I've played against quite a few Russian players online, and my experience has generally been positive. Many of them seem to be well studied, aggressive when the spot calls for it, and tough to play against. Of course, every player is different, so I try not to judge anyone based on where they're from. I focus more on their playing style than their nationality.
Poker is also an option to earn money to buy food. I saw a Russian friend say that she is retired and poker helps supplement her income. With the suspension of Russian players, many people were harmed in terms of their income that came from poker.
Are you serious? Most online players from Russia are grinders / regs, and they are often among the toughest opponents, you will come across in micro and low stakes games. When I play on ACR Poker or GG Poker, I am certainly not excited to see a bunch of russian players at my table. I am much more happy, if there are many americans or canadians, because this is, where a lot of the recreational money comes from 🙂ExMoroccan said:
I think Russian poker players have a strong reputation in the poker world. There are many very talented players from Russia who are known for being aggressive, technically skilled, and willing to study the game seriously. Like players from any country, though, you can't really judge someone just by where they are from because every table has different personalities and playing styles. The best way is always to pay attention to the individual player, their tendencies, and how they approach the game.
No nationalities are "banned" from online poker, but no poker site operate in every single country on earth. For instance PartyPoker left the swedish market a few years ago, and WPT Global has never entered the swedish market in the first place. So people living in Sweden can not play on these two sites, but that does not mean, swedish nationals are "banned". If a swedish national move to a country, where either of those sites operate, then they can play there just like everyone else living in the same country.CaioRJ said:
Some sites including PokerStars left the russian market in 2022. This was an indirect consequence of Russias full scale invasion of Ukraine, because russian banks got kicked out of the global SWIFT system as part of a sanctions package. Which left PokerStars without any way to pay out players in Russia, because PokerStars dont want to engage in crypto transactions. But other sites do engage in crypto transactions, and people living in Russia can still play on for instance GG Poker and ACR Poker.
Sites like GG Poker, PokerStars, WPT Global and many others also dont operate in the US market, because online gambling is illegal there, and they either made a deal with the US DOJ (PokerStars) or simply choose to obey US laws, because they hope to one day be able to enter a legal regulated US market. But this does not mean, US citizens are "banned" from those sites.
They can still play there, if they move to places like Mexico, Honduras, Costa Rica, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and so on and so forth. So when you see someone playing from one of these countries, there is at least a chance, this is an american citizen, who live there as an expat. Especially if its some kind of grinder/regular.
This is a really old post, that's for sure. But it's still valuable today as it was then. A Russian player's fish and maniacal? Just because we don't understand, or you don't understand how a player plays the way they do, doesn't mean they're maniacal. Many players talk about Fedor Holz and say how lucky he is. He's crazy. He does things that people don't. Yet he's one of the top, well at least he was one of the top ten money winners in the world. He's still winning titles, playing on the high circuits. Just because I see a Russian flag if I'm playing, I wouldn't think of them as a fish. They're more of a challenge, and they may be one of the tough ones. Just like South America, like with Argentina and Brazil. I've heard so many people talk about them being bad players. But they're not necessarily bad. It's just not the style that you or I may play. I think putting anybody or any nationality into a pot is a mistake. As for if they're banned to play, I'm not in Russia, so I can't say what they do live. But they're playing online, and frankly, I think the Russian players are actually very good. Of course there's fish. Of course there's idiots. Of course there's maniacs. But that happens everywhere. Whether it's American, European, Asian, it doesn't matter. There's always going to be bad players and maniacs from each and every area. As for the Asians, I understand why people don't want to necessarily play against them. But if you underestimate them, that's a mistake. Many of them are very solid, good players. And again, just like with the Russians, don't judge them on what you see, or what you think you're seeing. Look at their results, guys. They're good too.
Russians may be solid or live at small stakes . I wouldn't recommend playing big stakes against 2 or more of them at a time . There is lots of evidence of real time assistance usage , collusion and bot farms in many Eastern European countries .