There is something really incredible about the Nordics. The delicious food, the diverse scenery, the melodic languages spoken in the countries comprising the region are just a few of the things that add to its charm. The Casino News Daily team has a soft spot for everything Scandinavian and we simply cannot hold it to ourselves.
And poker is another thing we have a soft spot for. It can be said that back in the 2000s, Scandinavian players brought to the European and the global poker scene a somewhat different and daring style of play. A style that, to many old-school players, was a bit too aggressive and too intimidating. But also a style that proved to generate huge profits to those who opted for it. And those same players also contributed significantly to the global explosion of online poker, playing and slaying high stakes cash games at online poker rooms.
If you ask non-Scandinavian players about their opinion about players from Europe’s northernmost portion, intelligence, perfect tilt control, and aggressive moves will certainly be among the features mentioned in relation to Scandinavian players and their style of playing.
To celebrate some of poker’s biggest and to once again indulge its taste for everything Scandinavian, Casino News Daily has compiled a list of some of the most successful poker players to be hailing from that region.
Denmark
Peter Eastgate
With live tournament earnings of $11,131,450, Eastgate is his homeland’s most profitable poker player. Most of his winnings came from a single event – the 2008 WSOP $10,000 Championship, which he won to collect $9,152,416 in prize money. Eastgate was only only 22 when he took down the world’s most prestigious No-Limit Hold’em event and was actually the youngest player to have ever won it before that. He was surpassed by Joe Cada the very next year.
Eastgate ran pretty deep in other major tournaments in the years after his WSOP Main Event victory. In 2009, he won a $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em during that year’s edition of the PCA. He collected $343,000 for his efforts. The Dane also finished second in the 2009 EPT London £5,250 Main Event for £530,000.
According to his HendonMob profile, Eastgate has not cashed in a live tournament since May 2013, when he finished 90th in an ISPT event in London.
Gus Hansen
Hansen’s live tournament earnings total $10,258,051. It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Great Dane is probably his home country’s most popular poker player. Hansen is one of the handful of players to have won three WPT Main Tour Main Event titles since the series’ inception. His portfolio also includes a WSOP gold bracelet and a 2007 Aussie Millions Main Event.
Hansen was also quite active online, playing high stakes cash games at different online poker rooms. At first, the Great Dane accumulated millions, which he then lost. Hansen’s hyper-aggressive style was not that common back in the days, which explained why he quickly generated profits online. However, as the game grew in popularity, so did the number of those who excelled in poker, hence Hansen’s later hardships.
Frederik Jensen
Jensen boasts live tournament earnings of $3,806,435. The player collected his largest ever live cash in 2010 when he finished runner-up to Tyron Krost in the Aussie Millions Main Event for A$1.1 million (approximately $1.015 million).
Jensen is also a one-time EPT Main Event champion. In the spring of 2012, the Danish player topped the field of the €5,300 buy-in EPT Madrid Main Event, good for €495,000 in prize money. Two years later, he finished first in the Unibet Open Copenhagen DKK8,250 Main Event.
Finland
Patrik Antonius
Antonius is one of poker’s biggest. The player’s live poker bankroll amounts to more than $10.6 million and is growing by the day. Most recently, Antonius finished runner-up to Justin Bonomo in the invitational Super High Roller Bowl China.
The HK$2,100,000 buy-in tournament took place at Babylon Casino in Macau on March 20-22 and saw 75 of the world’s greatest clash against each other for the title and the first-place prize of more than $4.8 million. Antonius finished second in the major tournament for his career’s largest cash of $3,153,551.
While the Finn has demonstrated great performance on the tournament circuit, cash games are really what he excels in. He has been playing live and online cash games for long time now and these have won him millions of dollars.
Juha Helppi
Helppi is another representative of Finnish and Scandinavian poker’s finest. The player boasts live tournament earnings of $7,194,813. Helppi scooped his largest live tournament cash in 2015 when he finished second in the EPT Season 12 Malta €25,750 High Roller 8-Handed for €354,440. The player missed the title to Canada’s Mike McDonald.
Most recently, Helppi emerged victorious over a field of 226 entries in the Kings of Tallinn Main Event. The player collected €62,000 for being the last man standing.
Jani Sointula
With live tournament earnings of $2,842,473, Sointula rounds out his homeland’s podium of most profitable poker pros. While the Finn has not cashed since 2016, his performance on the live tournament circuit was quite impressive in the prior years.
The player secured his largest live cash back in 2010 when he finished runner-up to Argentina’s Jose Ignacio Barbero in the EPT Season 7 London £20,500 High Roller. Sointula’s share of the prize pool totaled £556,000.
Norway
Felix Vincent Stephensen
Felix Vincent Stephensen tops his country’s all-time money list with $5,806,772 in live tournament earnings. Most of that sum came from the player’s second-place finish in the 2014 WSOP World Championship.
Stephensen finished runner-up to another Scandinavian – Martin Jacobson – in the major tournament to claim a prize of $5,147,911 for his deep run. It is also important to note that the Norwegian player made it to the very end of an event that had a total of 6,683 entries that year.
Annette Obrestad
Obrestad is her homeland’s second most profitable poker pro with live tournament earnings of $3,963,873. Back in 2007, the Norwegian poker pro became the youngest player to have ever won a gold bracelet from the WSOP.
She bested the field of the first-ever WSOP Europe Main Event just a day before she turned 19. Obrestad triumphed over 362 fellow entries to claim £1,000,000 (approximately $2,013,733) in prize money.
Obrestad has also been quite prolific online. She started playing when she was just 15. The young player says she never had to deposit any money, originally building her bankroll by winning freeroll tournaments.
Thor Hansen
Hansen’s live tournament earnings amount to $2,947,203. The player has been playing poker all over the world for over three decades and has cashed in nearly 200 live tournaments during that span.
His best live tournament cash totals $188,256 and the player claimed it in 2007 when he finished 8th in the $50,000 World H.O.R.S.E. Championship.
Sweden
Martin Jacobson
Jacobson is the winningest player in this list. He boasts live tournament earnings of $16,518,016, more than a half of which came from the player’s triumph in the 2014 WSOP Main Event. The young Swede emerged the victor from a 6,683-strong field that year to collect $10 million in prize money.
Following his victory, Jacobson donated $250,000 of his prize to the REG poker charity, which he has been supporting and representing for years now.
Even before his WSOP World Championship moment, Jacobson was a well-recognized player as he has been active on the tournament poker stage since the 2000s. His first recorded live tournament cash dated back to 2008 when he finished third in the EPT Season 5 Budapest Main Event for €197,904.
Chris Björin
The Swede’s tournament poker career spans more than three decades, during which he has cashed in tournaments to have taken place in different parts of the world. He has amassed winnings of more than $5,664,326.
Björin’s poker trophies include two WSOP gold bracelets. The first one he won in 1997 for taking down a $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament within the series, good for $169,200. He then captured bracelet number two in 2000 for topping the $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em, good for his best ever live cash of $334,110.
Michael Tureniec
Tureniec has accumulated $4,035,511 over the course of his career. The Swedish player has cashed in 76 live tournaments in the period between 2007 and 2018. In 2016, Tureniec won a gold bracelet from the WSOP. The Swede bested the field of the $1,111 Little One for ONE DROP that year for the piece of WSOP jewelry and $525,520 in prize money.
All the way back in 2008, the player finished runner-up to Micheal Martin in the EPT Season 5 London Main Event for a career best live cash of £525,314 (approximately $961,902).
The post Top Scandinavian Poker Players of All Time appeared first on Casino News Daily.
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