Poker World Nationalism or American Exceptionalism?

by , Sep 24, 2012 | 2:00 am

Ya know, no one in poker really wants segregated poker, as far as I know … I mean sure, have it as an option to declare a Frenchies-only online champion, or Iowans-only for that matter … but one of the things that makes poker great is that where else can you seat people together from many different countries, regions, and cultures and engage in a competition of serious (real-money) import. Could you have the World Cup or the Olympics if they were limited by dot-country domains? Can only imagine where Brazil will be in four years. For now, in poker they are 29th, right behind Israel and Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, @ElkyPoker may have moved into the top spot on the GPI 300, but the Frenchies actually dropped a spot to the Russians … reminding us that one man cannot carry a nation — even if he’s best player in the world.

GPI 300 BY COUNTRY

COUNTRY PLAYERS
1. United States 158 53%
2. United Kingdom 19 6%
3. Russia 17 6%
4. France 16 5%
5. Canada 15 5%
6. Germany 14 5%
7. Italy 12 4%
8. Belgium 6 2%
9. Sweden 5 2%
10. Ukraine 4 1%
view more
[LOL: 53 percent of the best players in the world are Americans. No wonder Mitt Romney is saying 47 percent don’t matter!]

3 Comments to “Poker World Nationalism or American Exceptionalism?”


  1. Darrel Plant
    says:

    Per capita (GPI players per million population).

    Belgium 1:1.806
    Sweden 1:1.904
    USA 1:1.990
    UK 1:3.278
    France 1:3.935
    Italy 1:4.957
    Germany 1:5.846
    Russia 1:8.423
    Ukraine 1:11.390


  2. Dan Michalski
    says:

    kinda fascinating, darrel. do you think this should play into the algorithm?


  3. Darrel Plant
    says:

    And risk starting some sort of Poker War? Nah. 🙂

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Football_War