Congrats to the Europeans!

For those of us who are used to the regular 300- or 400-player fields at European tournaments, it is truly amazing to see that almost 8,800 players are willing to put up $10,000 to play a little poker. After this absolutely massive main event at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, most European players headed back to Europe again – to focus on the start of the third season of the EPT, for instance.



How did these Europeans do? Well, I guess it is the old question, "Is the glass half full or half empty?" Pessimists will point to the fact that the final stages of the big events were dominated by Americans. They will also point to the fact that many of the absolute top favorites from Europe have (again) been unable to return with any bracelets.



Being one of the optimists, I prefer to look at the good side of things. What about the win of one of the nicest guys from England, John Gale, who took the $2,500 pot-limit hold'em event. Having eliminated both Joe Hachem and former chip leader Kevin Ho, he eventually beat Maros Lechman heads up for a $374,849 first prize. Or, what about John's fellow countryman, Stuart Fox. This man from Birmingham managed to come very close to a bracelet two times, taking third in the $5,000 pot-limit hold'em event and second in a $1,500 no-limit hold'em tournament. And then there was the amazing win for Italian Max Pescatori, on the same day that Italy won the soccer world championship. He won the $2,500 no-limit hold'em freezeout event, with no fewer than 1,290 entrants, for a first prize of almost $700,000. And in one of the most exciting finals of this Series, in the $5,000 no-limit hold'em event, we even had two major European trumps at the final table – Marcel Luske and Isabelle Mercier. At a final table where Phil Hellmuth was battling for his 10th bracelet (which he would win a few days later), it was Jeff Cabanillas who beat them all. And then there was the last event of all, $1,500 no-limit hold'em – won by Anders Henriksson from Stockholm for just over $200,000.



Even with the staggering $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. event in the tournament schedule (where Patrik Antonius finished ninth), the $10,000 no-limit hold'em championship is, of course, still the main event. With a record field and a relatively large number of Europeans, there were no fewer than nine Europeans left among the final 50 players. Erik Friberg from Sweden even seemed like a large favorite to win it, as he was second in chips on the days preceding the final table. He managed to finish in eighth place, for $1,979,189 – earning him by far the largest payout for a European player at this Series. The first prize, a staggering $12 million, went to Jamie Gold.



All in all, with big paydays in this WSOP for (among others) Julian Gardner, Steve Wong, Padraig Parkinson, Age Spets, and Kirill Gerasimov, we cannot complain, I guess – especially if you add to that the main-event cashes for John Magill (12th), William Thorson (13th), Italy-based Jeff Lisandro (17th), and, a bit more distant, people like Richard Gryko, Mikael Thuritz, and my buddy Marc Friedmann from Switzerland (39th). In my opinion, I think this adds up to a rather impressive list. Congrats!