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From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.

Tag: Las Vegas

  • All About Motivation: The Petter Northug Interview

    All About Motivation: The Petter Northug Interview

    Petter Northug after the Las Vegas rollerski race in July

    For the past two years, Norway’s Petter Northug has been the best in the world. One look at the medals tables from the 2009 World Championships and 2010 Olympic Games serves as proof: Over the 12 competitions at those two events, Northug took gold in five of them, and reached the podium on two other occasions.

    FasterSkier had the opportunity to talk with Northug over breakfast in Las Vegas in July, immediately following the rollerski race that he won over Marcus Hellner. He had already conducted three consecutive interviews and two photo shoots prior to speaking with us, but he still answered our questions with patience, in English. For the record, he eats his eggs on toast.

    FasterSkier: To start out, have you been recognized by anyone here in the U.S.?

    Petter Northug: I heard one guy from ESPN recognized me, because he was following the Olympics in Torino, but that is the only person from the U.S. that has recognized me here in Las Vegas.

    FS: Is that surprising to you at all?

    Marcus Hellner (L) and Northug (R) in their rollerski race in Las Vegas.

    PN: It’s good for me, because in Vegas, no one knows what cross-country skiing is. I can just go where I want, and I just enjoy having a vacation here. Yeah, it feels good.

    FS: How is your training going this year?

    PN: It’s been very good. In June, I have not been sick—just trained a lot, had good feelings. The body is working, and I can handle a lot of training now.

    FS: Are you doing anything significantly different from last year?

    PN: Going to Vegas. That’s the only thing. I’m doing almost all the same things as last year—it has worked for me for many years now, and I have to stick to that plan. I’ll just try to do the same things, and focus on keeping the good techniques, and working on the techniques.

    FS: Are you training more hours?

    MH: Maybe a little bit. But if I feel tired, I’ll take it easy for a few days. I trained a little bit more in June than I did last year. I’ll also try to train a little bit more at the end of the summer, in August and September. Most important is to listen to your body—if you’re tired, take it easy.

    FS: Do you know how many hours you’re trying for?

    PN: I don’t know, but maybe 850 to 875, or something like that.

    FS: Is that pretty similar to last year?

    PN: Yeah, I think I trained 860 or something last year.

    FS: Was there any part of last winter that didn’t go the way you wanted, or that you’re hoping to improve upon?

    PN: It was a great season, but for sure, the start of the Olympics was not as good as I hoped for. The skis were not that good in the 15 k, and in the pursuit I broke a pole with two k left.

    FS: But as far as your fitness?

    PN: My fitness was good all the way, and I had my best shape in the Olympics. I was in really good shape—it wasn’t going my way at the start, but in the

    Northug celebrates his victory in the Olympic 50 k while Germany's Tobias Angerer and Canada's Devon Kershaw lunge for the line.

    50 k, things were going my way and I was on a roll there. It was a great season—I didn’t have any bad, really bad races.

    FS: So for this year, you’re focusing on Oslo?

    PN: For sure, everybody at home is talking about the World Championships in Oslo—there will be big pressure on the team and on me, but I use it as motivation, and I look forward to competing there. The World Cup last year was crazy—a lot of people, nice tracks. I think it will be like a big party for skiing. There will be so many people there. We just have to use it as motivation.

    FS: After winning the World Cup overall and four Olympic medals, what do you see as your big challenges for the next few years?

    PN: The most important [thing] is to keep your motivation high, and also to remember that you need to do the work to be there. It’s tough to fight on the World Cup circuit—I want to do good sprints and good distance races, and I think the combination is getting more difficult because you get more sprinters. It’s good for me that we have the Tour de Ski races where you have to combine the two. Hopefully I will fight for the top in sprint and distance next year, but the most important thing is the motivation.

    FS: You don’t feel like you want to relax a little bit more after the Olympics?

    PN: I am very happy that World Championships this year are in Oslo, because after the Olympics and a good season, your body can go to sleep a little bit—you feel happy about how you did. If it had been, like, a season without a championships, it would have been difficult to motivate myself, but in Oslo with the home crowds, you have to do the work. I’m glad for it.

    FS: Is having the Norwegian team at a level where you can get a relay gold a big priority for you?

    PN: Yeah, it’s important for the Norwegian team to take the relay back. We lost to Sweden last year. At the home course, in Oslo, there will be so much people there, and everyone wants and expects that we’re going to take the gold. We have to be prepared—it will be a tough relay, and for sure we are one of the favorites. We want to win that one.

