With the 2016 Summer Olympics now in full swing, and only weeks far from the latest World Series of Poker, the similarities between both events are striking.
The greatest players from every conceivable game, variant, and discipline gather to compete at the grandest stage, each vying for the hardware which defines excellence within their field. Hundreds of nations are proudly represented, so patriotism is usually within the air whenever a countrywide anthem signals the beginning of a long-awaited celebration.
And every so often, an elite individual effort transcends all the affair, leaving the sector to observe in wonder as one person pushes the limits of what's possible.
Whether it's American swimming legend Michael Phelps winning gold thrice to start out his Summer Games, or Jason Mercier nearly doing the similar to kick off this year's WSOP, these international spectacles have some way of bringing out the easiest within the elite competitors who attend.
Along with impressive personal performances, the Olympics also provide a platform for countries to check their collective mettle.
As the games continue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, the us tops the present medal count, both relating to gold (28) and total podium appearances (86). Great Britain sits in second-place in terms of gold (19), and third in overall medals (50). Conversely, China has won the third-most gold medals (17), and is second only to the U.S... overall (51).
But how would the medal leaderboard look if we turned the focal point back to the opposite Rio? That is what PokerNews desired to know, so we dove deep into the information to return up with the next WSOP medal count analysis.
For the sake of this discussion, bracelet wins are pretty much as good as gold medals, while runner-up finishes equate to silver-medal showings, and third-place results return the bronze.
The Main Event have been paused pending the November Nine, leaving a complete of 68 completed bracelet events on the 2016 WSOP. With three podium spots apiece, there would routinely be 204 "medals" won over the process the summer, however the addition of a brand new $1,000 Tag-Team No-Limit Hold'em event added four more medals to the equation (one extra bracelet, plus two more silvers for the three-player runner-up team, and an extra bronze to the two-man third-place tandem).
All told, 208 medals were won during greater than six weeks of WSOP action, and predictably, the us took home many of the hardware.
American Medal Count
| USA | 53 | 41 | 45 | 139 |
In winning 53 of the 69 bracelets awarded, American players dominated the proceedings altogether, while adding 41 silver medals and taking the bronze 45 times.
Mercier's incredible gold-silver-gold blitz within the prestigious $10,000 Championship level events, on his solution to securing eventual Player of the Year honors, highlighted Team USA's tear.
Ian Johns was another star, joining Mercier within the double-bracelet club.
And even if it's likely little consolation, Justin Bonomo would've been probably the most decorated medalist on the WSOP Olympiad, earning two silvers and two bronzes while just missing out on his second career bracelet. That makes five runner-up results and 3 third-place finishes at the WSOP stage for Bonomo over his career, making him kindred spirits of varieties with American swimmer Shirley Babashoff, who won six silver medals throughout the 1972 and 1976 games to tie for probably the most consolation prizes in Olympic history.
But even considering those impressive hauls, of the 101,096 total entries spanning every event however the Main, American players accounted for 84,027 buy-ins — or 83.1 percent of the combined WSOP field. When judged on a proportional basis, the U.S... contingent actually came up quite short, putting themselves at the podium with a first, second, or third-place finish just 66.8 percent of the time.
This was an assault in response to volume alone, because the Americans needed to make the money 11,914 times with the intention to register 139 podium placements — or one medal result for each 85 cashes.
Germany, at the other hand, was a lot more efficient in its use of entries and cashes, making the country's performance because the top international medal earner the entire more impressive. Players hailing from Germany lodged just 1,169 entries over the summer, but they parlayed those right into a pair of bracelet wins, four runner-up finishes, and 3 more third-place runs.
Led by the dynamic duo of George Danzer and Fedor Holz, German players found the rostrum nine times — tying them with Canada for the second-most total medals — to win 4.3 percent of all medals awarded while contributing only 1.1 percent of combined entries. In all, German players cashed on 267 occasions, and right around one out of each 30 of these added to their table-topping medal count.
