ABOUT CARDPLAYER, THE POKER AUTHORITY CardPlayer.com is the world's oldest and most well respected poker magazine and online poker guide.Since 1988, CardPlayer has provided poker players. Martin Jacobson, Viktor Blom, Niklas Astedt, Simon Mattsson and Michael Tureniec were rated the five best Swedish poker players of all time by PokerNews.

Christopher Bell (born July 26, 1971 in St. Pauls, North Carolina) is an American professional poker player from Raleigh, North Carolina who won the 2010 World Series of Poker $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better event. He has also made three final tables at the World Poker Tour (WPT).^[1][2][3]

• 1World Series of Poker

World Series of Poker[edit]

Bell has 14 cashes at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) which includes four final tables with one bracelet. He won his bracelet at the 2010 World Series of Poker in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better event, earning $327,040 after defeating professional poker player Dan Shak during heads-up play, other professionals at the final table included English professional Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliott (3rd), Eight time bracelet winner and 1988 World Series of Poker Main Event runner-up Erik Seidel (5th), Dutch Pro Rob Hollink (7th), and three time bracelet winner and 1981 World Series of Poker Main Event runner-up Perry Green (8th). Bell almost won a bracelet two years earlier at the 2008 World Series of Poker in the $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em event where he finished second to Davidi Kitai, earning $155,806, that same year he also made the final table in the $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em event and finished in 6th place for $157,168. Bell's first WSOP Final table cash was at the 2007 World Series of Poker in the $2,500 Omaha/Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better event which he finished in fifth place for $39,109.^[3]

World Series of Poker bracelets[edit]

World Poker Tour[edit]

Bell has 13 cashes at the World Poker Tour (WPT), which includes three (Six-Handed) WPT final tables, third at the WPT 2005 Mirage Poker Showdown to winner Gavin Smith and runner-up Ted Forrest, His second WPT final table was at the WPT 2006 Borgata Poker Open finishing fifth for $314,280 and the third was at the WPT Hollywood Poker Open, finishing in fourth for $124,966. He came close to another final table when he finished in ninth place at the 2003 Borgata Poker Open.^[3]

As of 2010, his total live tournament winnings exceed $2,300,000.^[4]

References[edit]

1. ^Welman, Jessica (June 28, 2010). 'WSOP: Chris Bell Defeats Dan Shak to Bag First Bracelet'. BluffMagazine.com. Archived from the original on July 11, 2012. Retrieved June 28, 2010.
2. ^Dalla, Nolan (June 28, 2010). 'BELL-WETHER – CHRIS BELL WINS WSOP EVENT 46 AND 1ST WSOP GOLD BRACELET'. wsop.com. Retrieved June 28, 2010.
3. ^ ^abcButt, Robert. 'Christopher Bell – Results'. TheHendonMob.com. Retrieved June 28, 2010.
4. ^Butt, Robert. 'Christopher Bell – Stats'. TheHendonMob.com. Retrieved June 28, 2010.

External links[edit]

Wednesday, June 6 was the National Day of Sweden, a day spent celebrating Sweden gaining its independence. So what better way to pay homage to this historic day than by looking at five of Sweden's elite poker players?

1) Martin Jacobson

The top choice was an easy one. After all, 888poker Ambassador Martin Jacobson is the only Swede to win the World Series of Poker Main Event, back in 2014 for a cool $10 million.

Jacobson is far from a one-trick pony with $16.6 million in live tournament cashes according to The Hendon Mob, the most among any Swedish player. To put this into perspective, this is almost triple the $5.7 million Chris Bjorin accomplished in three decades of play to place him second among Swedes.

Outside of the WSOP Main Event victory, Jacobson has won two EPT side events and one WPT side event and has amassed a total of 17 cashes of at least $100,000.

Jacobson is also known as a beast online, in particular at PokerStars where he plays under the 'M.nosbocaJ' screen name. While the total amount of his online cashes is unknown with his stats blocked on major tracking websites, he has had quite a few big scores.

In May 2014, Jacobson took fourth place in the SCOOP High Main Event for $499,320. Three years later, in May 2017, he won his first ever SCOOP event after shipping the SCOOP-08-H: $530+R NLHE, $300K Gtd for $106,984. To start off this year, Jacobson won the Winter Series Super Tuesday for $129,950.