    FS: What do you need to do as a team to get there?

    Northug doing one of his photo shoots in Las Vegas.

    PN: We are a strong team, and I think that if we stick with the plan and everyone is in good shape, I think it will be really difficult for anyone to beat us.  We have some strong classic racers, and also in skating now, so I think it will be tough to get rid of us on the first two legs, and also the third one—and then on the last one we will take it home.

    FS: Who do you see as your biggest rival for these next few years? Is there anyone you see coming up, aside from Marcus, who might be surprising?

    PN: I think like Dario [Cologna] and Marcus [Hellner] in the distance, and also in sprints, will be the toughest competition in the next few years. We will have many fights for the World Cup and in many races—that’s also good for the sport. But you never know—maybe a new guy will come and beat us.

    FS: Is there anyone that you see that could be that person?

    PN: You always see new names on the list, but right now I don’t see one name. We’ll see when the season is on—you always get an image, after the first World Cups, who is going to be on top and who is going to be good.

    FS: Tell me a little bit about what you think of your brother as a skier.

    PN: We train a lot together—he’s getting stronger, his capacity. He has to work on the speed, because he’s fast. When you’re getting older, it’s so important to take good care of the speed. You’re always fast when you’re 19, 20, 21 years old, but you have do a lot of sprint training, and do strength training, to keep that speed up. You need it in the World Cup now, with a lot of mass starts and sprints. If he is motivated now, I think he will be on the World Cup in two years—but I also think he will get to try some races in this year.

    FS: Does he have the potential to do as well as you?

    PN: Yeah, if he has the motivation and wants to do all the training, I think he will be a really good racer.

    FS: Is there anything you think he might do even better than you?

    PN: Maybe skate sprinting he can do better. He is so fast in the skating. He beats me in some sprint training. When we train together, I have to give 110 percent to try to beat him sometimes, because he is really fast.

    FS: With the new mini-tour at the start of the season, and now the Tour de Ski Championships being discussed, how do you feel about these changes in the sport?

    PN: The tours, I think, are good—the people love it. If you see on TV how many [people] watch, the tours are very popular. That is why they are trying to make a mini-tour in Kuusamo this year, and I think if you get a World Championship in the Tour de Ski in 2015, that’s good.

    FS: And good for you?

    PN: Yeah, because then athletes have to combine distance and sprint races. I think it’s good to have a competition where you have to do well in both.

    FS: Do you recognize some of the concerns about the individual start 50 k? Do you wish it would stick around?

    FS: It’s okay for me that the one race, the 50 k in the World Championships, is mass start. But I hope that the individual 50 k in Holmenkollen will stay in the program. Because that’s, like, the traditional Holmenkollen. That’s a really tough course, so you get the differences there between the best racers.

    FS: Would you like to see it come back in the World Champs as an event?

    PN: For me, I think mass starts are better, because I have prepared for that type of competition with the high speeds during the race and also at the finish. I hope that the championships race will stay in the mass start.

    FS: The image of you playing poker going back to the Norwegian people—I know there’s been a lot of controversy surrounding that. Is that anything you care

    Northug playing in the 2010 World Series of Poker.

    about?

    PN: Not really. I love to play it; I love the game, and for me, it’s important to have other interests than just cross-country skiing. It’s good for the mentality. I have a vocation, and then I also love to be here and do other things.

    FS: Do you have any feelings about whether it should be made legal in Norway?

    PN: No, not really.

    FS: Do you understand some of the concerns that were raised about the way that Norsktipping funds sports, and that if more people started playing online, it could distract from that?

    PN: You can play online in Norway—it’s live poker that’s not legal. It’s not illegal for me to go out and play. I don’t want to be like a front guy who wants to make it legal in Norway; I do it because I think it’s fun.

    FS: But if people see you playing, and get more excited about playing online, do you worry that that might take away funds from Norsktipping, and the funds going to athletes?

    PN: It’s too far—I can’t go and think about something like that.

  • Poker With Petter

    Poker With Petter


    I sneak a look at the video camera as Petter Northug does an interview with the Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang. Screenshot from Vg.no

    I step off the bus from the Strip into the Las Vegas evening and walk inside the Palms Casino, about 40 minutes early for the poker game between Marcus Hellner and Petter Northug. I haven’t eaten since breakfast, and I’m just coming off a two or three mile walk in search a loaf of bread, jostling tourists in 100-degree heat. The only place I can find to make my peanut butter and jelly sandwich is a bench in the parking garage, where I sit watching security guards rolling by on bicycles.

