Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 21 October 2011 / Leave a Comment

The 2011 World Series of Poker Europe has finally wound down, with Elio Fox claiming the last of the seven bracelets in the Main Event after outlasting Chris Moorman heads-up. One could say the New Yorker's victory culminates a breakthrough year of sorts for the United States at the WSOPE, as no less than four of the seven bracelets went to Americans at this year's series.

Fox joined fellow Americans Steve Billirakis, Tristan Wade, and Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi as bracelet winners at this year's WSOPE.

Since the WSOPE first began in 2007, there had never been more than one U.S. winner at the Series in a given year. None won in 2007, John Juanda won the Main Event in 2008, Barry Shulman also won the ME in 2009, and Phil Laak was the only American to win last year, earning his victory in the £2,650 short-handed NLHE event.

In other words, this year's total of four bracelets exceeded the total number of bracelets won by Americans during the previous four years combined (three) at the WSOPE.

Attention on the Americans

For a couple of reasons, extra attention was paid to the Americans' performance at this year's WSOPE.

First there was that pronouncement made by last year's WSOPE Main Event champion, James Bord, regarding the prospects for an American to win the ME this time around. The sports betting site Matchbook took prop bets on the WSOPE ME winner, and Bord said he was so confident no U.S. player would win he would refund losing bets up to $500 should an American manage to do so.

"I don't think an American can win the bracelet," said Bord to Card Player Europe. "Europeans are now far superior. We used to look up to the U.S. players back in the day, but those days are now long gone."

No word as yet regarding how much Bord will be laying out to back up his boast now that Fox has won.

The Caesars Cup and surrounding trash-talk also helped renew rivalries between the U.S. and Europe. That's the event in which two teams of players -- "Team Americas" and "Team Europe" -- compete against one another in a variety of formats. It should be noted that "Team Americas" doesn't necessarily include only American players (e.g., the Canadian Daniel Negreanu participated for them this year).

This year's Caesars Cup saw Team Americas, captained by Phil Hellmuth, prevail over the European squad led by Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier. In the best-of-five format, Team America won 3-1, gaining a revenge of sorts after losing the first and only Caesars Cup to Team Europe back in 2009.

Given its super-fast structure and the novelty of its format, not a lot of stock is placed in the Caesars Cup as an indicator how U.S. poker players' skills compare to those of other countries' players. Nor, really, is the U.S. picking up four WSOPE bracelets this time around necessarily proof that other countries' players should "look up" to the U.S. as Bord says used to be the case.

That said, a closer inspection of the results at this year's WSOPE does show the Americans made a decent showing overall.

A Look at the Numbers

Expectations prior to the start of this year's WSOPE, moved this year from London to Cannes to be played at the Hotel Majestic Barrière, was that host country France would likely continue its impressive showing from this year's WSOP in Las Vegas.

Four Frenchmen took home bracelets at the WSOP this summer, and it was thought that since many more French would be participating in Cannes at least some of the gold would be remaining in France once the Series had concluded. However, the highest finish for France at the seven WSOPE events was by Bernard Guignon who took fourth in Event #2 (€1,090 NLHE).

So Americans won the most bracelets at this year's WSOPE, but how did their performance compare to that of other countries overall?

In terms of total cashes, the Americans won that battle, too, with 82 cashes (out of 281 possible), or 29.1%. France was next in line with 61 cashes, followed by the U.K. with 30, Canada 15, Italy 14, Sweden 10, Russia 8, and Germany 5.

Of course, looking at total cashes doesn't mean quite as much without knowing how many players from each country actually entered the events. How do these total cashes compare to the number of entrants each country had representing them in the field?

Looking at those top eight countries only, here's a quick rundown of how the total cashes in the seven WSOPE events compared to the number of entrants for each:

The WSOP provided totals through the first six events, meaning I had to use all of my fingers and toes to add up the numbers from the Main Event to include them as well.

(In other words, we should probably allow a margin of error of a couple of fingers or toes here.)

Looking at the cashes-to-entrants ratio, then, it appears the U.K. and U.S. fared best overall, with Sweden, Canada, and Germany making strong showings, too. And while host country France might be disappointed about not having added to their 2011 WSOP bracelet total in Cannes, they shouldn't worry too greatly about that relatively low cashing percentage.

I say that because that figure is most certainly due to the fact that as the host country more French amateurs were able to take their shots and participate than would have otherwise been the case. Indeed, early reports from the pros indicated that some of the fields -- especially for the lower buy-in events -- were highly populated with inexperienced players, many of whom were from the hosting country.

All of which is to say, it was certainly a good couple of weeks of poker for the U.S players who made the trip to the south of France.

But as we all know, becoming overly prideful about one's successes at the poker table is a dangerous thing -- not to mention a sure way to invite variance to come smack you back down tout de suite!

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