Okay, I’m going to pose a question and you can’t think too long on the answer.
Who is the top of the Norwegian all-time money list for live tournaments?
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
Got it? If you managed to pull a Norwegian poker player’s name out then chances are you opted for Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden. It’s a fair shout. No, it’s a great shout, he weighs in at number three with $2,023,038 in winnings. But way out in front is Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad who’s got more than $3.9m in live tournament winnings.
Obrestad, who once famously won a tournament online without looking at her cards, hasn’t been hitting too many headlines of late so, in a game where you’re always looking for the next big thing, it’s easy to forget that she’s the highest grossing Norwegian, number four on the women’s all-time money list, has a WSOPE Main Event title under her belt and almost claimed an EPT title in Dublin back in Season 4. She was edged out by Reuben Peters into second place there for €297,800.
Norway’s top guns
1. Annette Obrestad, $3,910,678
2. Jan Olav Sjavik, $2,105,286
3. Johnny Lodden, $2,023,038
4. Andreas Hoivold, $1,708,024
5. Trond Eidsvig, $1,623,879
While Obrestad has come closer to an EPT title and has picked up more tournament dollars, Lodden has had the better form with a phenomenal number of deep runs, including third here last year for €467,000. He also took 61st in Sanremo and 15th in Vienna the tournament before.
The pair are sat next to each other at the moment and both are chugging along quite nicely with around 80,000 each, although it looks like Lodden has a little more. The Team PokerStars Pro is sat to Obrestad’s right and Viktor Blom, a Full Tilt Poker Professional, is sat to the right of Lodden. Blom has around half of what the Norwegians are packing, perhaps a little less than 40,000.
The shared Scandinavian nonchalance is marked. Blom holds out his cards as if to fold before it’s his turn; Lodden leans forward into a deep-tissue massage, face buried into a black plastic mat; Obrestad sits stock still, a large pair of fashionable shades covering half of her face. Despite this, they’re all chipping up, Blom somewhat slower than the other two, perhaps because of the other two. It’s not the nicest of seat draws.
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Rick Dacey is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.
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