You might not be aware of this, but from 1814 to 1905, Sweden and Norway were united. Not only did they have a common king, but also foreign politics. So, why did we Swedes agree to this secession? Not only is Norway rich nowadays due to oil, but it also dominates the European poker rooms!
Both the
EPT Barcelona and the
EPT London are finished, and Norway so far has been the best country. In Barcelona, Björn-Erik Glenne won, and in London, Jan Sjavik came in third. Both are very merited players: Glenne won the
Norwegian Championships, and Sjavik's list of winnings are truly impressive.
Let's look at some statistics: In the
EPT Barcelona, there was a total of 103 Swedes in a field of 480 players. Norway was in third place with 45 participants, after the United Kingdom with its 70 players. Spain managed to squeeze in at seventh place with 19 participants. About 40 percent of the players were Scandinavians.
In London, the representation was a bit more logical, with lots of Englishmen, but even so, Sweden managed to squeeze in at second place when counting countries' representation. Even there, 25 percent of the players were from Scandinavia. To put some kind of perspective on these figures, the city of London and its surrounding suburbs have a population of the combined Swedish and Norwegian population.
If you plan on entering the
EPT Copenhagen this January, I strongly recommend that you register in good time - as the prognosis is that more than two-thirds of the field will be Scandinavians!
And by the way, can someone please explain to me why on God's green earth the game started at 17:00 in Barcelona and continued until 5 in the morning? It sure was not to lure some local players; if one can afford to put up €5,000 for a tournament, one can also surely afford one or two days of vacation from work. Just think of the poor players; at 5 o'clock in the morning, there is not a single player who is performing at the top of his game. Why not just start the tourney at 12:00 and let it end at a more decent time, 24:00, instead?
Upcoming in Scandinavia
The poker cruise between Finland and Sweden that I wrote about in an earlier
Card Player Europe was a great success; a whole month before departure, the tournament was sold out! A total of 300 players (100 from Finland and 200 Swedes) played in the tournament. The winner after almost 12 hours of intense play was Helena Forsell, a notorious player from Stockholm. After that success, more tournaments on board are on their way by PokerEvent, not only between Sweden and Finland, but also between Norway and Denmark. The next one scheduled for Nov. 18 sold out the first day after the ticket release. Let's face it, the concept of party till you drop on a poker cruise is a hit. Read more about that at www.pokercruise.eu.
The
Nordic Masters was moved from Grebbestad in Sweden to Gdansk in Poland. I really can't say that I have an insight as to why exactly the event was moved, but one can only suspect that the police and the lottery commission had something to do with it. It is really sad not being able to play an open contest in one's own country, if one does not want to be confined to the state casinos. Anyway, it should be a decent
Nordic Masters, as it is being sanctioned by all four Nordic poker federations. The buy-in is set at €2,500, including flight from Stockholm, hotel, and food. I already won a satellite on 24hpoker.com,so game on; see you at the
Nordic Masters!
Ola Brandborn is a blogger and writer for www.Poker.se
