Top Norwegian Poker Players

8 years ago
Top norwegian poker players
11:34
04 Sep

When it comes to gambling in Norway, it is probably just as easy toplay slots as it is to play poker. Playing poker, let alone making serious money, has been met with restrictions, outright bans and all sorts of bureaucratic red tape over the years, but these obstacles – which have lessened considerably recently - haven’t affected the earning power of all Norwegians poker players!

Ask almost anyone to name a high-stakes Norwegian poker player who has made a fortune and the name Johnny Lodden will be the first to pass most people’s lips. To actually find him sitting not at number 1, or even 2, in Norway’s All-time money-winners list is therefore very surprising.

The reason, of course, is quite simple.


The number one Norwegian poker player by earnings, Felix Vincent Stephenson (Pictured in main image), almost landed the ultimate prize in poker at the WSOP Main Event last year. His November Nine winnings of $5,147,911 account for more than 95% of his overall life-time live earnings.

Number 2 in the list is Annette Obrestad (Pictured right), and over half of her total live earnings come from the massive $2m she pulled in at the WSOP Europe in London back in 2007. Obrestad hit the poker world like a storm when she won close to $1million online back in 2006 when still a teenager. Playing under the screen name "Annette_15", referring to her age at the time, Obrestad has since struggled to recreate her successes.

If you take away these gigantic one-off windfalls, however, Johnny Lodden would be clearly the ‘winningest’ poker player in Norway. A well-known high-stakes cash game player, and a millionaire before he was 18 (as was Obrestad) thanks to the Norwegian online poker boom which he cut his teeth on, 30 year-old Lodden also became the first player to cash at 20 separate EPT events last week in Barcelona.


Although his online high-stakes action is very limited these days, the Team PokerStars pro (under the name johnnylodden) is considered to be one the most fearless players on the live tournament and cash-game circuit, constantly pushing the action while others are content to simply cash. First-or-bust could just as easily be his online moniker.

Lodden doesn’t see himself in this ‘aggressive’ light, however, and on his own website is described as “primarily a proud father and family man” whose greatest achievement is not at the poker tables at all, but rather is “his daughter Milla who was born in 2010”.

His secret tips to becoming a winning player are fairly straightforward: “Keep focused, watch online tutorial videos and take every opportunity to talk poker strategy with other players!” Lodden’s next stop is Iceland, a country he has never visited before.

Iceland isn’t exactly a poker player’s heaven – the game is illegal there – but it’s unlikely to be long before the likeable Norwegian has another chance to make inroads on the top two spots held by Obrestad and Stephenson – it would be a brave man who would bet against him!


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Stewart resides in Edinburgh Scotland, and is a key member of the 180Vita team. An early member of the company, Stewart has worked on all of the companies major brands and projects, and is specifically involved in the core operations of PokerTube - Our flagship poker media website.Read more

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