Across the Pond: London Welcomes World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker brings its circus to London for the second time starting today, and there will not be a shortage of European players who have used the WSOP to stage the U.S. invasion.

It should be no surprise that Europeans are elbowing Americans off the poker ladder, after all, online gambling is legal in many of the member countries of the European Union, and players there are taking full advantage of online qualifiers to live events offered through the sites.

Take PokerStars' European Poker Tour, a very successful televised series that has seriously grown since its inaugural event in September of 2004, as an example. Its first event attracted 229 players back in 2004. The same event held this season, which was held from Sept. 10-14, attracted 619 players.

And take these numbers for consideration: This year, a dozen European players left Las Vegas carrying WSOP bracelet, which was a new high, continuing with the success from 2007.

And to further help along the popularity in Europe, the main event, with its whopper of a buy-in of $19,600 (thanks to the poor exchange rate), was won by wonder-kid Annette “Annette_13” Obrestad, who did it one day before her 19th birthday.

When Obrestad won, her story appeared in main-stream newspapers around the globe, planting seeds of poker stardom is young players all through Europe.

And don’t forget what players like Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius and David Ulliot did for the game. Both these players represent toughness and brashness that many players – European or not – feel a kinship too. Helping the cause also is the success of these young European stars:

• Sebastian Ruthenberg With more than $2.6 million in tournament winnings since he finished third in the EPT German Open in 2007, this German player is proving he belongs on a list of some of the world’s best. He just won the EPT Barcelona Open and its $1.9 million prize last week.
• Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier Hailing from France, Grospellier’s $2.7 million in tournament winnings since 2006 includes five final tables in major events, including a victory at the EPT’s Caribbean Adventure in January this year.
• Dario Minieri The scarf-wearing Italian is famous for the massive amount of time he’s played online (he was the first player in PokerStars’ history to chalk up enough FPP’s to buy a Porsche) and losing a massive chips lead at the 2007 WSOP main event. He has more than $1.2 million in live tournament winnings, and was one of those Europeans to win a WSOP bracelet in 2008 ($2,300 six-player hold’em event)
• Luca Pagano is an EPT monster. The Hungarian player cashed in nine EPT events, but never did better than third place. He cashed once at this year’s WSOP.
• Mark Teltscher, of the UK, has more than $2.5 million in tournament winnings, and when he makes the final table, you could bet on it that he’ll be one of the last remaining. Teltscher has two victories, two runner-ups and a third place finish in five final tables he made since 2005.

WSOPE first of its four events started today and ends Oct. 2.

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