What's up with Swedish/Norweigen players???

[jusander]

Scandinavian countries have very high standards for education and that sort of stuff. People are not superstitious and religions have rather small part. Scandinavian people understand the point; you want to be good, you have to train.

And this goes for all scandinavian countries, poker is just so much bigger in Sweden than in Finland or Norway, so that's why Swedes are little a head now. In Finland poker is just starting to grow (WPT started this autumn) and if I'm not totally wrong (I very well may be), poker is illegal in Norway.

[CardSharpCook]

nice post. I've always thought along the same lines in explaining European success in Pstars tourneys (the only site that gives location.) I doubt collusion is a factor or computer hacking or whatever else conspiracy theorists like Indiana come up with. The European players we are exposed to just play better poker. They don't pull donk moves, and they make +EV plays all the time.

[Tom Bayes]

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The European players we are exposed to just play better poker. They don't pull donk moves, and they make +EV plays all the time.

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While I agree with the basic premise that the elite Scandanavian players seem to be doing disproportionately well in the big tourneys and high-stakes online games, there are plenty of Swedish/Norwegian donks as well. I've played many low-stakes tourneys at 24hPoker, where almost all of the players are Scandanavian. The €5 buy-in Swedish players are just as donkish as the $5 buy-in American players at Stars and Party. I've played Omaha H/L and 2-7 Triple Draw games at 24h where half the players don't even understand the rules of the game-not understanding that the low takes half the pot in a H/L game or not knowing that deuce-to-seven is a lowball game.

[Arnfinn Madsen]

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The €5 buy-in Swedish players are just as donkish as the $5 buy-in American players at Stars and Party.

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Definately, they are even donkier. Poker boom now in Scandinavia, with people with starting out in $5-tournies without knowing if flush beats straight [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img].