    At 7:00, it’s time to go meet Thorkild Gundersen, my contact from Vi Menn, the magazine that sponsors Petter Northug and brought him to Las Vegas. Thorkild brings me up to the poker room. I don’t know what I expected, exactly, but it wasn’t this: a private meeting room filled with a dozen journalists, an open bar, a couple of card tables, even a backdrop for photo-ops. Thorkild and Alex Oysta, the Vi Menn editor-in-chief, are wearing tuxedos, and while there are a handful of people dressed casually, there are also a bunch wearing really nice clothes. I was as dressed-up as I ever get—corduroys and a polo shirt, which I’d even taken the time to steam in the shower in the morning—but it didn’t feel like enough.

    I‘m introduced to Thor, a kind-looking older man who apparently is a Norwegian poker legend—the “godfather” of the game in the country. I stand around and talk awkwardly for a bit before Thorkild gives a short speech in Norwegian, and everyone sits down at the card tables. Alex tells me to take a seat. Apparently, we’re playing some informal cards with all the other journalists, as well as some professional Swedish and Norwegian poker players who are mixed in—they’re here to watch Petter and Marcus.

    It’s hard to tell exactly who’s who, and though it’s a pretty friendly atmosphere, I’m anxious. It seems like there are high rollers everywhere, and then there’s me—an unshaven 22-year-old in sneakers who doesn’t speak Norwegian.

    The dealer flicks each of us cards. We play an open hand on behalf of the reporters at the table, then a few more. After 15 minutes, Northug and Hellner finally show up—and Northug is shown to the empty seat directly next to me. Like, six inches away. Like, close enough to smell his cologne, and for me to be worried about the fact that I was walking around baking in the sun for two hours that afternoon, and probably smelled pretty bad myself. I know that the whole Scandinavian hero-worship thing isn’t cool, but I am a ski journalist and, ultimately, a ski fan, and Northug is the very best skier in the world, so I was incredibly nervous—even though I look down and notice that his shoes are untied. As we play our first few hands, Northug does interviews with Norwegian television stations. Sitting right next to him, I’m obviously in the shot—the cameras are almost pointed straight at me—and I try not to fidget and screw it all up.

    Eventually, I end up in a predicament with Thor, the Norwegian legend. I have Ace-Nine, and Thor has just gone all-in—wagered all his chips on a single hand. I have the option to call (to match his bet), or to fold. I consult with the Norwegian poker player to my left, and then Thorkild walks up behind me and asks Petter what he thinks I should do. I show him my cards. He leans back in his chair, contemplating. Thor doesn’t care—he has played poker with Larry Flynt and L.A. Lakers owner Jerry Buss—and is amiably chatting with the guy next to him; my heart is pounding as I wait for Northug to give me some advice.

    The view from my seat at the table. Thor Hansen, the Norwegian poker legend, is on the left with the white collar.

    He looks at the cards one more time, giving me a pained expression. “I would play it—that’s what I’d do,” he finally says. So I do, obviously, pushing my chips to the middle of the table.

    Because we’re “all-in” and have no more chips to bet, Thor and I each turn over our cards, revealing the worst possible predicament for me. Thor has Ace-10, which means, essentially, that I am screwed. We’re playing Texas Hold’em—the same type of poker played at the World Series—and the way it works is that after getting your own hand of two cards, five additional communal cards are dealt in the middle of the table. Now, since Thor’s own hand is better, pretty much the only way I can possibly beat him is if a nine turns up.

    The first four cards are flipped over and offer no help to me. I’m about to lose, to be forced out of the game. And then the dealer turns over a nine. The whole table laughs and cheers, as Petter turns to me with a grin. “I told you to play it!” he crows.

    I’ve won the hand. I’m shaking as I reach out to pull all the chips back into my corner, and trying not to let anyone notice— although if Petter is anywhere near the poker player everyone says he is, there’s no way he didn’t.

    After another few hands, it occurs to me that I should probably introduce myself. Eventually, I work up the courage to stick out my hand, tell Petter my name, and ask about his training that morning. Surprisingly, he gives me his full attention, telling me about his rollerski workout in Red Rock Canyon.

    I’m 22—one year out of school and finishing eight minutes down on Simi Hamilton in college races. Today, I’m sitting a foot away from the best cross-country skier in the world. And despite the fact that I’m supposed to be a journalist who would kill for a one-on-one interview with Northug, I can’t think of anything else to ask him. Tomorrow, and the next day, and the rest of my life, there will be time for professionalism, but for now, I’m out of questions. All I can do is sit, and soak it in.

