The start of gambling in Denmark predates even Columbus" fabled (and mostly mythical) voyage.
King Hans, who ruled from 1481 to 1513, was a gambling addict long before Gamblers Anonymous, and frequently took money from the royal treasury to pay his gambling debts. The 1700s saw the first deck of cards printed in Denmark; up until then, decks had to be imported from Belgium and France. In fact, the word "poker" may trace its roots to the Danish word pokker, meaning devil. Now, there's a comforting thought!
There are numerous famous poker players to come out of Denmark: Mads Anderson, Theo Jorgensen, Jan Sorensen, and Martin Wendt among them. But Gus Hansen may be the most famous.
Hansen is rumored to have had money problems recently despite his millions in winnings, but he's had extraordinary success at the poker table: three World Poker Tour wins (plus the Bad Boys of Poker invitational) and a win at the first Poker Superstars Invitational among them. Just this season on the GSN show High Stakes Poker, Hansen won a record pot from Daniel Negreanu. Hansen's 5d-5c faced off against Negreanu's 6d-6h. Negreanu got a 6 on the flop, and Hansen got a 5, but Hansen got the miracle case 5 on the turn to take down $575,700. That's right - half a million dollars in a single hand!
Hansen is not the only Danish poker player to find success. Sorensen, a former professional soccer player, has won two bracelets at the WSOP, one Seven Card Stud, one Pot Limit Omaha. He took fifth at the WPT Doyle Brunson North American Championship back in October 2005. Sorensen went out when his 5h-5c went up against Don Zewin's 7s-7c. Sorensen raised to $85,000 before the flop, Zewin went allin, and Sorensen called.
The board came 9s-2h-8s- 8h-As, offering no help to Sorensen's fives, though he left $137,940 richer. A couple of poker tours, one small, one large, have visited or will be visiting Denmark. The Small Town Poker Tour, the world's largest amateur poker tour, came to Denmark in February and March as part of a European tour, with the eventual goal of crowning a European Small Town Poker Champion.
The European Poker Tour, the massively successful event series sponsored by PokerStars, will be hitting Copenhagen in January -; the Casino Copenhagen, to be specific. This four-day event is split into two Day 1s, one day 2 and one day 3 final table. The buy-in is E5,000, or $6,327. "EPT Season 3 Scandinavian Open will be held at the Casino Copenhagen January 17- 20," says Kerry Johnson of Lotus Public Relations. "The Casino Copenhagen is the only Casino in the Danish capital and it is situated in the Radisson SAS Scandinavia Hotel. This year's event will be capped at 360 players. Currently, Luca Pagano, Bertrand Grospellier, Isabelle Mercier, Katja Thater, and Tom McEvoy will be on hand to represent Team PokerStars. All EPT events are being televised and can be followed on the PokerStars blog." This limit will certainly be reached quickly, as the EPT event in Barcelona had a record 480 players attend.
There are satellites to the EPT running on PokerStars all the time with buy-ins as low as $11. Since the Copenhagen event is still months away, satellintes to this event have not yet begun - the site is still running Baden and Dublin qualifiers According to the PokerStars site, the final qualifying tournament will take place two Saturdays before the event, which would make it December 31 or January 7, depending on where the site counts from. Expect qualifiers for Copenhagen to start appearing in the coming weeks.
"In our Poker room, we play: 7-Card Stud, spreador split-limit; Pot-Limit Omaha, and No-Limit Texas Hold'em," says Robin Kenny of the Royal Scandinavian Casino in Aarhus. "The highest limit we have played is 7-Card Stud, 200/1000kr. The usual game played is 20/40kr or 50/100kr No-Limit Texas Hold'em." (Note: 1kr or danish krone = $0.17.)
"The poker room has only been open for about a year or so, but we have been offering poker to our guests since 1996," he says. "The poker room is usually very busy, and increasing from month to month. We are now beginning to see more younger people playing poker, and every day we see new faces in the poker room. So, I must say that the latest poker explosion affects us very much, and we are constantly looking for new dealers to keep up with the demand."
The Royal Scandinavian Casino has a ton of great events going on all the time, according to Kenny. "'The Open' was the the grand opening of our poker room. It was a 200 player, No-Limit Texas Hold'em, 5500kr buy-in event that lasted 4 days. It was very well received. From September 26 to October 1, we have a new big event. Six days straight of poker." Here's the schedule:
September 26: Texas Hold'em Warmup Tour 2,200kr
September 27: 7-Card Stud DM Tour 5,500kr Day 1
September 28: 7-Card Stud DM Tour 5,500kr Day 2
September 29: Texas Hold'em Royal Cup 11,000kr Day 1
September 30: Texas Hold'em Royal Cup 11,000kr Day 2
October 1: Final
"Besides that, we have had so many bigger tournaments that it would take me all day to mention," says Kenny. "And we are constantly increasing our tournament calendar."
Kenny is positive about the direction of poker.
"Where is it all going in a few years ... very difficult question," he says. "Well, if you ask me, we havenet seen anything yet. No doubt that this is the 'sport' of the century. It is for all, old or young, fat or slim, and can also be used to unite the family. It is something all can play together,
