Last year the biggest trend in poker seemed to be the growing population of Scandinavian players. This year, it seems to be the Russians that are taking over the poker world. This year’s WSOP featured more players from Russia than ever before, with many of them cashing for some huge prizes.
Ivan Demidov is the sole Russian player left in the series, who will be playing it out for his chance at the massive main event prize pool in November.
Two Russians won bracelets at this year’s WSOP. Vitaly Lunkin won a bracelet in one of the no-limit Hold’em events and Svetlana Gromenkova won the 2008 WSOP Ladies Championship.
Tony G always mentions in his blog that some of the biggest games in poker are going on over in Moscow, Russia, where he is a regular at the tables.
According to Daniel Negreanu, he thinks this has a lot to do with the huge chess scene in Russia. In a recent article, he stated: “Chess is a great training ground for poker players because it’s a math-based game, much like backgammon is.”
Many poker sites are jumping on this bandwagon. Titan Poker just added Russian language support last week for their online poker client.
Daniel went on to say, “Poker’s popularity is surging in Russia. You can expect to see more Russian names winning on the European Poker Tour and other major international tournaments in coming years.”
This is probably one of the funniest poker videos I have ever seen. If you have ever heard of Sarah Silverman’s “I’m Fu*king Matt Damon” video, then you will really appreciate what I am about to show you.
RawVegas.TV has put together a great clip with some of the biggest names in poker, such as Daniel Negreanu, Howard Lederer and many more. It all circles around the 2008 WSOP Player of the Year: Erick Lindgren. Without giving away everything, here is the video:
Many poker blogs and poker sites are going around toting “year of the pro” posts in their blog about this year’s WSOP as if they are suprised. Come on, are we really that shocked that professional poker players are actually winning in the Holy Grail of poker tournaments, AKA the World Series Of Poker.
After all, if the professionals aren’t the ones winning then I think that says a lot about the game that we have all grown to love?
Sure, in the past there have been a lot of wins by amateurs, but I think back in those days there were hardly near as many “professional” players. After all, what is a professional poker player nowadays anyway?
I consider someone a professional poker player if poker is the main source of their income and they spend at least 30+ hours per week playing. I think that a lot of these “amateurs” of the past actually fall into this category, the only thing that makes them an amateur vs. pro is they are not sponsored by any site.
Another factor that goes into the increased number of “pros” is poker sites are signing players at record speeds nowadays. If a player does well in one major tournament sites are at their beck and call to get them to play for them with their logos.
Sure, there have been a lot of cashes by well-known poker players, but is this really much different from years past? Or is it that we are comparing it to last year where it seemed to be more “year of the Joe” as there were a lot of unknown winners.
So basically what I am trying to say is WAKE UP PEOPLE… are you really that shocked that the professionals are winning or are you implying that poker is a game of luck?
To me, the 2008 WSOP is still just: “The year of Potrippers dad“
We have been working hard on creating a ton of information for American poker players today, which includes deposit options, listing sites available to Americans, then ranking them in a Top 5 Poker Sites for Americans list.
Our rankings are based on our knowledge of the online poker world (which is pretty extensive… might I add). There are a couple of sites we think should also be listed as the “best poker rooms for Americans“, but haven’t added them just yet. They are Cake Poker and Carbon Poker, but we are still working on doing full reviews of these rooms.
So, here is where you come in. We really can’t do this all alone as some of our opionions may be off, and there may be some site out there that we don’t know about. We would love some feedback on whether you agree with our list, think there are better sites for US players, or think the rankings are out of whack. So, what we would like, if you could take the time to check out our US Poker Sites page and tell us, what is missing in the comments box below. Here is a link:
Last year the biggest trend in poker seemed to be the growing population of Scandinavian players. This year, it seems to be the Russians that are taking over the poker world. This year’s WSOP featured more players from Russia than ever before, with many of them cashing for some huge prizes.
Many poker blogs and poker sites are going around toting “year of the pro” posts in their blog about this year’s WSOP as if they are suprised. Come on, are we really that shocked that professional poker players are actually winning in the 
