What Does Lodden Think Now?

Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden has made several deep runs in EPT Main Events. In the last few years, he's finished eighth, ninth, 13th twice, 14th and 17th twice. It's safe to say he's been close a ton of times, but a real victory is still missing from his résumé.

Good thing for him, he just managed to grab a big chip lead with under 50 players remaining. Lodden was the first player to break the million-chip mark at the this year's EPT Grand Final.

The action started with Panagiotis Gavriilidis raising under the gun to 12,000, and Lodden three-bet to 30,000 from his immediate left. The action was folded back to Gavriilidis, and he made the call.

The flop brought out the , and Gavriilidis checked to Lodden who fired out 26,000. Gavriilidis decided to check-raise to 57,000, but that didn't scare Lodden away. The Norwegian three-bet to 91,000, but even that was not enough for Gavriilidis who four-bet to 167,000. Lodden went into the tank for a long time, but eventually he made the call.

On the turn, the hit and Gavriilidis decided to move all in for exactly 400,000 chips. Lodden had 585,000 chips in front of him, and it took him about three minutes to figure out what to do with this massive shove. Eventually, Lodden pulled the trigger and made the call. The showdown amazed everyone standing around the table as Gavriilidis had tried to pull off a massive bluff.

Gavriilidis:
Lodden:

"This one I need to win," Lodden said as he needed to dodge a bunch of deuces and treys in order to claim this huge pot. The river brought the , and Lodden now has a huge lead while Gavriilidis was knocked out.