The Arctic 'Freezeout'

Robert Varkonyi (background) warms up while Juha Helppi posts his blind.

Juha Helppi became the first InterPoker.com Extreme Poker Champion, winning the Deep Water Series of Poker (DWSOP) at St. Kitts a few months ago. He proved that he was the shark by winning the event that took place 30 feet underwater on a saltwater-soaked hold'em table. He not only won the title, a championship bracelet made of seashells, and some side bets, but he also won the option of choosing the next Extreme Poker venue. Juha is a top professional poker player from Finland, and he knows when to push any edge he can get. So, he chose Finland, to give himself the home-field advantage. When he challenged me to play with him and four InterPoker Internet finalists, I didn't realize that when he said "home field," he meant the Arctic ice fields of Northern Finland. And thus was born the Arctic Freezeout Extreme Poker event.



The final table of the Arctic Freezeout was quite the international event, with representatives from Finland, the United States, England, Denmark, and Sweden. We were literally sitting at a hold'em table outdoors on the frozen sea near the Arctic Circle. We played during the warm part of the day when the temperature reached a balmy minus 10 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 23 degrees Celsius)! This was the first time that I'd ever heard of a poker freezeout allowing a rebuy. I guess it wasn't that kind of freezeout! We had an option for one rebuy during the first half of the tournament, but it would be costly. We had to purchase our rebuys with our coats, leaving only the InterPoker T-shirts on our backs.



In the first few minutes of the Arctic Freezeout, I raised with a pair of fours and got called by one player, Daniel Stein from England. After a ragged flop, Daniel checked and I moved all in. After some careful thought, he called with A-Q, which were overcards to the board. After hitting an ace on the river, Daniel not only stripped me of my chip stack, but he also forced me to peel off my cozy ski jacket for my rebuy of half my starting chips. I wasn't concerned about playing in a T-shirt, because I expected to bust out shortly. I was sadly mistaken about busting out, as I played like a monster (fire-breathing dragon) and started to appreciate the new meaning of "freezeout." For the next 90 minutes, I had to play in a T-shirt, in subfreezing temperatures. What's a poker player to do? Before allowing hypothermia to set in, I started jogging when I wasn't involved in hands; in fact, I was literally running circles around my opponents.



After about one and a half hours of play, I found myself heads up against Juha. I was in my jogging T-shirt and Juha was snugly wrapped in his parka. Before the flop, I raised with 10-9 offsuit and Juha called with the K 9. The flop came 10-7-3 with two clubs, giving me top pair and Juha a flush draw. Juha was first to act and he moved all in with a short stack. I quickly called. The turn was a 7 and the river was a 10, giving me a "frozen full house" and the Extreme Poker Championship of the Arctic Freezeout. I won many wonderful prizes, like the chunk of ice we used as the dealer button, the ice trophy, and the ice bracelet, which all came in handy to put on the hot coals in the fine Finnish sauna back at the hotel.



I can't wait to go jogging at next year's Arctic Freezeout, but before that, there will be some more Extreme Poker events. The stakes are so "high" at the next Extreme Poker event that you could get a nosebleed! It's called Loser's Leap, and it will be held 10,000 feet above the Las Vegas desert. Players will compete in a plane, and will be forced to parachute out when they run out of chips! Those InterPoker guys will do anything for a few laughs!

Robert is the 2002 World Series of Poker champion, and you can play poker with him online by signing up at www.interpoker.com/rob, which offers up to a $121 limited-time bonus.