In breaking news coming from PokerStars, the online poker site has signed Norwegian Johnny Lodden to be the newest member of its sponsored pro team. He’ll join Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, and Joe Hachem, the champions of the 2003, 2004, and 2005 World Series of Poker Main Events, respectively, as members of Team PokerStars Pro.
The announcement was made official in the PokerStars Blog, which chronicles the biggest events on the site. The blog explained Lodden’s background: “Hailing from the land of Jorpeland, Norway, Lodden grew up on cards. He played with his family, he played with his friends. In his early years, he honed his competitive spirit on the game Uno. By the time he was 15, Lodden was playing poker with his high school friends and taking their money whenever he could.”
Lodden has a plethora of in the money finished in events on the European Poker Tour (EPT). He turned in an eighth place showing in the EPT Budapest tournament during Season 5 for $74,000. The season before, he took 17th in the Monte Carlo Grand Final, the most prestigious EPT tournament, for $70,000. In his two live showings during Season 5, he was a PokerStars qualifier. Fans of ESPN will likely remember Lodden for his 10th place showing in the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event for £54,300. The tournament featured the fourth bracelet win by Full Tilt Poker pro John Juanda. The final table also featured Team PokerStars Pro member Daniel Negreanu.
Lodden will hit the virtual felts of PokerStars under the name “johnnylodden.” He’s already a regular at many PokerStars-sponsored events, including EPT tournaments. In addition to the EPT, the online poker site serves as the presenting sponsor of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT), Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), Russian Poker Tour (RPT), and Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT).
This is the second major signing for Team PokerStars Pro in the last four weeks. At the end of February, the site inked J.C. Alvarado, who is traditionally known as “PrtyPsux” in the online poker world. Originally hailing from Mexico, Alvarado now resides in Las Vegas as a full-time poker pro. The PokerStars Blog claimed, “Alvarado still holds a great fondness for Mexico and is happy to represent his country. With the kind of wins he’s been putting up in recent years, there is no question he’s repping Mexico well. Now he will be doing it with a Team Pro badge on his arm.” Alvarado made the final table and finished sixth in a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event during the 2006 WSOP for $28,000. In total, he has $66,000 in earnings to his name from WSOP felts.
Alvarado has also had a bevy of success on the World Poker Tour (WPT). He finished as the runner up in the Season V World Poker Challenge for $366,000. Heads-up. he battled against another J.C., J.C. Tran, who ultimately took down the title. Alvarado finished eighth in the Mandalay Bay Poker Championship for $43,000 and also took 15th in the Season V L.A. Poker Classic for a healthy $72,000.
Team PokerStars Pro contains some of the world’s top poker names, including Barry Greenstein, Go Daddy Girl Vanessa Rousso, and Steven Paul-Ambrose. Gavin Griffin, the only player in the world to hold titles in WSOP, WPT, and EPT tournaments, can also be found on its felts. The site made waves by bringing on two players from the WSOP November Nine, Dennis Phillips and Ylon Schwartz. The duo finished third and fourth, respectively, in the 2008 WSOP Main Event.
PokerStars is the world’s largest online poker site. At the time of writing, nearly 200,000 players are competing on the USA-friendly room. Its $1.5 million guaranteed Sunday Million is the richest recurring tournament held online.