Martin Jacobson Poker Stats ^{(June, 2018)}

Twitter: @Martin_Jacobson

2) Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom

Viktor 'Isildur1' Blom might be the most talked about player in the history of online poker every since he came out of nowhere to play the biggest cash game stakes in the world in 2009.

The Swede notoriously lost $1 million right away before rebounding and winning $6 million in profit in just a six-week period. He then lost a lot to Patrik Antonius before losing another $4.2 million to Brian Hastings which involved a bit of controversy including shared hands from his peers.

On Full Tilt alone, Blom has lost $4.7 million, offset by $1.8 million in profit at PokerStars in high stakes cash games.

While there's no doubt that Blom is a force to be reckoned with in cash games despite an overall loss, the Swede has also had success in both online and live tournaments.

Blom has amassed more than $3.8 million in online tournament winnings as tracked by Official Poker Rankings, which remarkably includes four SCOOP titles including one last spring.

He has also won $2.9 million in live tournaments, including two huge wins. He shipped the 2012 PCA $100,000 Super High Roller for $1,254,400. In February 2018, Blom took down the partypoker MILLIONS Germany for €850,000 ($1,048,153).

Viktor Blom Poker Stats ^{(June, 2018)}

Twitter: @viktorblom

3) Niklas 'lena900' Åstedt

For the past few years, Niklas Åstedt has been one of the most successful online poker tournament players in the world. Under the screenname 'lena900', the Swede is currently ranked number one at PocketFives, a spot he has been very familiar with off and on since March 2016.

Åstedt has amassed $11 million in online tournament cashes, which is sixth most in the world out of players that have opted into PocketFives.

He has won three SCOOP events and the Super Tuesday twice. Most recently, Åstedt outlasted a field of 198 players to win the $10,300 Powerfest #53-SHR: $2M Gtd [Championship Event - PKO] at partypoker for $430,047 for his biggest score to date.

While Åstedt is not very well-known for playing live tournaments, he has accumulated $1.1 million in cashes which include two EPT side event victories and a victory in a PokerStars Championship side event.

Niklas Åstedt Poker Stats ^{(June, 2018)}

4) Simon 'C Darwin2' Mattsson

Some of the best online tournament grinders in the world hail from Sweden. Very often, half if not more of the top 10 in the PocketFives Worldwide Rankings come from this Scandinavian country.

Like Åstedt, Simon Mattsson has made a name for himself for consistently being in one of the top spots the past few years under the screen name 'C Darwin2'. The Swede, who currently has $9.6 million in online tournament cashes, is currently ranked second in the world and has held the top spot in the past.

Mattsson has amassed six different six-figure cashes including two this past March at PokerStars. He first shipped the Turbo Series 70: $5,200 NLHE [8-Max, High Roller], $500K Gtd for $211,740 before later taking down the High Rollers 07: $10,300 NLHE [8-Max], $1M Gtd for $267,407.

The Swede has also made $1.2 million in live poker tournaments. His biggest cash came in August 2017 when he won a PokerStars Championship Barcelona side event for €286,200 ($337,007).

Simon Mattsson Poker Stats ^{(June, 2018)}

5) Michael Tureniec

There are many tremendous live and online poker players in Sweden. However, we gave Michael Tureniec the nod for the fifth spot for the most elite in this Scandinavian country.

Tureniec has amassed $4.2 million in live tournament earnings, third most in Sweden behind Jacobson and Bjorin.

Bjorin could have easily made this list for his longevity of $5.7 million in live tournament cashes including a WSOP bracelet. He is back at it again in Sin City this summer and has already appeared at the final two tables in two separate WSOP PLO8 events.

Tureniec has accomplished more lately, including a recent win in the WPT DeepStacks Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown $1,100 side event for $143,324.

The Swede is also just one WPT Main Event win away from winning a live triple crown. In February 2011, he shipped the EPT Copenhagen Main Event for DKr 3,700,000 ($679,244), and he took down the WSOP Little One for the One Drop for $525,520 in July 2016.

Online Poker Player Tracker

Neither of these represented his biggest-ever live poker tournament cash. That came almost a decade ago when he finished in second place in the EPT London Main Event for £525,314 ($961,902).

Michael Tureniec Poker Stats ^{(June, 2018)}

Christopher Swedish Online Poker Player Rankings

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Christopher Swedish Online Poker Player Stats

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