Kai Paulsen is a veteran poker professional from Trondheim, Norway who has been on tour for almost 2 decades. Although the forty-something Scandinavian had early success in the West, Paulsen chose to make the Asian tour his base since 2014. He has several minor titles and a single Main Event championship to his name. Despite this, Kai Paulsen has managed to build a career grinding it out in multi-table events. He is currently ranked 25th in Norway’s All Time Money List and has surpassed the 500K milestone in total live earnings with $823,349.

Kai Paulsen – Achievements

Kai Paulsen’s first recorded live tournament was in 2006 at Betsafe Open Tour in the Latvian city of Riga finishing fourth. The following year Paulsen made a splash as a 20-year-old youngster at the 38th World Series of Poker 2007, Las Vegas, making his first cash at the $1,500 NLH Event. He took home $ 29,033 in the only tournament he played in that year. 2008 saw Paulsen record an early career milestone. In only his third live tournament, the Norwegian made a final table at the Main Event of the PaddyPower Irish Poker Open 2008, Dublin, finishing 5th and banked his first ever 6-figure cash of $ 275,855. It was and still is his best career cash to date. In the following years, Paulsen has not managed to replicate or better this achievement though he maintained a level of consistency to keep himself on the poker live-play radar.

After playing a single tournament in 2009 at the World Poker Tour Marrakech, performing deep into the Main Event for a significant $ 19,426 pay-off, Kai Paulsen trained his sights on Asia. From the years 2010 to 2013, Paulsen slowly moved away from the West tour and competed in tournaments in Macau, Cambodia and Manila. He did have one more go at the 44th World Series of Poker 2013 and PKR Live IV, London. In May 2010, the Norwegian professional made a deep run at the Main Event of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Macau to bink $ 57,382, the closest he has gotten to his career best cash so far.

Paulsen though, began snatching side event titles at various tournaments in the following years. He shipped his first ever title in 2013, at the Turbo Event of the Asian Poker Tour Manila. He followed this up with a series of minor titles in the following years. Paulsen clinched titles at 2014 edition of the APT Manila NLH Event, then in 2015, bagged three titles: the Deep Stack Turbo 3 Event of the Asian Poker Tour Ho Tram, the NLH Event of the Asia Championship of Poker – Platinum Series X, and the $200 + 20 Open Face Chinese Event of the Asian Poker Tour Cambodia.

2016 proved to be the most productive year for Kai Paulsen since 2008. Paulsen began the year with a deep run at the Main Event of the World Poker Tour National Philippines, Paranaque City, finishing 3rd with a $ 38,870 prize. He added 3 more side event titles for the year from the Asian Poker Tour Cambodia NLH, PLO and deep stack Hyper Turbo Events. His total earnings for the year amounted to $ 83,220. Paulsen then collected a pair of minor titles in 2017 at the Asian Poker Tour Manila and Macau editions but had his best cash of $ 19,780 at the PokerStars Festival Manila, finishing runner-up to Indian Virenjit Kapur. He repeated the twin title wins in 2018, first getting past China’s Guangli Liu for a victory at the NLH Event of the Asian Poker Tour Macau Championships before bagging the NLH Turbo Event of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Manila.

Kai Paulsen takes down the Metro Card Club MSE Main Event

In 2019, Kai Paulsen finally shipped a Main Event title, besting mainly local Filipino players at the The Metro Summer Event 2019, Pasig City, cashing $ 17,702. In November, the Asian circuit regular overcame the 154 entry field of the NagaWorld Superstack Freezeout of the World Poker Tour Cambodia to come out victorious and add another title to his resume’.

After the pandemic Kai Paulsen returned in 2022 to live tournament play and has since competed exclusively in the Philippines. Paulsen bagged a title at the NLH Event of the Asian Poker Tour and recently went deep at the 2024 Manila Megastack 18 Main Event to cash $ 8,217.

*Profile by Mike Alcazaren