USA players vs Rest of The World!

I've been thinking about this issue for a while now.
I started to play Poker few years ago, but only few months ago i started to learn more (read books, watching tv shows, streams, etc.)
So, my thoughts here are: I think that players from USA is much better at the start than Europeans are. Why? I'm European and i grew up playing many other card games (for example game called Belot), on the other hand, players from USA grew up playing Poker.
I found that is harder for me to play against USA players rather than rest of the world.
Your opinion? Am i right or wrong?

There are good players and bad players from every country, you can't just say this country has better players than that country.

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Of course. Everybody can learn to play, but at the very start of the game i think they have better jump start.

Since Black Friday, the USA has lost most of its recreational players online. The ratio of clueless/knowledgeable has changed. Just cause someone is a multi tabling grinder will not make them good (look at me for example...lol) but they will have more knowledge, make more moves, put more pressure etc. The ROW still has more of the "call to the river on a draw then play face up" and such.

Maybe I am off here, but I imagine there may be something to it???

I think OP has some kind of a point (at least for some years ago).
Very often when US players are asked how they got into poker, the answer is like:"well as a kid we often sat around the kitchentable playing stud or 5-card draw".
So I guess a lot of the players know more than just Holdem.

Now take the netherlands for example.
There always has been a lot of cardplaying, all kind of games, but poker was not very common or even rare.
Only after the beginning of the pokerboom, poker became popular, but for most people it's just holdem.

So, simply said I guess a lot of US-players started playing holdem with much more of a poker background than a lot of players in ROW.

I also believe that has changed over the last few years as I think a lot of the young guns nowadays ,no matter where they come from , just start their carreer playing holdem, .

As you know Ron, I'm from Australia, I have played poker since I could hold cards, and my parents and relatives came from Europe and Nth Africa and they have been playing some form of poker ever since they were kids.

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I agree with Zobra, I'm a Canadian an come from a card playing family. Every holiday we would have a ucher tourney going as well as some form of a poker tourney running.

Well Nick, you might understand my thinking is based on very little information....my own experience.
Your experience, you say, is way different and it makes me wonder if poker already was more common around the world than I thought, even before the pokerboom.

Than I wonder, how did poker spread around the world ?
Was it due to wars ? American soldiers taking the game with them wherever they went?
I all of sudden remember an interview with Scotty Nguyen where he told , back than in Nam, poker was played on every corner of the street.
I'm sure it was introduced by American soldiers.

I also remember a dutch game we very often played, with a lot of similarities to poker...not the rules which decided the best hand, but every other aspect like bluffing, betting rounds, reading your opponents, having the nuts and now I wonder it was just a 'dutchyfied' form of poker.

wildyetty said:

I agree with Zobra, I'm a Canadian an come from a card playing family. Every holiday we would have a ucher tourney going as well as some form of a poker tourney running.

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I'm not surprised by that because I would've thought, if there were one country where poker would be (near) as common as in US, it would be canada.
For some reason my 2nd guess would actually have been Australia, but if we would discuss that , we would soon end up generalizing countries.

I don't know about this. Actually , I have never played against an USA poker player.

Poker is an American game and they know how to win.

I think Americans partake in more event and are more known playing pokers, so that's why everyone believe we're better. Just my opinion. American out number foreign players, I think. Also we host the wsop and A lot of those WPT so basically more Americans players and home field advantage.

arabarran666 said:

I've been thinking about this issue for a while now.
I started to play Poker few years ago, but only few months ago i started to learn more (read books, watching tv shows, streams, etc.)
So, my thoughts here are: I think that players from USA is much better at the start than Europeans are. Why? I'm European and i grew up playing many other card games (for example game called Belot), on the other hand, players from USA grew up playing Poker.
I found that is harder for me to play against USA players rather than rest of the world.
Your opinion? Am i right or wrong?

Click to expand...

At the start of what, the poker boom?? My guess is Americans may be somewhat behind the times now due to Black Friday, except for those who became poker refugees to continue grinding on Stars.

There are amazing poker players from all over the globe. USA prob has the biggest concentration of great players though if I had to guess.