  • Northug Busts Out of WSOP–Leaves with $21,000

    Northug Busts Out of WSOP–Leaves with $21,000

    Petter Northug during his first day of play at the 2010 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas

    Winning at cards requires both luck and skill. On his fourth day of play at the 2010 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, Petter Northug’s luck ran out–but not before he had survived long enough to win more than $20,000.

    With fewer than 700 players remaining from an original pool of more than 7,000, Northug was eliminated, on a hand that he had less than a 20 percent chance of losing.

    Late in the day on Tuesday, Northug bet all his chips on the two cards that he had been dealt: a pair of tens.

    His opponent equaled the bet, and flipped over his cards to reveal a pair of nines—which gave Northug an 82 percent chance of winning the hand.

    But in Texas Hold’em—the game played at the World Series of Poker—players also can use any of five communal cards as part of their hand. And when those were dealt, one was a nine, which left Northug’s opponent three-of-a-kind and the 400,000 chips in the pot.

    Northug had suffered what poker aficionados call a “bad beat”—their term for when a player with the strongest cards gets unlucky and loses—but there was nothing he could do about it.

    “Petter, of course, was very frustrated—it was a bad hand,” said Thorkild Gundersen, a journalist from Northug’s sponsor, Vi Menn Magazine, in an interview with the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet. “When you bust out in this way, it is bitter.”

    Northug’s loss came with roughly 650 players left in the tournament, putting him in the money. For his efforts over four days and some 40 hours of poker at the World Series, Northug earned more than $21,000—an $11,000 return on his $10,000 entry fee.

    After two weeks in Las Vegas, Northug is wasting no time in returning home—his flight from McCarren International Airport departs this morning.

  • Northug Survives Day 3 of WSOP–Nearly in the Money

    Northug Survives Day 3 of WSOP–Nearly in the Money

    Petter Northug playing poker in Las Vegas last week.

    Petter Northug continued his run at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas on Monday, upping his chip count by 50 percent and advancing to the fourth day of competition.

    “During the three days he has played, he has not made a single mistake,” said Thorkild Gundersen, a journalist from Northug’s sponsor, Vi Menn Magazine, in an interview with the Norwegian website Nettavisen.

    After his third day of play at the tournament, Northug checked out with 180,700 in chips, while the average player sits at 177,000, according to Vi Menn. Northug began Monday’s round with some 130,000 chips, quickly ran up his count to 200,000, and then lost a few hands later on in the day.

    Roughly 1,200 players remain in the tournament, with the top 747 receiving prize money, and the field will likely be reduced below that number on Tuesday. Payouts start at $19,263 for places 676 through 747.

    Coverage of the tournament has reached a boil in Norway, and a number of publications have raised concern over the fact that Northug will have to miss the World Cup opener if he qualifies for the final table of nine. (World Series organizers postpone the last table until November to allow players time to attract sponsors, and for media to hype the event.)

    In an interview with the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet, Norwegian Head Coach Age Skinstaad played down the concerns.

    “If [Northug qualifies], there is no problem…Everyone needs to relax and think of other things,” Skinstaad said. “I think it’s very, very positive that he’s involved with such things.”

  • With Trademark Speed, Northug Takes Vegas Race–With Video, Updated

    With Trademark Speed, Northug Takes Vegas Race–With Video, Updated

    Marcus Hellner leads Petter Northug in the first heat of their rollerski race in Las Vegas.

    In Las Vegas, the house always wins. And in Tuesday’s head-to-head rollerski race between Marcus Hellner and Petter Northug, Northug was the house.

    On a course laid out by his Norwegian magazine sponsor—and modified at the last minute to give him a better shot at the win—Northug took the last two heats of a best-of-three series in the parking lot of the Palms Casino, evening the score with Hellner after losing to the Swede in a poker match earlier this week.

    Marcus Hellner (L) and Petter Northug (R) at the start of the first heat of their rollerski race in Las Vegas.

    After attracting some attention from poker websites and even ESPN broadcasters at their appearance at the World Series of Poker tournament yesterday, it seemed like the race between Northug and Hellner had the potential to draw a decent crowd.

    But at 8:30 on a Tuesday morning, at a resort two miles from the strip, all Las Vegas could muster was a thirty-strong rabble of predominantly Norwegian fans, a few of whom waved 8.5 by 11 inch printouts of the country’s flag. They gave Northug a rousing cheer when he skied by on his warm up, while Hellner was met with a chorus of boos.

