Scandinavian shores are home to some of the biggest names on the continent and, even the world
A few years ago, if you were asked to name a handful of top Scandinavian poker stars, you might have been left scratching your head. Of course, Denmark’s Gus Hansen has been a big feature in the poker world for some time now – but who else? Today, the invasion of players from Nordic shores is growing at a fast and furious rate. From Sweden, Erik Sagstrom and Bengt Sonnert have torn up the form book with their astonishing rise through the online ranks. Norwegian star Johnny Lodden has earned a similar reputation for his ultra-aggressive style, while Finland’s Patrik Antonius is now a regular at the Big Game in Las Vegas and is widely considered to be one of the most feared live players on the planet.
Aggressive Scandinavian play has become something of a poker cliché over the past few years, thanks in part to the phenomenal success of the fearless Hansen. But to talk only of the aggression factor does an injustice to the outstanding record of players from a region with around 40% of the population of the UK. The results speak for themselves. This year alone 23-year old Norwegian player Andreas Walnum and Danish stamp collector Christian Grundtvig have taken down WPT titles, while Swedish online qualifier Erik Friberg made the final table of the WSOP Main Event.
Live and let live
If further proof was needed to back up these rich claims of the Scandinavian rise, you need look no further than the nationalities of the players in recent EPT seasons. In Barcelona, over 40% of the field hailed from either Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, so it was hardly surprising that the eventual winner was a Norwegian called Bjorn-Erik Glenne. Glenne went into the final heads-up against Phil Ivey with a 4-1 chip lead and needed only a few hands to dispatch him.
The standard of poker which the Scandinavians have reached as a whole is particularly impressive considering the strict laws involving live play. In Norway, playing live games for money is completely illegal. ‘Six months ago, there used to be a couple of poker clubs around the Oslo area, but now most of them have shut down,’ says Glenne. ‘I’m privileged in that I get to travel around and play in big tournaments in Europe and the US. The Norwegian government is simply against everything that’s fun: alcohol, gambling, cars – everything.
Ladbrokes’ Nordic PR manager Joakim Rönngren is inclined to agree with Glenne’s comments, saying: ‘Finland and Norway have an amazingly intolerant point of view and are still using every means of aggression to work against the wishes of the individual.’ Rönngren adds that even the more tolerant Danes and Swedes are not averse to raiding clubs from time to time to counter the issue.
According to Bo Sehlstedt, who runs one of Sweden’s largest poker forums at www.wsop.info, a court battle following a recent raid may clear up what has been a grey area for some time now. ‘The law is that only government-owned casinos are allowed to arrange games,’ he says. ‘In practice, the police have tended to let the local club games go. This time it was a very clean club which was just running a tournament, not cash games or anything like that. We’re kind of waiting to see what’s going to happen. Pretty soon there’s going to be a trial to see what the situation really is – because nobody really knows.’
Model citizens
The ambiguity in the law doesn’t seem to have put off the Nordic players’ desire for live poker though. London-based Purple Lounge has just completed a ten-date tour of Norway, attracting over 5,000 players. Such was the success, Purple Lounge already has a similar tour planned for Sweden, scheduled to run from June to August in 2007.
You’d think that such operations would have to be conducted under a cover of darkness, but Marketing Director, Julia Wild, explains how it was done. ‘In Norway we set up the whole thing as a freeroll, offering prizes instead of cash,’ she says. ‘We then trained top models to be poker dealers. We had a good response from players saying that it was the first time anyone had ever done anything different in Norway. They are so aware of the fact that it is illegal to play for money that they’re actually quite scared to do it and equally worried about admitting it.’
Scandinavian players are also notoriously cagey about admitting what online sites they play on. Strict tax laws are the root cause. Sehlstedt, who used to be a full-time poker player, is happy to admit he earned over $200,000 in his first year of playing online, but remains tight-lipped about where, saying: ‘I think the situation is a little easier in Sweden than it is in other Scandinavian countries, but the situation in terms of tax isn’t very clear. Basically, if you play on sites like PokerStars – which aren’t based in the EU – you’re supposed to pay ridiculous amounts of tax. If tax authorities put pressure on you, then basically you can go bankrupt. The tax situation is even tougher in Denmark.’
Look to the future
Getting taxed around 70% can be very painful if you’ve won $1 million in one month like a 20- year old Swedish whiz-kid who goes by the name Texas Limit King (TLK) is rumoured to have done. You’d do pretty much anything to make sure no one ever found out where you plied your trade. Sehlstedt is confident, whatever tax laws governments try to impose, that too many players have caught the bug. ‘When I started playing there was a common misconception that it was all about luck. But a lot more young people are turning to it as a way of life now.’
Naturally, the more young people who are playing, the more likely it is that the EPT heroics of players like Antonius and Glenne will be repeated. Competition is something that the Scandinavians thrive on and successful competitors could be the key. ‘One single win won’t turn it around so the more success stories we can provide the better,’ says Glenne. ‘The legal situation is not likely to change in the next few years, but eventually there will be a casino in Norway. The biggest poker nation is the US, but Sweden is probably number two, penetration wise, and Norway could be number three. We are not there yet, but poker is still growing.’ And, with a new generation of players waiting to break through, it’s possible we haven’t seen anything yet from the Nordic players. Now that’s a terrifying thought for the rest of Europe.
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