Stone cold nuts

We’ve heard of freeze-out tournaments but this is ridiculous. Following on from your ‘standard’ extreme sports such as bungee jumping, sky-diving and snowboarding we’ve had extreme ironing, and then extreme accounting, and now, yes, extreme poker.

On March 29 Robert Varkonyi won the inaugural Arctic Freeze Out Tournament held on an ice shelf in Kemi, Finland, a location selected by the Finn Juha Helppi, winner of the previous Extreme Poker tournamnent.

Six players, 2002 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Varkonyi, Peter Larsson of Sweden, Ulrik Jensen of Denmark, Rene Christensen of Denmark, Daniel Stein of England, and Helppi played in temperatures reaching -10 degrees Fahrenheit (-23 degrees Celsius).

An interesting twist was added with players given the option to rebuy chips, but only in exchange for their coat, which meant continuing playing in the artic temperatures with only a T-shirt for protection.

It was shirt-sleeve order for eventual winner Varkonyi within three hands and he resorted to running around the table to keep warm.

The culmination of the 90-minute tournament was a heads up battle between the T-shirted Varkonyi and a parka-ed up Helppi, with a Ten on the River giving New Yorker Varkonyi a full house and the title.

A frozen Varkonyi said: "Winning this makes my suffering through the most excruciating cold I’ve ever experienced worth it, and I know this tournament will prepare me well for the 2006 World Series of Poker. Juha really gave me a run for the title, and my hat and coat are off to him."

A considerably warmer Helppi was gracious in defeat: "Rob is a true champion, and he demonstrated today that he is willing to do whatever it takes to win, including removing his clothes in subzero temperatures and running in circles to fight off hypothermia. I congratulate him on his victory, and look forward to facing him in the next Extreme event to take back my title."

"The tournament was absolutely stunning — the players sat atop a seemingly endless ice shelf on the Arctic sea and played a frostbitten game of poker, as the frigid winds tore across the table," said InterPoker.com spokesperson Peter Marcus.

"All of the players showed an amazing amount of concentration, skill and pure grit during this tournament — especially our Internet qualifiers, who I anticipate will have very promising poker careers."

Online poker room Interpoker is driving this new craze. The aim is to push poker players to their limits while competing in the harshest and most exotic environments known to man.

The first event was the Deep Water Series of Poker (DWSOP) held 10 metres below the surface of the ocean off St Kitts in the Caribbean in December 2005.

Interpoker sponsored professional Juha Helppi won that one, beating not only big name pros such as Phil Laak and Kenna James, but a diminishing air supply to claim the title.

Not only did he win the tournament, but the right to nominate the location of the next competition.

It’s rumoured that the next edition will take place aboard an aircraft circling over Las Vegas, with players exiting the aircraft, after exiting the tournament, via parachute.