Scandinavian Poker Success: Again a Search for an Explanation

As Conrad Brunner wrote in a column for Card Player Europe in 2005, in which he tried to analyse and understand Scandinavians' success at poker, "It's not that the Scandinavians are fundamentally superior as poker players. In fact, I am convinced that if you take away their wealth, intellect, intuition, and competitive instinct, they are really no better than the rest of us."

In the World Series of Poker this year, the Scandinavian countries combined contributed the second- or third-most participants in the main event. I find this astounding, since our collective population is about that of the city of New York.



Let me come with my own explanatory model – from a Scandinavian perspective. But first, let's start with another quote from Conrad Brunner's column: "Finland has been judged to have the world's most competitive economy by the World Economic Forum, despite the fact that Finnish working hours are among the lowest in Europe. Norway, described by the CIA World Factbook as having 'arguably the highest quality of life worldwide,' is the world's third-largest exporter of oil after Saudi Arabia and Russia. Denmark spends more on education than any other country in the world, and has the cleanest seas in Europe. Sweden … boasts the world's highest Internet penetration – 73 percent. All four of the Nordic nations enjoy 100 percent literacy rates and take the bottom four places in the international crime figures league table."



We do have a well-functioning economic society, and Scandinavian nations are well off in most ways. But we also have one of the world's highest taxes, combined with relatively low wages for the higher educated, which makes it practically impossible to work your way to a fortune. But winning it through gambling is possible – which makes us a gambling kind of people. And since poker is classified as a lottery(!) by the tax department, and based on the premise that we play within the European Union, all winnings are tax exempt. And we do love it.

As Brunner wrote, we do have an exceptionally high educational level, partly as a consequence of the tax situation that to some extent finances the furthering of our education – if we so choose to further it. In reality, we have an educational system with 11-12 years of elementary education, and lots of people go on to the university (which also is free). This means that almost everyone can read and write English decently; we are quite shy and prefer not to speak English, and our pronunciation is a bit weird, but when it comes to understanding the written form, we are quite up to par. In other words, we are free to assimilate all of the knowledge of poker that is written in books and on the Internet fast and efficiently, not needing to wait for a translation. And the common use of the Internet – again an effect of the high taxes spent on subsidising computers in most Swedish homes – means that three-quarters of the population is connected to the Net. The conclusion of all of this is, the reason we Scandinavians are successful poker players is our tax situation!

So, what is the current poker situation in Scandinavia?

There's not very much, as almost everyone with some interest in poker headed to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker. Hopefully, I will have some very fine results to report in the next issue. In fact, most clubs closed during July and opened up in the latter part of August.

The one thing I have to come back to is a club I wrote about a few issues ago. It had to close down because of a visit from the police. We are now on our way to court at this moment and I hope to present details of the acquitting verdict. The prosecution, in short, said the club had served beer and spirits without proper permission, but the prosecutor couldn't prove that, so that part has been closed (although the organizer was prosecuted for possessing large quantities of alcohol!). The prosecution for illegal gambling was also closed, since the club didn't arrange cash games, just freezeout tourneys, which obviously falls under a lesser law – the illegal lottery act.

Ola Brandborn is a writer and blogger for poker.se.