The British Poker Invasion of 2010

The early story-line in 2010 had this being the Year of the Woman in poker, but after a fast start -including three major tournament victories by women-the ladies were unable to maintain their momentum through the World Series of Poker which gave another subset of poker players the opportunity to claim 2010 as their own. And the group that stepped up was the British!

British poker players had a fantastic 2010 World Series of Poker that saw them take 5 bracelets back across the pond, and they have been building on that success ever since; with wins by James Bord in the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event, Sam Trickett’s win at the Party Poker World Open, not to mention Liv Boeree’s win at the EPT San Remo in April to name just a few of the big wins by British Poker Pros.

Britain has always been a hotbed of poker activity, even during the lean years prior to the 2003 explosion, and it now seems that the British are looking to recapture their bridesmaid role to the US when it comes to poker.

With a slew of top players, and even more up and coming talent it doesn’t appear that the British are going to go quietly into the night: James Akenhead, Praz Bansi, Richard Ashby, Joe Beevers, Chris Bjorin, Liv Boeree, Neil Channing, Victoria Coren, Roland de Wolfe, James Dempsy, John Duthie, Julian Gardner, John Kabbaj, JP Kelly, Luke Schwartz, John Shipley, Willie Tann, Sam Trickett, Dave Ulliott, Ram Vaswani, and Ian Woodley.

Through the end of September here is a list of major tournament wins by British poker players:

• Jake Cody EPT Deauville winner
• Liv Boeree EPT San Remo winner
• Toby Lewis EPT Vilamoura winner
• Praz Bansi 2010 WSOP Bracelet winner $1,500 No Limit Holdem
• James Dempsey 2010 WSOP Bracelet winner $1,500 Pot Limit Holdem
• Richard Ashby 2010 WSOP Bracelet winner $1,500 7-Card-Stud
• Mike Ellis 2010 WSOP Bracelet winner $1,500 No Limit Holdem
• Steve Jelinek 2010 WSOP Bracelet winner $1,500 Limit Omaha 8
• Scott Shelley 2010 WSOPE Bracelet winner $1,000 No Limit Holdem
• James Bord 2010 WSOPE Main Event winner
• Sam Trickett Party Poker World Open Champion

These results do not even include runner-up finishes by both James Dempsey and Richard Ashby in second WSOP Events, the dozens of final tables British players have made, and the improbable back-to-back final tables by two Brits, Chris Bjorin and Willie Tann in Events #1 and #2 at the 2010 World Series of Poker Europe!

Truly, 2010 will go down in the annals of poker history as the British Invasion 2010.