Well, we finns really want to be succesful at everything and if we dont win we go crazy (2nd place in 2008 ice-hockey WC tournament and damn we were angry). Thats why we have a lot of people who have lot of succes in sports (WRC rally, F1, ice-hockey, etc.). And poker is just latest edition of finnish people to be succesful at something competitive. I dont think that religion, long winter etc. has anything to do with good poker players. We just want to win and we will fight for the win!

ok you just spit random junk and ramble with no points involved.

please explain again the painfully obvious connection between how being religious directly correlates to poker skill.

not debate whether religion is controversial

this is a different but good point. I remember when we used to bike to supermarkets w friends to play slot machines. I was like 12, and already used to coinflip my week money away, LOL.
In fact its pretty sick slotsmachines are allowed they way they are. No wonder people become degens.

I was totally addicted to slot machines too. In a way, online poker saved me from them. I'm still a total degen, but online poker offers a better return % and after playing for hundreds of euros, playing slots for a couple of euros doesn't feed the rush anymore and i can just skip it.

The Soviet invasion of Finland was part of a secret agreement with Germany whereby both countries would invade Poland and the Soviet Union would take Finland and the Baltic states. All of the area the Soviet Union went into was part of the pre-WWI Russian Empire.

Not only was it a stalemate, but the Soviets had much higher casualties. I am sure this did influence Hitler in invading the Soviet Union. However, part of it was Hitler's racist idiology. Hitler's was the 3rd disasterous western invasion of Russia, preceded by Napoleon and Charles XII of Sweden.

France and Britain declared war on Germany after the invasion of Poland and were badly defeated initially. They probably had there hands full and didn't want to take on Russia simultaneously.

Intelligent folks are less likely to be religious, and obv smart people are more likely to become good poker players.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religio..._note-intmag-5

Plus everyone knows Satan deals the nuts to heretics every hand.

Finnish people are culturally emotionless machines on a level that the rest of the world isn't even close to. Great for poker.

loll

I believe it's cause they just dont give a ****.

I'm going to grunch this. My theory has always been that a huge social safety net breeds fearlessness in the Scandi players. When the government covers your nut for most of life's necessities in a pinch, what is there to freak out about if your bluff gets called?

The climate in the scandinavian countries favors sedentary indoor hobbies such as poker. I doubt it has much to do with religion but more with people spending more time studying/ playing indoors because there might not be much else to do when it is 5 degrees out (playing fast might be a way to get the blood flowing and burn energy).

If a person earns 200k at the beginning of the year through poker or traditional job etc. wont they have to pay over 120k on this income? What if they lose it playing poker? Not that big of a loss. Like they are gambling with half their stake being a free roll, no?

Point, on average:

Believes that man (well to be totally fair, the son of god embodied in human form) can walk on water < Winning poker player

Its the safety net for sure, if i loose my job, i can still pay my mortgage and keep my car just living of unemployment, Norwegian society is pretty much freerolling!

I'm pretty sure it has to do with the good education and people being less emotional compared to other nationalities, not so much with the social security or religion. Although Ziigmund is not the best example of a non-emotional player

Then again, I don't really know how it feels like to not have a safety net so I'm not so sure about that..

This is true. Also norwegian banks cannot pursue poker and gambling debts.

i would guess the fact that gambling is legal, in sweden atleast, plays some part in it. i'm pretty sure almost everyone of my generation had a father who bet on football or horses on the weekends. they have stalls for this in almost every supermarket. also they have blackjack tables in almost every bar/nightclub as well as slotmachines in pizzerias and other restaurants. it may be that gambling is fairly ingrained in the culture and people are therefor more risk-averse and play faster.

what i meant by my earlier comment is that they may approach poker as just another way of gambling when they first start off and then gradually adjust a bit but still keep their gambling/aggressive style to the game. others may start of seeing more as a strategy game from the get go. just speculation though.

But this guy can, and will.

Yeah may be related on some level. I don't know though, I think making the whole thing about religious speculation from the get-go was the better way to approach instead of trying to expound on all possible directly related factors before delving into the secondary and abstract.

- Theres about three government casinos where its legal to play, so theres a bunch of underground clubs there aswell. In Norway there is no place to play legally.
I cant belive not one person commented on my previous point :P.

Being from Norway, and having at one point run an underground game myself, I would say that a huge factor is just that to play on a regular basis you have to seek out a criminal environment - which means casual players are far fewer, and people get better by playing vs good opponents. Plus everybodys pretty open about strategy and gives advice and stuff, but I would imagine this is common most places in the world.

Temperature might play a part also off course. ATM its -20 celcius where I live, no idea what that is in fahrenheit but its freakin cold I can tell u that much..

hahaha Espen Lie, hes a torpedo from my hometown. Dont **** with this guy! A+

i think its probably to do with the fact that isnt something like 85% of finlands yeart spent being dark? like all around night time lol . I think its finland but it may be another country

But if that is your country what you gona do? spend all day in doors on a computer playing poker....

Also i can actually only name about 3 good finnish poker players

I disagree with the comment about being backed by the government. Cos.. on that argument the UK should have a lot of top players - we dont have gamlbing taxes - you can win 100k... then lose 100k and it wont matter (in terms of taxes..) you have nothing to worry about so really uk players should be faerless too