One of the most important things about being a reporter is to stay neutral and objective, something I’ve had in the back of my head ever since I started working in the poker media industry. That being said, when I’m at a live poker event, I always feel an urge to browse through the list of entries, scanning for players waving the Swedish flag. My interest in the Swedish poker community is too big to ignore, and when I see a Swedish name that I don’t recognize, I always try to take a stroll by that table and greet my fellow Scandinavian.
That was the case in Dublin roughly one year ago. The 2024 Irish Poker Open was the third-ever live poker event I covered. I scrolled through PokerLens and saw the name Marcus Hallabro, a name I was completely unfamiliar with. He played one of the many starting-day flights of the €200 Mini Main Event. I looked up his table and seat and started navigating my way through the massive venue that is the Royal Dublin Society.
There he was, a tall, blonde Swede, sitting on a green-felted table with quite the impressive stack. If I remember correctly, he had fired a big bet on the river, staring at the board with a gaze so razor-sharp he almost burned a hole in the table. His opponent folded, and the dealer pushed the chips in Hallabro’s direction, who added to his already impressive stack.
After the hand, I approached him and introduced myself. We chatted more during a break, and I quickly became impressed by his approach and dedication to the game. The more we talked, the more I got intrigued about his story and his pursuit of a professional poker career.
Fast forward to the present time. A couple of weeks ago, I messaged Hallabro and asked if he’d be willing to be a victim of an interview conducted by yours truly. He said yes, and we had a very good chat. We talked about his poker career, how he got introduced to the game, and what the biggest challenges are in pursuing a professional poker career in 2025. It’s quite the compelling story, and I’m very pleased to be able to share this with all our readers.
How it Started
I met up with Hallabro at a local café in Malmö, and we each ordered one cappuccino and one cinnamon bun; nothing beats a Swedish “fika”. In order to get a grasp on how he got into poker, we need to rewind the clock a couple of years, when he had just begun studying at Lund University:
“I started studying Engineering Mathematics at Lund University in 2014. Around 2015-2016, I became more interested in poker. I hadn’t studied the game at this point, and I was break-even at best. Mostly, I played home games with my friends, but eventually, I started playing at poker clubs and the Casino in Malmö. It was more or less only cash games at this point.”
Around 2018, Hallabro leveled up and started to make some money playing poker. He still hadn’t studied the game too much, but his lifelong interest in mathematics, game theory, and strategy has taken him a long way on his journey. Even though he’s studying the game more today than he did back then, Hallabro still claims he’s learned the game more through playing than hitting the books.
In the last two to three years, the tall Swede has become more interested in tournament poker. What makes Hallabro’s pursuit interesting, at least in my opinion, is that he plays mostly live poker. He’s been playing sporadically online, but he’s not committed to any longer grinding sessions. One of the reasons that many aspiring poker professionals play online is that they’re able to get a lot of volume in. That being said, the value around the live poker tables can sometimes be more profitable (depending on the stakes, of course).
After graduating in 2019, the Scandinavian decided he would try to live solely playing poker. The first six months went okay, but there were some tough weeks, especially one trip to Las Vegas. When he returned home to Sweden from Sin City, he reevaluated his decisions and decided that perhaps the best thing was to get an ordinary nine-to-five job instead.
Said and done, Hallabro landed a job at a trading firm in 2020, where he had a very mathematical role involving odds setting. He kept playing poker in his spare time, evolving at the game while building up a solid bankroll thanks to his full-time job. He was now playing better than ever before, and the thought of pursuing a professional poker career sooner or later came back.
Eventually, the company Hallabro worked for shut down, and he was dismissed from his duties. This may have been a sign from the universe, seeing as he was already thinking about quitting to pursue his dream once again.
It was now take two, and the first international trip on this bullet was to Dublin for the 2024 Irish Poker Open. As previously mentioned, this is where I first met Hallabro, and it was an absolute thrill following his journey in the €200 Mini Main Event. The Malmö-resident remembers the tournament and claims that his success in the record-shattering event was an important moment in his still very young career:
“The 2024 Irish Poker Open Mini Main Event was the start of my tournament rush. I finished third out of 5,320 entries and secured €26,050 after we made a seven-way deal. The tournament was a mega turbo, and I was lucky to win five-six flips, which allowed me to achieve a deep run. Even though getting lucky was a crucial part for all players in this tournament, the amount of big mistakes being made by many players made me realize that I could be successful at poker to the extent that I could live my life doing it.“
Since his third-place finish on the Emerald Isle, Hallabro’s been lining up good results in various events. A couple of months later, he got another third-place finish in the 2024 Danish Championship DKr3,950 Main Event for $86,573. Then, three months after that, he got his third bronze medal at the 2024 Christmas Poker Week in Stockholm, Sweden, as he finished third in the SKr8,000 Main Event for $11,106. I was on-site following the action in the Swedish capital, and after he’d been eliminated, I jokingly went up to Hallabro and gave him the nickname “Mr. Three”, referring to his three significant results. He was still waiting for his first major tournament win, and, as it turned out, he didn’t have to wait for too long.
Between the Danish Championship and Christmas Poker Week, he also finished fourth in the SKr16,500 Nordic Master Main Event for $19,673. Speaking of the Nordic Masters: that particular event is now seeing a revival after Casino Cosmopol in Stockholm shut down. The 2025 Nordic Masters will take place in Alicante, Spain, between November 25-30.
