Norway

Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe with approximately 5.5 million inhabitants in 2023. Norway shares the Scandinavian Peninsula with Sweden and Finland. Norway’s coastline is famous for its fjords (Norwegian: fyords), which are sea inlets between steep cliffs. The capital and largest city in Norway is Oslo. Its official language is Norwegian but the Norwegian languages share mutual intelligibility with Danish and Swedish. Norway maintains close ties with both the European Union and the United States. Norway is also a founding member of the United Nations, NATO, the European Free Trade Association, the Council of Europe, the Antarctic Treaty, and the Nordic Council; a member of the European Economic Area, the WTO, and the OECD; and a part of the Schengen Area.

Vikings and the northern lights
And when you think of Norway you’ll probably imagine brutal Vikings in the Viking Age or maybe the Holy Grail of skywatching the northern lights. Many cities in Norway offer amazing chances to see the northern lights, or the aurora borealis, between mid-September to early April.

Norske spillekort - spillekort Norge

The impact of the Viking culture can be found throughout Norway, even in the card games they play. Vikings had to be quick thinkers, and so do the players of traditional Norwegian card games like Binglao the Norwegian variant of Omaha poker, Gris the Norwegian version of Pig, Stardam the Norwegian version of Hearts, or Vri åtter the Norwegian version of Crazy Eights/ Poker Is very popular in Norway, this European poker nation has put out some great poker players into the world like the 2022 Norwegian World Poker Champion, winner of the 2022 $10,000 No Limit Hold'em - WSOP Main Event Espen Uhlen Jørstad, or Annette Obrestad, Trond Eidsvig, Johnny Lodden, or Felix Vincent Stephensen.

In Norway, poker is often played with playing cards from one of the following card brands: COPAG, Fournier or Modiano. The poker cards of the European Poker Tour (EPT) and World Series of Poker (WSOP) are especially popular in this Scandinavian country. But playing cards from Bee and collectible playing cards from Bicycle and theory11 are also in great demand in Norway.

To experience Norway’s iconic card games for yourself, visit playingcardshop.eu to find our complete range of Norwegian playing cards. Order at our playing card shop on working days before 4:30pm, shipped on same day! All playing cards are shipped daily to Norway with the Dutch postal company PostNL.

Quote by Roald Dahl: “Life is more fun if you play games.”