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9 Facts About Niklas «lena900» Astedt You Probably Didn’t Know
Niklas «lena900» Astedt does not attend podcasts or give interviews. In this article, we attempted to gather 10 facts from his biography that will surprise you.
Fact 1: Dropped out of school for poker
Niklas Astedt was born on October 21, 1990, in Partille, Sweden. He got acquainted with poker in the mid-2000s after the poker boom. He started with games with friends and online freerolls. At the age of 17, he borrowed his mom’s credit card and began playing online, creating an account in her name. He dropped out of school two years before graduation to become a poker pro. At 20, he moved out of his parents’ house and has since lived solely on poker winnings.
Fact 2: Struggled with variance in cash games early in his career
At the start of his career, «lena900» tried his hand at cash games. He climbed to the highest stakes, lost, and dropped back down to micro-stakes. These ups and downs continued until he turned 24, at which point «lena900» began specializing in NLHE MTT.
Fact 3: Chose the nickname «lena900» to pretend to be a girl
Various theories have been proposed about Astedt’s nickname. The coolest theory is that the nickname was chosen in honor of a fishing reel.
In reality, Niklas Astedt simply chose a female nickname at the age of 18, similar to how David Yan chose the nickname MissOracle.
All of Niklas Astedt’s online nicknames:
- Lena900 (PokerStars)
- qwertya09 (PokerStars.Fr)
- Niklas Astedt (GGPoker)
- Drulitooo (Bwin/PartyPoker)
- PayandPlay (PartyPoker)
- whoozz (Full Tilt)
- tutten7 (888Poker)
- KoksJuuice (PMU.fr)
- ector (Winamax)
- futt32 (William Hill)
Fact 4: Has earned over $48.8M in online winnings
This is an absolute record among all players. His biggest result is $1,096,000 for winning the $25.5K Sunday Five Million GG Spring Festival. Additionally, «lena900» has won 7 WCOOP and 9 SCOOP tournaments.
Fact 5: Named the greatest online player of all time by Pocket Fives
In 2021, PocketFives (now PokerStake) held the PocketFives #1 Number One contest to determine the greatest online player of all time. The competition included 60 players who had topped the PocketFives ranking at least once in the past 10 years.
Players were paired, and the winner was decided by a Twitter poll. In the final, Astedt faced Chris “moorman1” Moorman, with 54.3% of users voting for Astedt.
Poker is tough because no one knows who’s the best right? The only thing you have is your peers telling you kind of that they’ve seen you as a good player. That’s the only validation you get of being (good)…so, of course. Yeah, definitely, I like hearing that, especially from my peers, playing the same kind of stakes. That makes me feel good.
For winning this contest, Niklas Astedt received a championship belt.
In fact, the vote might have been unnecessary: «lena900» topped the Pocket Fives ranking for 97 weeks — 23 weeks longer than any other player.
Fact 6: Best live result — $4,000,000 for third place in the $10K Main Event WSOP 2024
In the top 3 of the WSOP Main Event final table, Niklas Astedt was considered the main contender for victory. However, on the final day, he played only 9 hands, handing over his stack to Jordan Griff.
In total, Niklas Astedt has earned $7M in live tournaments.
Fact 7: Never sells shares
Money was Niklas Astedt’s main motivation to start playing poker. Nowadays money is no longer a concern, his motivation has changed.
I enjoy playing high stakes. I enjoy it when I feel it. I never sell action. I always play on my own. If I can’t play a tournament, I won’t but I like when I feel it. I play better when I feel it.
Fact 8: Continued to play $100 online tournaments after finishing third in the WSOP Main Event
True to his words, on the first Sunday after the WSOP Main Event, Niklas Astedt loaded his default session on GGPoker and PokerStars. The minimum buy-in was $109. For example, $109 Sunday Million. «lena900» has not yet won this tournament.
His best result on Sunday, July 21, was second place in the $5K Titans ($55K), one of the most competitive online tournaments.
Fact 9: Not public, does not run social media
Niklas Astedt is not on Twitter or Instagram. His hobbies include traveling and good food.
Little is known about his personal life. He lives in Gothenburg and is married to Eva Slovikova. They were supposed to have their wedding in 2020, but the celebration was postponed to 2022 due to the pandemic.
Niklas Astedt does not like publicity, but he won’t refuse a joint photo when you meet him.
Like now, when I’m here (at the WSOP), I take 10 photos a day with Brazilians and Asian (fans). Apparently, they’re big fans of mine and that part…I don’t love it as much but I’ll do it, you know? I’m quite easygoing.
