Jens "Jeans89" Kyllönen Heading To Outer Space

Jens “Jeans89” Kyllönen is amongst the very finest poker player to emerge from Finland over the past few years, along with other such big names as Patrik Antonius,, Sami “LrsLzk” Kelopuro, Ilari Sahamies and Jani Vilmunen.
However, the young pro may soon be leaving his fellow compatriots far behind and shooting to the highest limits possible after signing up for a trip to space. As he explains:
“I’ve always been fascinated with space and now that I have the opportunity to be within the first people going I just felt like I had to do it..I’ll probably be going in 2014.”
With a price tag set at €160,000, a space flight doesn’t come cheap but the prolific pro can well afford the ticket. After all, over his short career Jens Kyllönen has earned $1,393,900 playing live tournaments, as well as amassing a small fortune at the online cash tables. This includes turning a profit of $843,609 at Full Tilt Poker and a further $2,948,071 playing at PokerStars. In fact, so successful has been Jens Kyllönen’s poker career that he was able to buy-in directly to the WSOP $1 Million One Drop event using his own money. Shrugging off the huge entry fee, the shrewd pro explained at the time:
“..it sort of works in a way that the Finnish Tax Authority has 50 percent of me. I can deduct the million if I lose but I will pay half in taxes if I win. It’s kind of like it’s a half-million tournament for me.”
Jens Kyllönen says he also enjoys lavishing his winnings on luxuries and fun activities, and a trip to space would certainly qualify in both those categories. Talking about the training necessary in order to get the go ahead for his journey to space, Kyllönen explained:
“There is a 3-4 day training period at the spaceport in New Mexico before the flight but other than that there isn’t any need for it. As long as you don’t have certain diseases you can go even if you are old or in bad shape.”