DIFFERENT WINNERS AROUND THE WORLD IN MOST DEMOCRATIC OF GAMES
For anyone thinking poker players adhere to a particular stereotype, a glance through recent results should demonstrate the game’s eclectic collection of recent winners.
On the other side of the Atlantic the World Series of Poker Circuit event proved a happy hunting ground for eventual winner Joe Kuether, from Wisconsin.
Kuether earned $111,104 for his efforts at the latest circuit event in Rincon, San Diego, coming on the back of a terrific March (winning two events at the Wynn in the week before the Circuit event) for the regional player, who, with the exception of a handful of WSOP scores, is usually found playing more modest buy-in events across the United States. Kuether epitomises the hard working (and successful) poker player.
On the other side of the Pacific, Gordon Huntly was having his picture taken as the winner of the first leg of the new Australia New Zealand Poker Tour season, with a cheque for $238,832. Huntly, an ex-pat living in Asia, is a latecomer to the game, who business acumen into profit at the poker table, with cashes dotted around Asia and Europe, and winnings of half a million in less than three years.
Back in Europe an 18-year-old woman from France dominated the French Poker Series event in Evian. Veronika Pavlikova, playing her first major event, was pushing aside everyone on her way to her first title, and €70,000.
An internet pro, a tournament grinder, a former business man and an 18-year-old French girl; proof, if it were needed, that the key to poker success is not found in a standardised entry system, but in the quality of the individual. This most democratic of games is open to all.