A big deal has been made in the past couple of years about how many Russians and Italians have been jumping into the game of online poker. And there is certainly plenty of evidence to support how many people are getting into poker from these countries due to the large amount of pros and bracelet winners who have come from Russia and Italy over the past few years. But moving past what’s already discussed all the time, I’ve noticed that a large amount of Hungarians are getting into poker recently too.
I saw this trend after reading about a study done by the National Poker Association (not quite the PPA) that revolved around a Hungarian pro by the name of Peter Trapley. Trapley, like many successful online players before him, has made an outstanding living over the past couple of years by playing online poker. He’s earned over $500,000 and has only just recently graduated from college.
And sure $500k over a few years isn’t amazing when compared to the exploits of durrrr and Patrik Antonius, but you’ve also got to keep in mind that Trapley is from Hungary. Hungary has a 10% unemployment rate and the average salary in this nation is about $6,800 a year. So if you’re making $500k over a few years then you’re pretty much a millionaire in Hungary.
Seeing as how stories of people like Trapley have made it around Hungary, there are plenty of other people there trying to make poker their primary job now. In fact, 1 out of every 40 Hungarians consider online or live poker to be a job which means 250,000 of the country’s 10 million residents are using the felt for income. It won’t be long before we start seeing this trend show up in the WSOP and other big tourneys.