- Read more: Nordic Masters Revival in Alicante
The Big Win
Between February 13-17 this year, the 2025 Munkebjerg Poker Tour was organized at Casino Munkebjerg, Vejle, Denmark. Being a big fan of the tournaments on Danish soil (not only because he lives very close, but also thanks to the superb tournament structures), Hallabro decided to cross the Øresund Bridge and enjoy some live poker in the Danish city, located next to the Vejle Fjord.
Out of the six tournaments running during the festival, the DKr3,900 Main Event was the one everyone wanted to win. Hallabro managed to bag a decent stack from the starting-day flight he played. He then navigated his way through both Day 2 and Day 3 before he secured his seat at the final table.
When the nine remaining players took their seats on the final day, Hallabro was fifth in the chip counts. One after one, his opponents busted, and after roughly three hours, there were only three players left. Hallabro was the shortest stack at this point, playing roughly 25 Big Blinds; was this going to be yet another third-place finish for “Mr. Three?”
It sure looked like it. On Blinds 175,000/350,000, one of Hallabro’s two Danish opponents, Sebastian Ricken, had forced the lone Swede all in for 3,250,000 in a Blind VS Blind affair. Hallabro peeked at his A♥6♣ holdings, and immediately made the call. Much to his disappointment, Ricken had him in rough shape with A♣K♠. The K♥3♣4♦ flop didn’t exactly make things better, as Hallabro’s chances of winning were reduced to a mere 3%. Hallabro saw the bad news and drank up the rest of his coffee, preparing himself to hit the rail. Perhaps, though, there is a poker God; the board completed with 5♠7♣, giving Hallabro a runner-runner straight. He doubled up, and the dream was still alive.
From that moment, Hallabro never looked back. He eventually found himself heads-up against Ricken, and the stacks were very even. All gas and no breaks from the Swede, who ate his opponent’s stack up bit by little bit. After roughly eight hours of play, he called off a Ricken shove on the river for most of his stack, and he had correctly sensed a bluff from the Dane. As such, Hallabro broke the “third-place finish” curse and captured the first major title of his career and the $111,263 first-place prize.
Psychology, Skillset, and Future Plans
At this point, Hallabro and I were 30 minutes into our conversation, with a few zips of coffee left each. I asked Hallabro about his strengths and weaknesses in poker (aside from the mathematical aspect, which he, as previously hinted, has an excellent understanding of):
“I’m a big fan of the psychological aspect of poker; the bluff moment of the game is fascinating. I’d consider myself fairly good at reading my opponents, and I’ve made some of my best calls based on reads. Even if the math has indicated a call 100% of the time, I’ve still laid down hands after acquiring certain information on my opponent.”
I asked Hallabro if he had an example of the above, and one hand that came to his mind was during the aforementioned 2024 Danish Championship. With just 11 players left, Hallabro found himself in a hand against local legend and old school player Johnny Östberg. Hallabro had made a small three-bet pre-flop with ace-queen suited after an initial opening from Östberg. Östberg then, after a minute’s worth of pondering, said, “I’ve promised myself not to bust against a Swede, and therefore, I’m all in.” It’s worth mentioning that the previous hand had gone the same way; opening from Östberg, three-bet from Hallabro, shove from Östberg, and fold from Hallabro.
When Hallabro made the three-bet, it was with the intention of calling a shove from Östberg. However, the Swede kept his cool and asked his opponent some questions. “Do you have ace-king?” Hallabro asked, and Östberg answered, “I can’t tell you”. A minute of back-and-forth talking goes by, and then Hallabro asked, “Do you have ace-queen?”. This time, Östberg replied with a simple “no””. Eventually, Hallabro folded, and 30 minutes later, he could see on the stream that Östberg indeed had ace-king. The big fold from the Swede was crucial on his way to his third-place finish in the tournament.
A modest Hallabro reflects on himself as a player, and he believes that he isn’t the best at anything, but he’s above average in many aspects of the game. Today, he studies the game a lot more compared to a few years ago. Recently, he’s been reading up on ICM, a very crucial element of tournament poker.
When we met this sunny day in Malmö, Hallabro had recently come home from the 2025 EPT Barcelona. While he “only” had to settle for a €3,360 cash in the €1,650 PokerStars Open Main Event, it’s still been a good year for him thus far. When asked about what’s next, Hallabro reveals that he’ll play the upcoming No Filter Poker Series event in Tallinn. He also has big plans for the 2025 EPT Prague, which will be played December 3-14.
- Read more: Mark Your Calendars: No Filter Poker Series Returns to Tallinn in October
- Read more: The 2025 EPT Season Rounds off in Prague this December
Perhaps, this Swedish poker journalist is a tad patriotic in this case, but it really is a blast following Hallabro’s career, which so far seems to go in the right direction. The lord knows it’s not an easy task pursuing a professional poker career in today’s climate; hats off to my fellow Swede and everyone else across the globe who’s doing the journey. Hallabro has gone from “Mr. Three” to becoming a winner, and I have a hunch it’s only a matter of time before he succeeds his Munkebjerg win with something much, much bigger.
