News
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
Jul 08 2011 06:03 PM EST
It took 42 days.
It took 56 events.
It took over a million poker hands -- and a Royal Flush on the final hand.
But it finally happened.
A Scandinavian poker player finally won a gold bracelet at the 2011 World Series of Poker.
Alexander Anter, a 22-year-old professional poker player from Uppsala, Sweden, won the most recent competition at the 2011 World Series of Poker. Anter’s first major tournament victory came in the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em championship, officially classified as Event #56 on this year’s WSOP schedule.
Anter overcame a monster-sized field totaling 3,389 players en route to a thrilling victory. Played from start to finish, the tournament took five days. Incredibly, this marked Anter's first time to cash in any tournament at the WSOP.
The mystery surrounding Anter’s victory is not that he managed to win his first gold bracelet and a staggering amount of prize money -- $777,928 to be exact. The real surprise was that it took so long for a Scandinavian poker champion to finally emerge at this year’s WSOP.
Scandinavian poker players – identified as those from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden – have baked themselves into the upper crust of the poker world. Per capita, players from Northern Europe have, in general, outperformed players from every other region of the world. Several Scandinavians have won WSOP gold bracelets previously – most notably 2008 world champion Peter Eastgate, from Denmark. But an odd thing happened this year. The Scandinavians seemed to disappear.
To be clear, a few players from Anter’s region did come close to victory. But there’s little doubt 2011 has been a down year for Scandinavians – at least until July 8th, when Anter ultimately prevailed, reminding everyone once again of the seismic skill set of so many great players from Northern Europe.
For a comprehensive recap of Event #56 including the official report, please visit WSOP.Com again soon.