    On the tight, twisting figure-eight loop around two traffic islands, the start made all the difference, as the first athlete to the first corner took the victory every time.

    Organizers from Vi Menn, the Norwegian magazine, had Northug and Hellner throw dice for starting position. Hellner won, giving him the advantage in two out of the three heats.

    After the first two rounds, it appeared that it would be the dice, not fitness, that would decide the outcome, because the man with the inside line to the first corner took each heat—Hellner the first and Northug the second.

    But for the final heat, Vi Menn staff moved back the start line a few yards, giving Northug more time to overcome his unfavorable start spot on the outside. Using his trademark explosive speed, he won what was essentially a 50-meter drag race to the sharp, righthand turn around a traffic island housing a handful of palm trees and some forlorn desert shrubs, and never looked back. The whole thing was over in less than 45 seconds.

    “They are all Norwegian guys in the jury—so they did something,” Hellner said, laughing. “It’s still fair, because I got the best start [position]. He’s a quicker

    Northug showing Hellner who's boss.

    starter than me—that made all the difference.”

    As the pair warmed up for the race, Northug seemed unhappy about the course, with all its tight corners, and after defeating Hellner, he looked more relieved than anything else.

    “With the tough course, you had to be first out there,” he said. “In the first heat, Marcus was first out, and it’s difficult to pass him. But in the two last ones I was waking up, and was hearing the home crowd here…I took the start in the last heat, and that was important.”

    After Northug’s win in the race and Hellner’s victory in their card game on Sunday, the battle between the two comes down to their placings in the World Series of Poker, which continues this coming weekend. Both Northug and Hellner have said that they will stay in town as long as they remain in the tournament, which could mean another full week in the city if the athletes play their cards right. (And if either makes it into the final nine, another visit to Las Vegas will be necessary in November.)

    But the race was the highest-profile portion of the trip, and with it over, many of the dozen Scandinavian journalists that have been chronicling the athletes’ every move will now head back to their home countries. With the highest-profile part of the trip concluded, the Northug and Hellner will have a little more time to relax—as will Alex Oysta, the Vi Menn editor who orchestrated the trip.

    More than anything, Oysta said he was thankful that no one got hurt. If one of the athletes had been injured in the race, he said, it would have been his own face on the pages of the newspapers—not Northug’s.

    Video is posted on YouTube: click here to see the second heat, or here for the finals.

    The scene at the Palms before the start of the first heat.
  • Northug, Hellner Survive First Day of Poker World Series

    Northug, Hellner Survive First Day of Poker World Series

    Petter Northug late in the first day of the 2010 World Series of Poker

    11:28 PM: With ten minutes to go in the first day of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, it appears that both Petter Northug and Marcus Hellner have survived, and will head into a second round of play later this week. The two each have comfortable stacks of chips, and will be in decent position as the tournament continues on.

    4:50: For once, it looked like Petter Northug was faced with a comeback that was too tough.

    Marcus Hellner

    With his chips dwindling at the 2010 World Series of Poker, Northug had gone “all in,” and was met with the prospect of being eliminated just three hours into the tournament.

    Stone-faced, eyes concealed behind a pair of Oakley sunglasses, Northug sat calmly and waited to see if the one player left in the hand would match his bet.

    When he did, Northug flipped over his cards and walked away from the table, his tournament hinging on the next few cards dealt. Ultimately, he lucked out with a pair of aces to stay in the game.

    Marcus Hellner’s second two-hour stint at the table was much less dramatic, but the result was the same, as both men appear to have roughly 20,000 in chips remaining.

    The two Scandinavians have completely assimilated themselves into the poker world, adopting the typical mannerisms and disinterested appearances of many of the players here. In addition to Northug’s designer shades, both athletes have also spent much of the tournament listening to music through headphones.

    The two players' chips after four hours of play. Northug's stack is on the left, Hellner's is on the right.

    2:48 PM:

    Just over a quarter of the way into the 2010 World Series of Poker, Marcus Hellner holds the edge over Petter Northug.

    Hellner appears to be steady at around 30,000 chips—the same number he started with—while Northug has dropped to roughly 20,000.

    While his body language spoke differently, Northug was still optimistic about his chances during the first half-hour break from play. The most threatening competitor at Northug’s table, 2004 tournament champion Greg Raymer, was bounced out after just an hour, and Northug said that he was starting to get a good sense of his competitors’ playing styles.

