James Bord Calls US Poker Players Less Skilled

James Bord, the 2010 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event champion, has gone on record as saying that European players are more skilled at poker than Americans and he expects this year’s winner to be from Europe. The 30-year-old Brit has backed up his boast by offering to refund any bets if an American should win the title this year.

“I don’t think an American can win the bracelet, Europeans are now far superior,” Bord said. “We used to look up to the U.S. players back in the day, but those days are now long gone. I’m prepared to put my money where my mouth is and refund any losing bets up to $500 if an American wins.”

Bord took home £830,401 by winning the event last year. His pocket 10’s held up against Fabrizio Baldassari’s smaller pair of pocket 5’s in the tourney’s final hand. The former banker, who describes himself as a “mixed games cash player,” splits his time between Las Vegas and London, often playing in $300-600 or $400-800 cash games while in Vegas.

Needless to say, many American players were not too enthused with Bord’s comments. “Serious arrogance and comments from a guy who, barring one miracle championship, has a very pedestrian record in poker,”  American poker pro Kevin Iacofano tweeted.

Bord has landed in-the-money in a total of seven WSOP events, with lifetime earnings of more than $1.9 million. He counts Sam Trickett as one of his closest friends and has said that Trickett taught him [geolink href=”https://www.pokernewsreport.com/online-poker-games”]how to play poker[/geolink]. Trickett is coming off a fourth place finish in the 2011 WSOPE £5,300 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha Event, earning £77,642.

Bord was the first WSOPE Main Event champion from Britain. In the previous three years of the event’s existence, the titles went to Americans John Juanda and Barry Schulman in 2008 and 2009, respectively. Annette Obrestad from Norway took home the bracelet in the event’s inaugural year of 2007.