when you say approximately you mean nowhere close? its i think £8.65

They seem to be quite the tech-savvy country, with lots of top gamers from there as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD6WStCFnGk

I don't think this is the general consensus of Russian poker players in general

denmark will move up 4 ranks when gus hansen gets out of the slump

"Govt officials" no doubt...and new (dirty) money eurotrash.

Knew a case of someone getting a postgrad place in Oxford despite being thick as mince with dodgy English. What a coincidence, Daddy was someone high up in the peoples party

?

Current UK minimum wage is £6.31 going up to £6.50 at the start of next month.

Current exchange rate is £1 = $1.63, so: £6.50 x 1.63 = ~$10.60

and 10.60/2.65 = ~4x

Juk

Do you think things cost the same in UK and Belarus ? You can't compare two different wages straight up, you have to adjust for cost of living. And the cost of living in Belarus is much lower than in the UK, so comparing those two wages is a bit useless.

Also, the main reason why there are so many hands played in Belarus is because they used to (still probably do) have a ton of bots playing on Ipoker and other Euro-networks.

Probably because it's always snowing outside and there's not much to do besides f*ck and get good at poker.

I personally find the comment about all russians being smart more offensive than the one about all belorussians being poor. At least the latter is somewhat close to true

Obviously, this. Belarus isn't really that poor of a country - but there is huge difference in what dollar is worth there. I'm not from Belarus, but I would estimate that it is worth around 4 times as much as in US or western Europe in terms of costs of living - which basicly means that players from there are playing 4 times the stakes westerners are playing, making playing for a living much more appealing, and thus creating more good regs.

My estimation comes from the fact that in Poland, where I live, dollar is worth around 3 times as much as in US, and Belarus is a bit cheaper. Of course when I talk of money worth, it's all about costs of living, luxorious items like cars, clothes or electronics have very similar costs all around the world (yes, a decent car is usually 1-2 years of wages at a decent job).

It actually works on all levels - not only on micros (but yes, you can make a living playing nl10). For example, winning something like million dollars in US can give you a few years of good life and maybe a startup for a small buisness. Winning a million dollars in one of eastern European countries pretty much sets you up for life.

This! This is the main reason why Nano stakes are extremely tight and boring for their stakes. The money for an Eastern Euro if they play a tag game can be security guard to officer worker money if they play as high as 25NL. It's also the reason why I think the fish have dried up in these games from countries such as Britain or Germany. Why would somebody want to play in such dry boring games when they can play live where there is action or play home games where there is action and no rake.

well i guess this sheds the light on one USA positive; everyone bitching about online poker climate in the US and A but at least there is fish money