    “The thing is just to be patient and wait for my spot,” he said. “I have plenty of time yet…I think it’s a good table for me—it’s pretty aggressive players, so if I just hit the big hand, I think I can win a lot.”

    Fifteen tables down, Hellner said that he was enjoying the benefits of wearing a jacket with his sponsor PokerStars’s logo.

    “I think they have a little bit of respect for me because I have this,” he said. “They think I’m good at it—I tried to bluff them some times, and they take it.”

    While Hellner hopes to last as long as he can in the tournament, he was realistic about his chances.

    “My first goal is to beat Petter,” he said. “I think it will be very hard for me as it goes on.”

    Both Hellner and Northug will have to grind through nearly twelve hours of poker—from noon to midnight—in order to make it through to the next round of competition. Neither was concerned about the long hours, though—nor the early wake-up call tomorrow morning for a 9 a.m. rollerski race at the Palms.

    In fact, Northug said he was far more concerned about the poker than about the skiing—at least during his Vegas vacation.

    “Tomorrow is just fun—this is competition,” he said. “It’s a big dream to play in the main event—it’s one of my biggest interests…I have to enjoy it, and I also have to play good.”

    None of the players at either Northug or Hellner’s table seemed to realize that they were playing with multiple Olympic medalists—and Northug said he’d rather have it that way. If anyone found out who he was, “then they’d think I’m a big fish,” he said.

    1:28: One hour into the World Series of Poker and not much has changed here in Las Vegas–neither Petter Northug nor Marcus Hellner have budged from their seats at the card table, although Northug did just fold out of a large hand just moments ago.

    Perhaps the most notable aspect of this afternoon’s play is that Northug is stuck at a table with Greg Raymer, the 2004 World Series of Poker Champion, who provides a stark contrast between the world of poker and the world of cross-country skiing.

    Raymer is nicknamed “Fossilman,” apparently because of his hobby of collecting prehistoric remnants, although it also appears to be an apt physical description. Wearing a bizarre pair of holographic sunglasses, Raymer was nearly eliminated in the first hour when he lost a hand to another player at the table, but is holding on with a small fraction of his chips remaining.

    Hellner appears to be playing more conservatively than Northug–the Swede has been folding the vast majority of his hands, which is typical for this early in the tournament. Northug has played a few more, and appeared to lose at least 10 percent of his chips when he called a large pot (in non-poker speak, that means that he matched another players bet), then folded when the cards did not turn his way later in the hand.

    Northug is playing at a featured table on a platform in a corner of one of the rooms here at the Rio–he apparently was unhappy about being moved.

    More to come.

    Marcus Hellner (arms folded) at his first round table.
  • Hellner Takes Round One of Vegas Extravaganza

    Hellner Takes Round One of Vegas Extravaganza

    Petter Northug (L) and Marcus Hellner (center) playing a one-on-one game of Texas Hold'em at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas.

    Marcus Hellner one, Petter Northug zero.

    In an hour-long production worthy of two A-list celebrities, Hellner outlasted Northug in a one-on-one game of Texas Hold’em at the Palms Casino in Las Vegas on Sunday evening.

    Orchestrated by the Norwegian men’s magazine Vi Menn and the online gambling company PokerStars, the event showcased the kind of status that the two athletes enjoy in Europe.

    Clad in a crisp white button-down shirt emblazoned with a Norwegian flag and a Vi Menn logo, Northug spent the first portion of the evening playing a casual game of cards and hobnobbing with media and Scandinavian poker professionals. The event was held in a private room at the Palms, complete with an open bar, although neither Northug nor Hellner appeared to drink any alcohol.

    Marcus Hellner sizes up a hand early on in the game.

    With half of his attention on his cards, Northug gave interviews to television stations and poked fun at Thor Hansen, the man considered the “godfather” of poker in Norway, who was sitting at Northug’s table.

    After the athletes relaxed for half an hour, it was time for business. Thorkild Gundersen, who coordinated the event for Vi Menn, introduced the match-up as the first in a best-of-three contest that would also include the World Series of Poker tournament, and a rollerski race on Tuesday.

    The first hands were then dealt by a professional dealer enlisted by PokerStars, this being not just any basement game.

    Displaying the same steely focus and drive that he does on the race course, Northug got out to an early lead, reducing Hellner’s pile of chips to what seemed to be dire levels. But Hellner never panicked, slowly working his way back into the game and ultimately forcing Northug into betting all of his chips on an ace-five hand. Since Hellner held ace-ten, he was all but guaranteed of victory—which was ensured when another ten was dealt, giving Hellner a pair, and the win.

