A Look At The Top Five Swedish Poker Players Of All Time

In the last two decades, we’ve seen the Swedes take home multiple poker bracelets. Martin Jacobson won $10M the WSOP main event. A win that saw him become 888Poker’s brand ambassador. This gentleman has cashed in at least $12M (from the WSOP alone) and he’s not the only Swede on the big list. Here are the top 5 Swedish Poker players of all time. This is the nation’s hall of fame.

Martin Jacobson

Throughout his career, Martin has won 16 monetary rewards from WSOP and has sat on the finals table 5 times. He became popular in 2014 after taking home the coveted gold bracelet. It’s never about the money, at least for Martin. He plays for fun and the monetary rewards are a bonus. He would spend time playing poker with friends – as a social event. This was in 2004 when the poker Buzz hit Sweden. He thinks of poker as a strategy game where he was able to considerably improve his technique after learning the game. He doesn’t believe that poker is a game of luck – tied to the cards in front of you – as we all do. Martin is at the top of the All-time money list with $17,040,135 won throughout his career. His most recent win was on Sept this year (2020) where he won $2,306 at WSOP online.

Chris Bjorn

Chris is the first runners up with $5.76M won throughout his career. He was born in 1947 when gambling was frowned upon. While he had a “respectable” career, he was paying bills from gambling proceeds. When Poker became mainstream, he made it a full-time career. He moved to England in the early 80s where the no Limits Hold ‘Em became his favourite poker variant. While Chris had many trophies to his name, his first big win was in 1997 where he earned his first WSOP bracelet and $1,500. He’s won numerous challenges and his biggest single win was in 2000 where he won $334K at the WSOP main event.

Michael Tureniec

Mike has made at least $5.11M in his poker career in the 103 “official” tournaments he’s taken part in. His last win was a $4,900 at a live game online early this year. He’s the 3rd best Swedish poker player and number 244 worldwide. His largest single win was just under $1M at a live tournament.

Martin De Knijff

Martin is a lucky first name. There are numerous Swedish poker stars with this name. De Knijff has made at least $3.8M from his poker career making him the 4th most successful Swedish poker player of all time. He’s been out of the game for some time now and his last appearance at a tournament was in late 2018. De Knijff (or the Knife as he’s known) is the 368th best poker player internationally. His largest single win was $2.7M in 2004. That’s a lot of money; even to a champion like Martin. Aside from playing poker, Martin is a commendable athlete and was the youngest player to receive the “Bridge of Life Master” status at 21 years.

Johan Storakers

Johan is the 5th most successful Swedish poker players with $3.7M in winnings. This 35-year-old was in the military service before becoming a full-time poker player. He had worked in retail jobs too as a salesman. Johan has been to 41 professional poker tournaments and has been at the WSOP 12 times. His most recent win was $36K at the 2020 Helsinki freezeout where he was in second place. Even though Storakers is yet to win a WSOP bracelet, he has won numerous No limit Hold ’Em tournaments.

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