Do people from France, Germany, Spain etc play online?

[Freudian]

Because pretty much everyone I see online come from USA, Canada, UK and Scandinavia.

[MicroBob]

I've seen some French and German cities on Stars. Not nearly as much as Sweden and Denmark though.
Also on crypto.

Don't know if I've ever seen Spain.

[William]

Try the NL cash games at Stars, plenty of spaniards playing toghether at the same table...

[Duckstabber]

I've also wondered why I see so few people from the countries you mention... Maybe Bet&Win's pokerroom (Big Austrian bookie) draw in a lot of the Germans/Austrians/Swiss players. I've never played there so I don't know though.

I also wonder why the Danes outnumber the Norwegians by such a large margin as they do. Roughly the same population size etc...

[MicroBob]

wtf is that in your avatar?

[Duckstabber]

It's a reference to the EURO 2004 finals (soccer). Denmark and Sweden both needed a 2-2 draw to advance to the next stage which would eliminate Italy. The final result was 2-2 and the Italians couldn't stop whining. /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[MicroBob]

cool.


World Cup needs to change their qualifying structure. That kind of collusion-inducement is bad news.

[kruschel]

Since i am from Germany I can give you a reason for this: Poker is just not very poular over here. 99.9% of the people know poker only from the movies as the 5-card-draw variant and have never heard of Holdem or Stud or anything else.
There is no hype about poker like in the US and so the people are not drawn into online cardrooms.

[UncleDuke]

I've played against a couple from Spain on Crypto. Also a few from France. I'm not sure about Germany.

[pecto]

I'm spanish!!! Here in Spain poker is strting to become popular thanks to Carlos Mortensen and a few others!

[HesseJam]

I'm from Germany. Poker is indeed still quite unknown here but I saw a couple of Germans in the online Poker Rooms. Off shore online gambling is a felony in Germany and can carry a sentence to up to 2 years. It is currently not prosecuted though. A couple of casinos have poker rooms.
Last month or so they began to show Poker on TV. Germans are usually slow in adapting new things but once they get going they'll come in masses. The country is full of gamblers like any other but the major impediment for online poker might be English.

[Zwiggelte]

There are thousands of Dutch (The Netherlands) pokerplayers, who play on Party & Skin and other sites, such as Stars.

[Roland]

[ QUOTE ]
Off shore online gambling is a felony in Germany and can carry a sentence to up to 2 years.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wtf? I'm from Germany too and i didn't even know this. May I ask where you found that bit of information?

[xenthebrain]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Off shore online gambling is a felony in Germany and can carry a sentence to up to 2 years.

[/ QUOTE ]

Wtf? I'm from Germany too and i didn't even know this. May I ask where you found that bit of information?

[/ QUOTE ]

This is bullshit. We don't have clear laws for internet gambling. It's legal at the moment, and we don't have to pay taxes on winnings.

[Roland]

[ QUOTE ]
This is bullshit. We don't have clear laws for internet gambling. It's legal at the moment, and we don't have to pay taxes on winnings.

[/ QUOTE ]

Thanks for clarifying. That’s good news. Whew.

[solucky]

hehehe if poker is legal in germany. What is the reason that u can play it only in official casinos ??? It is defined as NOT SKILLBASED, and i doubt its legal here. But so far noone try to bring someone to a courthouse........and yes many germans play poker.....i know myself 15 personal

[SoftcoreRevolt]

Can you post the lyrics to the German national anthem so I can sing it while I move to your wonderful European utopia with no tax on online poker?

[solucky]

So far only in scandinavia no tax. Germany perhaps no tax , guess the chance that it is taxfree is around 75%.

[Hung]

Maybe because you play during another time zone.
Scandinavians play mostly on prima.
A lot of French players on VC, a lot of Dutch players on Everest.

[Tann]

There are a few hundred Hungarians playing poker online. The number increased since last autumn, when Sport1 channel started to broadcast poker tournaments.

I met players from Russia, Slovenia, Croatia, Poland, Lithuania, China as well.

[solucky]

I also wonder why the Danes outnumber the Norwegians by such a large margin as they do. Roughly the same population size etc...

Like i told a few times ago, i gambled before backgammon. And nearly all backgammonplayers i know move to poker. Denmark have a nationwide backgammon-league ( only in the world) so you have a network from gamblers.......and i am sure POKER is the topic nr.1 there

[zaphod]

[ QUOTE ]
I also wonder why the Danes outnumber the Norwegians by such a large margin as they do. Roughly the same population size etc...

Like i told a few times ago, i gambled before backgammon. And nearly all backgammonplayers i know move to poker. Denmark have a nationwide backgammon-league ( only in the world) so you have a network from gamblers.......and i am sure POKER is the topic nr.1 there

[/ QUOTE ]

I come from Norway. Poker has been quite a hot in Norway lately. But i guess your observation that Norwegians are outnumbered by Danes are correct. Maybee you gave the answer yourself: Recruitment from backgammon.

I have myself been playing lots of backgammon the last few years, but have the last year played mainly poker. Lots of other backgammon players have done the same too. But in Norway the number of backgammon players are much smaller than Denmark. Currently there are less than 200 registered players on the Norwegian ratinglist, while Denmark have 1000. Sure poker players are recruited from other groups too, but maybee that is part of the explanation?

[poker-penguin]

[ QUOTE ]
cool.


World Cup needs to change their qualifying structure. That kind of collusion-inducement is bad news.

[/ QUOTE ]

*Sigh* You Americans are so funny.

Euro 2004 is the european championship, happens two years after the world cup.

Basically, Euro04 had four pools of four teams, round robin, top two in each pool progressed. As is the case when three decent teams are trying to squeeze into two playoff spots, it all came down to the last game. Teams are ranked on points (3 for a win, 1 for a draw) then goal difference, then goals scored (I believe).

Anyway, the italians ended up on 4 points, sweden and denmark both had three coming in to their last game against each other. A draw would leave all three teams on 4 points. A 2-2 draw (or better I suspect, but really, when's a 3-3 draw ever happen in soccer) would give the Swedes and the Danes more goals scored than the boring Italians.

A 2-2 draw happened and the rest of the world laughed. I had money on a 2-2 draw, just to piss off an italian friend of mine, and it paid off big time.

Fans will always complain, in any sport, if the result of another team's game screws them.

Plus, the Italians know a thing or two about putting the fix on (check out about 1/4 of the Serie A matches at the end of the season - dodgy).