    Given Northug’s reputation as a cutthroat poker player, Hellner’s victory should probably be considered an upset—even though the Swede didn’t look at it that way.

    “I thought that he maybe would be afraid of me—I think he saw me as a very tight player,” Hellner said. “I got some good cards.”

    The extravaganza continues at noon western time on Monday, when Northug and Hellner compete in the first day of the World Series of Poker tournament at the Rio. Despite Northug’s loss, Hansen, the Norwegian poker legend, said that he thought that that the quadruple Olympic medalist was a skilled player.

    “All the Norwegian kids [young poker players]…tell me he’s good,” Hansen said. “He wants to be good—that’s the competition in him.”

    While playing live poker for money is illegal in Norway, Hansen said that Northug enjoys the support of the country’s people in his card-playing habits, even though he was criticized by the general secretary of the Norwegian ski federation for setting a bad example for children.

    In the same vein, Hellner’s appearance in Vegas is part of a strategy by PokerStars, his sponsor, to push poker into the mainstream in Sweden, according to

    Northug, as his chips began to dwindle

    Murat Sahan, the editor of a poker magazine in the country. Sahan said that PokerStars has recruited athletes like Hellner, hockey star Mats Sundin, and former tennis great Boris Becker to its team of players because they make the game seem more accessible.

    “This is, of course, a way of making poker more accepted in the general public,” he said.

    Not Just Fun and Games

    Northug and Hellner were so focused on poker on Sunday night that one could almost have forgotten the two were professional athletes.

    Scandinavian fans can rest assured that they haven’t. After a three-hour bike ride on Saturday, Hellner, Northug, and Northug’s younger brother Thomas—a world junior champion who is here watching—all drove out of Las Vegas to the scenic Red Rock Canyon for rollerski intervals Sunday morning, while the rest of the town was probably still nursing their hangovers. (Click here for photos.)

    More details also emerged about Tuesday’s rollerski race between Hellner and the elder Northug.

    According to Vi Menn Editor Alex Oysta, the event will be held in one of the Palms’s parking lots, the course being a lap and a half of a short, figure-eight loop around two traffic islands. Because the loop is so brief, Hellner and Northug will race a best-of-three-heats series.

    Vi Menn and PokerStars had to wrestle with Las Vegas’s dearth of nordic knowledge in order to line up the race. It was originally scheduled for Monday, but Oysta said that the date had to be changed because the Palms wouldn’t be able to clear the lot the day after the Fourth of July.

    And according to the PokerStars manager who coordinated the event, the Palms’s staff was flummoxed by the idea of a rollerski race—making it difficult to insure, which the casino required. The insurance wasn’t even for the athletes, the manager said—instead, it was in case Northug or Hellner crashed and injured a spectator or damaged a vehicle.

    Northug and Hellner pose for photos after the end of the game.
  • Northug, Hellner Have Work Cut Out for Them in Poker World Series

    Northug, Hellner Have Work Cut Out for Them in Poker World Series

    Tables awaiting competitors in the World Series of Poker at the Rio, in Las Vegas

    If Petter Northug and Marcus Hellner had any doubts as to whether they’d be out of their element during the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, the high temperatures in the triple digits over the weekend should serve to quash them.

    The two may be Olympic gold medalists, but they’re also unseasoned card-players. If they hope to fare well in the tournament, the Scandinavians will have to better old-school pros, new-school math-whizzes, and hundreds of amateur card sharks who proven their skills and earned their spots in the World Series by winning lower-level tournaments.

    To be fair, the contest would be far more one-sided if the poker players were matched up with Hellner and Northug in a 50 k. But nonetheless, the two will face long odds when they take to the tables for their first round of play in the No-Limit Hold’em World Championship early next week.

    Organizers haven’t released numbers for this year’s tournament, but there were over 6,000 entrants in the World Series in 2009. The first round alone will take place over four days, with hundreds of poker tables spread out over more than an acre of convention center space.

    Hellner is said to have little card-playing experience, and while Northug has more—he competed in a high-level European tournament in Monaco this spring—he won’t even be the most heavily favored Norwegian participant.

    That honor goes to 21-year-old Annette Obrestad, who won the European version of the World Series of Poker back in 2007, when she was just 19. Her debut in Vegas—which was held back until this year due to her age—has been hotly anticipated by poker websites and fans.

