Across the Pond: WSOP European Player Round-up

The last week at the 2009 WSOP has seen some impressive performances from the European poker contingent. Europeans love to head over to ‘Sin City’ when the World Series of Poker is running and this year they’ve enjoyed great success with cashes and bracelets galore to be celebrated. When it comes to WSOP bracelets, what happens in Vegas doesn’t always stay in Vegas!

Finland’s Mika Paasonen fell at the final hurdle in the $2,000 No Limit Hold’em event. Paasonen, who made a name for himself online before switching to the live arena, couldn’t overcome Angel Guillen, from Mexico City, in a tense heads-up encounter. Paasonen joins fellow Finn and possibly one of the players of the WSOP so far, Ville Walhbeck, in the top 10 European money winners for 2009 to date. Wahlbeck’s deep cashes and bracelet success sees the man from Helsinki sitting pretty on $849,793 in winnings so far. Paasonen is a respectable 8th on $333,593 following his three cash results.

Fabrice Soulier from France has continued his superb WSOP run of form. Following the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event, where the Frenchman finished in 21st for $14,433, Soullier led the number of cashes leaderboard with an impressive six. However, he has only made one final from his six cashes and, at the moment, his consistency seems to lack the killer instinct needed to win a bracelet.

One event where the Europeans struggled to make an impact was the $10,000 World Championship Limit Hold’em tournament. Canadians Greg Mueller and the wonderfully named Patrick Pezzin took the top two honours. Michiel Brummelhuis from Holland was the top European finisher back in 7th place. An array of top American stars struggled to make the top cash positions with Jennifer Harman, Mario Ho, Todd Brunson, Ralph Perry and Howard Lederer scraping into the money.

If the grin on Roland De Wolfe’s face got any wider at present he could strain some muscles! The cheerful Londoner seems to be cashing at will during this year’s WSOP and looks set to make Europe\’s team in the inaugural Caesars Cup during the WSOPE. Not content with a bracelet from the $5,000 Omaha Hi/Lo event, De Wolfe went on the rampage in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event only to come up a little short this time around to finish in 5th place for $112,957. De Wolfe already had the respect of his fellow players following EPT and WPT wins earlier in his career. Now with a WSOP bracelet in his sock drawer and several other WSOP cashes this year the sight of Roland at your table could leave you feeling very afraid of this big, bad, De Wolfe.

The Pokerati World Standings table sponsored by Betfair sees Europe move up to 3rd place on the leaderboard. 7 bracelets, 420 cashes and over $12,000,000 in prize money looks like making this one of the best years for European players at a WSOP. The UK and Finland are currently the top European nations.

Several world championship events, including the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E tournament, are looming larger on the horizon and they are due to start and/or complete this week. We’ll have all the European news from those and other side events right here, next time, in our European round up.