Interesting Article...

roryc

Overrated Europeans Need to Shape Up
By Erik Sylven


Many poker authorities expect great things from the European stars at the 2006 World Series of Poker. But so far - nothing. No bracelets, no top three finishes, and in total, with six open events played, only four out of 51 final table seats have gone to Europeans. Sure, it's still early days in the 2006 WSOP, but the Englishmen, Swedes, and Italians need to shape up. If they don't, there won't be much to celebrate in the old country this summer. At least not when it comes to poker.

A lot of people will be disappointed if the Europeans don't improve their meager results. Top player Liz Lieu praised the Europeans in a video interview with PokerListings.com. Englishman Andrew Black :mad: who finished fifth in the main event last year, had great hopes for the Scandinavian players:

"I'd be surprised if the Scandinavians don't come through this year. There are a lot of fearless young Scandinavians, and although they didn't do well last year, you'd expect out of the pool of them at least one will break through," Black told PokerListings.com.

So far in the 2006 WSOP, the Dane Lars Hansen's eighth place in the $1,500 Limit Hold'em event is the best Scandinavian performance. In fact, that's the best European performance of all this year.

The Europeans have performed badly in general, but there's one exception, Spain's Carlos Mortensen. "The Matador" has done very well and reached two final tables already, in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event, and in the $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em event. However, the World Champion from 2001 has been the first player to leave the final table both times. And, as mentioned, aside from Mortensen, there hasn't been much to cheer about for the Europeans.

Maybe it's too soon to write the Europeans off and say that this year's WSOP will be a fiasco on their part. Maybe some of the best players from Europe haven't arrived in Las Vegas yet. Maybe they've just had some bad luck in the first few events. Maybe these results are normal when you consider that a vast majority of the players that enters the WSOP events come from the US.

There's still a lot of poker to play at the 2006 WSOP, and we'll see how things progress, but I actually don't think that the Europeans will do much better than this. I think they're overrated. They will probably win a bracelet or two, but that's it. Poker as we know it today is an American game - it's has always been an American game, and it will be an American game for many years to come. The European players just have to prove me wrong. And they won't do that by bragging about how much they have won on the Internet or by calling American online players fish. They'll do that by winning tournaments at the World Series of Poker.

Statistics from the 2006 World Series of Poker - after six open events

Winners

and then the fcuker cracks my aces on the river!!??!! fcuking FISH!!!:mad: :mad: :mad:

USA: 5
Australia: 1
Europe: 0
Top Three Finishes

USA: 16
Australia: 2
Europe: 0
Final Table Appearances

USA: 43
Europe: 4
Australia: 2
Other countries: 2
Europeans on the all-time money list (top 50)

25) Carlos Mortensen, Spain.
32) Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliott, England.
36) Gus Hansen, Denmark.
39) Martin De Knijff, Sweden.
43) Surinder Sonar, England.
47) Marcel Luske, Netherlands.
50) Maciek Gracz, Poland.
European poker world champions

2001 - Carlos Mortensen, Spain.
1999 - Noel Furlong, Ireland.
1990 - Mansor Matloubi, Wales.

Hitman Actual

roryc wrote:

Englishman Andrew Black :mad:

Boooooooooooooooo!

Anyway this article has no relevance without giving the ratio of Europeans to non-Europeans playing so far. Seems like another "America is the only superpower left in the world" rant.

Ollieboy

sure its 9.5 yanks per the rest of the world.....

and its only the first week, most dont head till this week. They didnt dominated the main event last year and thats the proof in the pudding.

loosecannon

rory, i presume that when u said 'interesting' article that you meant what a BULLS*!T article!!!! lol

roryc

clearly... I havent posted in a while, did the sarcasmeters get an upgrade while I was away

Im used to the english claiming Irish winners as their own, but its a new one seeing the US follow suit

Thats an interesting figure Ollie, do you mean Americans outnumber non-Americans by 9.5 to 1 yes? I would have thought it was more tbh...

robinlacey

what a stupid article
using a sample size of the first few events in one world series to judge how a continent performs is totally ridiculous,even without taking into account the ratio of americans to europeans competing...

the idea of calling them overrated based on their tournament performance is also ridiculous-a lot of the players in the highest stakes cash games online seem to be european,or more specifically scandinavian,and it is these games that are the real test of someones nl holdem ability,not the world series...

ocallagh

i don't get it...?? where's the bad beat?

roryc

its in there... its a hidden one

ocallagh

roryc wrote:

its in there... its a hidden one

ahhhhh... that's better!

cardshark202

Well Marcel Luske is on the FT of the 5k NLH event and he has luckboxed his way to the chip lead. So here's hoping for Marcel to take it down.