    Norwegian Annette Obrestad graces a poker magazine display

    Based on the press she’s gotten in the past few months, Obrestad is as Northug-esque as anyone else in the tournament save Northug himself. The cocky, trash-talking Obrestad slammed her fellow female competitors in a recent profile in ESPN The Magazine, telling a reporter that “girls suck at poker.” In another interview with a newspaper, she added that other women cover up their poker shortcomings “by looking good in a bikini.”

    But before they take on professionals like Obrestad, Northug and Hellner will have a chance to get warmed up on Sunday night. Before their first day of tournament play, the pair will go head-to-head in a one-on-one poker match-up orchestrated by Vi Menn, the Norwegian magazine that sponsors Northug and paid his $10,000 entry fee to the World Series.

    According to the World Series of Poker’s website, Northug and Hellner will take home money if they are among the last 10 percent of players remaining in the tournament. For that to happen, though, the Scandinavians will have to survive roughly a week of poker and Vegas heat. And in the unlikely event that either qualifies for the final table of nine, they’ll be forced to schedule another trip to the U.S. in November. The World Series postpones its last round of play until then to allow players to line up sponsorship and for networks to hype the event.

    The World Series of Poker is held at the Rio, while the one-on-one competition will take place at The Palms Casino—also the site of a rollerski race between the two Scandinavians on Tuesday. Exact details of that race are still unconfirmed; FasterSkier will have a full preview as soon as they become available.

    FasterSkier has arrived in Vegas and will be providing coverage of the entire trip—stay tuned!

  • Dates Confirmed for Northug-Hellner Vegas Showdown; Stay With Us!

    FasterSkier will be in Las Vegas from July 3 to July 6 for the Petter Northug-Marcus Hellner poker showdown and rollerski race. The pair will face off in a head-to-head poker matchup on the fourth of July, play their first day of the World Series of Poker on July 5, and then compete in the rollerski race on July 6.

    FasterSkier has reserved a double room at the Stratosphere Casino and Hotel–we’re looking for someone to room with our intrepid international ski journalist Nat Herz for three nights (July 3, 4, and 5). He has promised to shower. If you’re interested, contact info[at]fasterskier.com–it’s $40 a night.

  • Northug, Hellner to Face Off in Vegas

    Northug, Hellner to Face Off in Vegas

    From strippers to Cirque Du Soleil, there’s a lot to see in Las Vegas. But one spectacle setting up for this July is strange even by Sin City’s standards: a rollerski race between Olympic gold medalists Petter Northug (NOR) and Marcus Hellner (SWE).

    “Hopefully this will be something new in Las Vegas,” said Alex Øystå, editor-in-chief of the Norwegian magazine Vi Menn. “I don’t know how many people use skis there, but I guess not so many.”

    The duel between two of the world’s best athletes is an exciting prospect, but it’s not even the main event. That will come when the pair takes to the tables for the 2010 World Series of Poker.

    An avid card player, Northug is sponsored by Vi Menn, which organized the promotion and is footing the bill for the Norwegian champion’s $10,000 entry fee. To earn it, Northug had to win a short cross-country ski race last winter against one of Vi Menn’s journalists. (Despite a handicap, Northug eked out the victory with a lunge at the line.)

    In an interview with FasterSkier, Øystå said that Hellner has his own sponsor in Sweden that’s paying for his Las Vegas. There’s a good chance that the pair will also play a head-to-head game of poker, outside of the tournament.

    The Scandinavian press makes a living from the trumped-up rivalry between the two, so the rollerski race was a no-brainer. Øystå wants to pit Northug and Hellner against some American skiers as well, like Andy Newell or Billy Demong—he said his staff was looking into it.

    The exact details of the race haven’t been sorted out, but it should be brutal—highs in Las Vegas in July average 104 degrees.

    Though it seems impossible after the attention he drew at the Olympics, Northug-mania appears to be still on the rise. After bouncing out of a warm-up poker tournament in Monte Carlo on Tuesday, Northug was front-page news on the websites of Norway’s largest newspapers. Vi Menn was live-blogging Northug’s bets.

    Reporters from Norwegian TV and newspapers will be on hand in Las Vegas, Øystå said, and his magazine—which has a readership of 520,000 in a country of less than 5 million—has been promoting the event relentlessly.

    “It’s kind of exotic,” Øystå said. “People coming from the North Pole and using skis in Vegas—I think you can actually have a pretty good story on that.”