thank BBZ for making the big win possible.

Also a shoutout to Lex, Spraggy and Fintan for convincing me to study! The community element has helped a lot. While I’m not that active myself I do like to read other people’s questions and answers. I usually have the same questions too. The people there are very helpful regarding the game or just something related to the BBZ products