Lina Olofsson and Drea Karlsen had been orbiting the same tight Norwegian poker community for years without ever actually meeting. That changed last summer at the WSOP Circuit Tallinn, in the hours before a Ladies Event, when a chance introduction quickly turned into something neither of them had planned. A few months later, they are co-hosting a podcast together.
“We met for the first time just before the Ladies event during WSOPC Tallinn last summer and kicked off right away,” Olofsson said. “It’s pretty funny how we’ve both been involved in poker and the Norwegian poker community for so many years but never really met before this.”
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The Pocket Queens Podcast is the result of that meeting, and the concept is straightforward: poker is full of fascinating people, and the game itself is actually the least interesting part of their stories.
Two Careers, One Conversation
The partnership makes more sense the more you know about each of them. Olofsson has spent more than two decades covering live poker, from the early boom years through the modern tournament circuit, and was recently voted into the Swedish Poker Hall of Fame. Karlsen is a player, photographer, and writer who won her first WSOP Circuit Ring last year in Tallinn and brings a creative dimension to everything she does in the game. When they started talking properly, the overlap was immediate.
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“We started talking randomly one day on Messenger and realised how much we have in common,” Olofsson said. “Both single moms, poker players, photographers, working in the industry and both authors.”
For Olofsson, the podcast idea had already been forming. After 20-plus years in poker journalism, she had decided to step away from live reporting and was looking for a new chapter. Being inducted into the Swedish Poker Hall of Fame was the catalyst.
“I was kind of fed up with it at that time and also wanted to finish on top after 20 years,” she said. “But the beautiful words in the nomination actually made me come up with the idea of a podcast and to write the book people have been asking me to do for the past 15 years.”
When Karlsen came along, the pieces fit. Olofsson asked her to co-host. They set up an Instagram account, reached out to trusted people in the industry to gut-check the concept, and got back something close to unanimous enthusiasm. That was enough to commit.
What the Show Is Actually About
The name might suggest a women-in-poker podcast. It is not, or at least not primarily.
“People think this will be a podcast about women in poker and of course we, as women, want to engage more female players into the game, but this podcast will be about people in poker with the poker being the least interesting part,” Olofsson said.
What they want to talk about is everything around the game: the stories, the gossip, the drama, the characters. Not hand histories. Not GTO breakdowns.
“We want to hear and tell their stories. We want to share the gossip, the drama, the action and by that we don’t mean bad beats or hand analysis. Those things you can read in live reports and listen to on so many other poker podcasts out there. We want to do something different, something new.”
The ambition is bigger than the existing poker audience. They want someone who has never played a hand of poker to tune in and find the world compelling. That is a harder target to hit than another strategy show, but it is also the right one if the goal is to actually grow the game’s cultural footprint.
“We want to make poker fun and entertaining because we kind of think it’s lost its spark a little bit,” Olofsson said. “Back in the day when you watched poker on TV, it wasn’t just the best players on there, it was great characters who brought a show.”
Still Getting to Know Each Other
One of the more unusual dynamics about Pocket Queens is that the hosts are genuinely still figuring each other out. Most of the time since the summer has gone into building the brand and creating awareness before launch, which has left little room for the kind of personal conversations that will eventually define the show.
“That’s the funniest part about this. We don’t know each other that well yet and are discovering new things all the time,” Olofsson said.
That is not a problem. It is probably an asset. Audiences tend to sense when a conversation is real, and two hosts who are still learning about each other on-mic is more interesting than a polished double act who have already said everything to each other off it. The dynamic should develop naturally as the episodes roll out.
Both are juggling similar lives: kids, online play, travel, and book projects running in parallel. That shared context makes the practical side of the collaboration easier, and it gives them a built-in shorthand when plans shift.
A pilot episode has not yet dropped, but several high-profile guests have already agreed to appear. When it does launch, the show will have no shortage of material to work with. Between the two of them, they have been in almost every room that matters in poker over the past two decades. Now they are going to start talking about what actually happened in those rooms.
