Johnny Lodden – Team PokerStars Pro – Biography
It seems like a distant memory but only a few years ago Johnny Lodden was one of pokers biggest stars. The Norwegian once held the record for the biggest pot ever won in an internet poker game and he eventually found himself on the wrong side of that record, which seemed to be his downfall. In recent years Lodden has rebuilt his poker career by becoming a member of Team PokerStars Pro, and is also a regular on the European live tournament circuit. In this article we take a look at how Lodden became one of the biggest winners in online poker and why he has left the high-stakes games behind to focus on live tournaments.
As mentioned, Lodden is a Norwegian and was born in a coastal town called Jorpeland in 1985. His first interest in poker came when he was a teenager and was introduced to the online game by a friend from school. For several months Lodden sat with his friend, watching him play Limit Hold’em and then eventually created his own account. Lodden became a regular on various European poker sites, most notably the Prima Poker network which is where he built his bankroll primarily from playing cash games and sit-and-goes.
As he ground his bankroll into thousands he began playing the highest stakes games available. This included the notorious $5,000 heads-up sit-and-goes on PokerStars where Lodden reportedly won hundreds of thousands under his alias ‘Lars-Magne’. Meanwhile on the Prima Poker network he was crushing the high stakes cash games which at that time were the highest available online – $200/$400 NLHE Heads-Up. Under his alias ‘bad_ip’, Lodden held the record for the biggest pot won in online poker which was worth $357,256 and he won it from ‘I_Grind_on_u’. However, in June 2006 he found himself on the losing end of this record after ‘Fast_Freddie’ won a pot against him worth $465,461. 2006 also saw Lodden make his first appearance on the European Poker Tour circuit and saw him cash in two events for around $35,000.
In 2007 Lodden continued to participate in European Poker Tour events, cashing in three events for just under $60,000. His best result was at EPT Dortmund where he just missed out on the final table, finishing in 13th place. He also managed to finish 5th in the William Hill Poker Grand Prix II for $68,541 which at this point of his live tournament career was his biggest cash. His previous biggest cash at this point was a second-place finish in the 2005 Swedish No-Limit Hold’em Championships which earned him $55,225. While things were on the up in his live tournament results, he was suffering from a major downswing in online cash games.
In 2008 Lodden announced that he was in fact broke due to suffering such severe online losses. This wasn’t the end of Lodden though; he accepted a stake from a close friend and began grinding online again – this time at the $25/$50 NLHE games instead of the $300/$600 NLHE heads-up games which cost him his bankroll. Lodden has since stated that he won’t play such high stakes again because the swings are ‘too sick’. Despite losing his entire bankroll in internet poker cash games, 2008 was the best year to date for Lodden and saw him win $278,713 from live tournaments. In April 2008 Lodden yet again missed out on an EPT final-table, this time in the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo where he finished in 17th-place for $73,263. In September 2008 Lodden made the trip to London for the World Series of Poker where he entered the £10,000 Main Event. Yet again Lodden would miss out on the final table, this time he finished 11th for his biggest cash to date – $98,756. Despite failing to make the final table this cash earned Lodden a lot of exposure and with EPT events upcoming, PokerStars stepped in and signed him to a two-tournament sponsorship deal.
His first tournament representing PokerStars was EPT Budapest in 2008 and finally he made the final-table after coming so close in past attempts. Lodden overcame a field of 532 entrants to finish 8th in the event for $66,577. His second tournament under PokerStars sponsorship was EPT Prague and he cashed yet again, this time 43rd-place for $10,647. These two results impressed PokerStars so much that they signed him and made him part of Team PokerStars Pro. Lodden finished off the year with another impressive result, this time 6th-place finish at the Spanish Poker Tour Grand Final for $15,924.
In 2009 Lodden kept a quieter profile, only cashing in three live tournaments for a combined $32,509. As well as this he continued playing online, mainly at the mid-stakes cash games and the big Sunday tournaments. In November 2009 Lodden made the final table of the PokerStars Sunday Million, finishing 5th for $72,000. Despite this cash, Lodden is reportedly almost broke due to betting on sports as well as having a poor run on the poker tables. Only time will tell if Lodden can rebuild his bankroll, and you can watch him play on PokerStars where he now plays under the screen name ‘johnnylodden’.
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