What’s the world record for someone holding their breath?
How much money is kept in the
Bellagio safe?
How many manholes are 9️⃣ there in San Fransisco, California?
Do you know
the answer to any of these questions? It doesn’t matter. Do you have 9️⃣ a good guess? Even
better - do you have a good guess about what your friend might guess? If so, 9️⃣ then you
can play Lodden Thinks.
Lodden Thinks is a proposition betting game that was invented
at the World Series of 9️⃣ Poker Europe by poker pros Phil Laak and Antonio Esfandiari in
the mid-2000s. According to Laak, the game was the 9️⃣ product of boredom. As the two
played together at a feature televised table, they found themselves repeating the same
old 9️⃣ tired cliched banter to one another. Esfandiari told Laak “we need to come up with
new material.” Laak thought about 9️⃣ it for a bit, and he came up with an idea. He’d come
up with a question for Johnny Lodden, 9️⃣ another popular poker professional who was at the
table with them, and then Laak and Esfandiari would bet on what 9️⃣ Lodden would think the
answer was. The actual answer to the question was irrelevant. Nobody needed to look it
up 9️⃣ or check it. In fact, the harder an answer was to check, the better, because it
lessened the possibility that 9️⃣ Lodden would know the actual answer and would have to
draw upon some other knowledge or information to come up 9️⃣ with a guess. Before long the
two were having more fun playing “Lodden Thinks” than playing poker, and the game
9️⃣ caught on at tournaments and poker tables around the world.
The rules are simple. First
you come up with a question 9️⃣ with a numerical answer. The more obscure and difficult to
know, the better. Then the two people involved in the 9️⃣ bet then hold an over/under
auction. One person suggests a number they think the “Lodden”, in this case a third
9️⃣ person who is not involved in the bet, will answer. The other person then can either
accept the “under”, meaning 9️⃣ they will bet that the “Lodden” will say something below
that number, or they can bid a new number that 9️⃣ is higher. After they bid a higher
number, the first person can accept the “under” or bid an even higher 9️⃣ number. The
players keep bidding until one of them accepts the “under,” ceding the “over” to the
person who bid 9️⃣ the number. Then they ask their “Lodden” the question, hear their
answer, and settle up the bet.
What makes “Lodden Thinks” 9️⃣ fun is that in order to make
a good bet, you need to utilize as much psychology and prior knowledge 9️⃣ of your “Lodden”
as you can. If your “Lodden” is a stranger, then you need to consider how that person
9️⃣ might think based on what little information you have about them - their clothes, their
age, their gender, etc.
In this 9️⃣ way, “Lodden Thinks” involves a lot of the skills that
makes poker such a dynamic and fun game. It’s important 9️⃣ to get a good read on someone,
but even a solid read won’t guarantee victory. There’s still a little bit 9️⃣ of luck
involved.
“Lodden Thinks” also employs an auction-style of over/under line setting, so
another skill important to winning is setting 9️⃣ a good line for yourself. It can be
stressful sometimes trying to feel out where your opponent would like the 9️⃣ line to be
and not going over it and giving them the over they want. The best spots are when 9️⃣ you
and your opponent are far out of whack with each other’s estimates, and you can grab a
good side 9️⃣ of the line for yourself and your opinion. But again, even then, Lodden can
screw it all up for you.
Laak 9️⃣ and Esfandiari usually play “Lodden Thinks” for one
hundred dollars a question, but some high rollers have played for much 9️⃣ more. On Season
6 of Poker After Dark, the players get involved in some high stakes “Lodden Thinks”
atR$1,000 a 9️⃣ question. At one point Phil Ivey and Doyle Brunson betR$10,000 on how old
Daniel Negreanu thinks Clint Eastwood is. Phil 9️⃣ Hellmuth remarks that it’s the biggest
“Lodden Thinks” bet he’s ever seen. (Ivey wins by taking under 74. Negreanu went 9️⃣ for
73.)
The other thing that’s fun about “Lodden Thinks” is coming up with amusing
questions. Again, the more obscure and 9️⃣ unknowable, the better in my opinion. Someone
could easily know how old Clint Eastwood is. If you want to figure 9️⃣ out how someone
might guess at how many cars there are at the bottom of Lake Michigan, you’d need to
9️⃣ really get inside your “Lodden’s” head to figure out how they will try to figure out
the answer. One of 9️⃣ my favorite questions I’ve heard came from a table with Shaun Deeb
at the Seminole Hard Rock: “What’s the total 9️⃣ number of people that have been murdered
by the current population of this casino right now?” You can imagine how 9️⃣ the discussion
around the bidding for that one went.
“If you play a lot you start noticing human
patterns,” Laak told 9️⃣ Epic Poker. “You start picking up edge before the game even
starts.” Laak says that the more you play, the 9️⃣ better idea you’ll have about how people
will guess on questions that revolve around certain themes. So like most gambling
9️⃣ games, experience and practice helps.
So the question that remains is, what does Johnny
Lodden think about Lodden Thinks? In interviews 9️⃣ he has said that he had a lot of fun
playing the game at first, but that Antonio Esfandiari has 9️⃣ taken the game to a whole
new level, playing it wherever he goes as often as he can. “I’ve played 9️⃣ with Antonio a
bunch and I’ve never seen him lose,” Lodden said. “That’s why it’s still running. He’s
hustling everyone.”
6 9️⃣ SIMPLE STEPS TO LEARNING LODDEN THINKS
1. Designate someone to be
"Johnny Lodden"
2. Ask that person any question with a numerical 9️⃣ answer and have them
write down their guess.
3. Propose a number you think they wrote down.
4. Your opponent
can either 9️⃣ propose a higher number or "call" your bet.
5. Once someone "calls," reveal
"Johnny's" guess.
6. Whoever was called has to be 9️⃣ under "Johnny's" guess to win. If
they are over, they lose and the person who called wins.
