The United States used to have the absolute control over the poker industry and ended up pushing out some of the best players around. Indeed, many of the best players in the world such as Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth still hail from that part of the world, with nearly all of the legends being American in one sense of the word or another. However, in recent years poker has really taken on an international flavor and because of that you can now see poker stars from all over the world.
A good example of this would be Daniel Negreanu. This poker superstar, nicknamed Kid Poker, has often been looked at as a Canadian player. And considering the fact that he was born and grew up in Toronto, this is very much an accurate statement to make. However, something that many people might not know about Daniel is that his parents both emigrated to Canada from Romania and for that reason a large poker boom has taken place in that country largely on the strength of Daniel being on poker programs all the time.
Another person that many people have heard of is Carlos Mortensen. He is an underrated poker player and indeed many people are not even aware that he won the World Series of Poker Main event in 2001. He was the last professional player to earn that honor and to add to the international flavor of things he hails from the country of Spain. He speaks fluent Spanish and learned English as his second language. Some people do not know that and considering how well he speaks English, this is perhaps not a surprise at all.
Another famous player that many people will be aware of is Tony Guoga. He is known more for his mouth than for his playing ability, but he does have major tournament titles under his belt such as a win on the World Poker Tour. He is currently an Australian national, but originally came from Lithuania. In this sense, he is somewhat similar to Daniel Negreanu and he is done quite a bit for the international flavor of the game. At one tournament, he even wore a kimono in order to promote the game in Japan.
Scotty Nguyen is a name that many people know because he won the World Series of Poker Main Event in the 90s and he even threatened to come close a couple of times this decade as well. He is from Vietnam, as is Men the Master, another world famous poker player.
With other famous players hailing from Africa, South Asia, East Asia, Scandinavia and other places on the European continent, poker has truly become an international game. In a way, this has been facilitated by the internet, but now most tournaments are truly international in their scope.
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