Johnny Lodden

When once challenged to a ‘heads-up for rolls’ contest by an irate opponent, Johnny Lodden promptly sat down at an online heads-up table with over $3m in front of him. His opponent soon left. This is just one reason why the Norwegian hotshot has gained a notoriety matched by few of his peers. At just 19 he was tearing up the online tables under his infamous tag ‘bad_ip’ and reportedly built up a bankroll of $10m. But after a series of huge losses to his online nemesis, Mohamad ‘Fast_Freddie’ Kowssarie, he hit rock bottom and was forced to start from scratch. By his own admission he is no longer the online player he once was and has decided to concentrate on his live tournament game. With eight EPT cashes to his name, a big result cannot be too far off…

Small Beer

I played cards all my life but came into poker through older friends when I was about 15. We used to play a home game on Friday nights. It was like no-limit 1/2 Norwegian Kroner, which is about £0.10/£0.20. It was really small and we just used our allowances. I won most of the time so I could afford to buy drinks and cigarettes.

One of my friends worked at the school I went to. He never worked, he only played! When I went to school I dropped more and more classes and went down to watch him play. I studied his play and he gave me some cash to play with. I asked him a lot of questions but he didn’t mind because he wanted me to learn.

Net Gains

I started off playing $1/$2 limit online and as soon as I had three buy-ins I was up to $2/$4. Then I went up to $15/$30, which was the biggest game on PartyPoker. It all happened pretty fast – probably over a couple of months. I used to play ten-handed limit games so I only played premium hands. It helped me learn the value of hands. I built up a good roll and multi-tabled $15/$30 limit when I was 17.

I won almost every day which became kinda boring because I felt the stakes were too low. I found another site to play no-limit and lost quite big at the beginning. I went back to playing limit Hold’em but I still had a lot more passion for no-limit even though I lost quite a lot.
At 17 I probably had between $500k and $1m. All my friends were doing well – we cleaned up all the sites. People didn’t think we were gambling for that much money and criticised us for not working. After a while, they realised we lived a good life. My parents hated it but they knew I was making a lot of money because I bought them different stuff. They wanted me to get an education first. But after a couple of years they realised this is what I wanted to do and they couldn’t stop me.

The Rise And Fall

When I was around 19 I was playing the $200/$400 games. High stakes heads-up with no fear – that was my game. That was like luxury times, since I won most days. I felt invincible. And because I was young and inexperienced I thought it was going to last forever. It didn’t. It started to go downhill in 2005 around the time I lost that big pot to Fast_Freddie [a notorious pot on Prima Poker worth $465,451]. I felt I was playing well but he obviously got me. He was the only guy I lost to really big and maybe a little to Patrik [Antonius]. I didn’t give up playing him – that was the stupid thing. He played so bad but he just kept winning. I lost my entire roll in a matter of months.

Rebuilding

All my friends told me to grind it up again. They staked me into the $25/$50 and $50/$100 games but it was just like throwing money away. My head wasn’t in it. So I had to go down to $10/$20 to get my focus back, which was really hard. After a couple of years of high stakes it was like playing with play money.

I’m not glad I went broke but it’s good that I got that smack in the face. Win, win, win – it just doesn’t work like that, unless you’re Patrik! When I started in 2002, the players were so weak but when I finally came back to the biggest games in 2007, it was much tougher. The difference was amazing. I realised I wasn’t good enough to play the highest stakes games and went down again. Now I’m just playing $5/$10, $10/$20 and occasionally $25/$50. I don’t have the spirit for the game any more. It’s all pros sitting in the games so I don’t feel like I have an edge.

I’m mostly playing Omaha as well. I don’t think I’ll ever play $500/$1k. I have no edge against Phil Ivey, Patrik and durrrr. They know everything and don’t make mistakes. It’s fun but there’s no value.

Going Live

I’m concentrating on live cash games and tournaments. When you play live cash games you can play higher because people make more mistakes. I’ve improved a lot since I first started. I’m much calmer when I play live now. Before I would shake when I played live – even though I used to play high stakes online.

I play in Oslo (even though it’s illegal to play in Norway) but I mostly play when I travel around on the EPT. I don’t want to stay at the World Series for too long. The last couple of years I’ve been staying at least a month. I miss the summers in Europe and Norway because it’s the only time it’s beautiful. I’m hoping just to stay for a couple of weeks – the Main Event of course and a couple of side events.