Scandinavian News

Readers with good memory might recall that last month, Card Player wrote about the Swedish National Championship and the uncertainty of legal poker in Denmark. There is plenty of news on both of these topics for this month's column, and some other major live tournaments have been held as well.

Swedish Championship, Revisited

Swedes wanting to become national poker champion have twice as many chances as others do. This is because the Swedish Poker Federation arranges annual championships during spring, with state-owned Casino Cosmopol hosting its own version about a month later. It is not a situation the players are happy with, as it creates massive amounts of confusion when most consider the first victor the real champion but the media doesn't. The Federation has filed a trademark lawsuit but does not appear to have much of a chance in court, especially after one of its board members decided to play in the Casino championships, spurring heated debates online about sponsorship and loyalty.

Either way, the latter championships concluded on June 6, with Christer Lagerström eventually winning about €100,000 and gaining bragging rights until next year. Robin Sevastik, equally previously unknown to the Swedish poker
public, finished second after his 9-8 didn't hold up against Christer's 7-6 on the 10-9-7-7 board.

Danish Poker Law Also Revisited

Frederik Hostrup-Pedersen, chairman of the Danish Poker Federation, challenged the Danish gambling monopoly by holding buy-in tournaments throughout Denmark in 2006, something for which he was later trialled. To the surprise of many, he won the first battle with the state (or, rather, with the casino federation owned by the state), but equilibrium appeared to have been restored when an appellation court reversed the judgement a few months later. As of May, however, it appears to be legal to arrange poker tournaments, as the Danish high court has decided to permit an appeal from Hostrup-Pedersen. This does not in itself make arranging poker tournaments legal, but until another verdict comes, it will be in the meantime.

This would make Denmark the first Nordic country to legalise some aspect of live poker playing -- all five have national monopolies and very similar laws on gambling. It is considered a crime to arrange or profit from a poker tournament or cash game, although playing in them is usually fine. The logic behind this is that you are, as an adult, free to lose all of your money should you choose to do so, but you must not encourage others to do the same. It is even a crime to let somebody host tournaments or cash games on your premises, assuming you did so knowingly. Hostrup-Pedersen is charged with this as well, and similar laws have led to verdicts in both Iceland and Sweden recently.

Other Tournaments

The Finland-Sweden Athletics International is a track and field event held annually between Finland and Sweden since 1945, making it the only one of its kind. Although it receives very little international recognition, it is a big event in both countries, and enthusiasts decided in 2006 to hold a poker version as well. One hundred players from each country represent their colours thrice annually as they play in tournaments in which they receive prize money and the countries get ranking points depending on how players fare. For legal reasons, the event is held in Tallinn, the Estonian capital. The first tournament of the season, with a €440 buy-in, was concluded during May. The Finnish players seemed intent on continuing their domination established two years back, and after two days of play, the top three players all came from Finland. Eventually, the final score was 1,658 Finnish points to a measly 814 Swedish points. Will there be revenge for Sweden next time? Erik Eklund presumably hopes not, as he won this time for his native Finland.

Those who didn't go to Estonia went to Barcelona for the Nordic Top Pair Competition, although they did have to qualify in Tallinn first. The event, the first of its kind, was a team tournament with two-player teams competing for a grand prize of $150,000. In order to reach the top, they had to qualify online, then play in national finals held in Tallinn, and eventually best their competitors in the Barcelona finals. Unlike in the "Finnish struggle," as the abovementioned tournament is referred to in Sweden, the Swedish team "2Kahunas" (consisting of Tobias Larsen and Rami Kreivi) wreaked havoc on its rivals and finished with 62 points out of a maximum 80 when all eight tournaments had been played -- something the organisers thought was practically impossible.

Joel Hinz is a freelance poker journalist.