International Medal Count
| Germany | 2 | 4 | 3 | 9 |
| Canada | 1 | 3 | 5 | 9 |
| England | 3 | 2 | 1 | 6 |
| Australia | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 |
| Belgium | 1 | 4 | 0 | 5 |
| Russia | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
| Spain | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| China | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Austria | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Bulgaria | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| France | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| Sweden | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Ireland | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Italy | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Finland | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Czech Rep. | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Costa Rica | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Greece | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Hungary | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Scotland | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Venezuela | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Israel | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Lebanon | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Wales | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
Canada posted just a single bracelet winner, but Kristin Bicknell's big win in Event #46: $1,500 Bounty NLHE was supplemented by five bronzes. In fact, Canada's propensity for taking third represented the most important haul of a selected medal by any non-U.S. country all summer. Along side three silvers, America's northern neighbors earned nine medals overall, tying them with Germany for the international lead.
It took 4,586 total entries for Canada, however, so Germany was near to four times as efficient with its entry-to-medal ratio.
The Canadian team was also quite unique in that each one nine of its medals were won by different players, without a repeat appearances at the podium. Joining Bicknell were Mike Watson (silver), Timothy Vukson (silver), Michael Gentili (silver), Tyler Bonkowski (bronze), Kam Low (bronze), Chris Kruk (bronze), William Liang (bronze), and Marc-Olivier Carpentier-Perrault (bronze).
England rode the stellar showing of Benny Glaser and his pair of bracelet wins to a third-place at the international medal table, appearing at the podium six times overall.
Interestingly, within the genuine Olympics, England's athletes are joined by those of fellow Uk members Scotland and Wales to form the good Britain squad. Both Scotland and Wales managed a single medal apiece on the WSOP, with Welshman Roberto Romanello taking bronze in Event #17: ($1,000 NLHE), and Scot Niall Farrell securing the silver in Event #50: ($1,500 NLHE Shootout).
So all told, a team representing all of serious Britain on the WSOP would have upped England's medal count from six to eight, putting them one off the total lead.
Australia turned in a particularly balanced slate of tournaments, landing five different players at the podium: Martin Kozlov (gold), Craig Blight (silver), James Obst (silver), Michael Addamo (bronze), and Jarred Graham (bronze).
With only 955 total entries to work with, Australia also managed to profit from a limited slate, handing over one medal performance for each 191 buy-ins. Considered alongside Brazil, which did not produce a single podium finish in 970 total entries, Australia's performance is made the entire more impressive.
Balance wasn't within the cards for Belgium, as Michael Gathy single-handedly secured three of his homeland's five medals — winning a bracelet in Event #35: $5,000 Six-Handed NLHE, while settling for silver twice more.
Of the 107 nations represented on the WSOP, only 11 managed to sign up for America within the winner's circle with a bracelet win: England (three), Germany (two), Russia (two), Spain (two), Sweden (two), Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, and Finland.
Expanded to podium appearances, 24 flags flew alongside the celebs and stripes following medal wins, a various group which contains U.K. members Scotland and Wales, Lebanon and Israel from the center East, the Latin American locales of Venezuela and Costa Rica, and Hungary and the Czech Republic in Central Europe.
Aside from the aforementioned tag-team tournament, the WSOP differs from the Olympics in a single crucial way: individual talent rules the day.
Countrymen compete against each other at the felt, a practically remarkable prospect for Olympic athletes, or even essentially the most talented countries can succumb to friendly fire. Multiple-medalists like Mercier and Bonomo must buckle down and do thousands of others on their method to repeated podium appearances, in a grueling process that is not all that different from the rigorous qualification system used to set national team rosters sooner than the Games.
Of the greater than 100,000 entries recorded this summer, representing 107 different nations, 15,767 players managed to make the cash with no less than a minimum cash.
Only 17 of those, or 0.11 percent of cashing players, managed to medal greater than once by notching multiple finishes of no less than first, second, or third place.
Like Phelps and his fellow U.S.A. Swimming superstar Katie Ladecky, these are the outliers; players in a position to quieting their nerves and summoning their superior skills even if others around them falter and fade away.
Top Individual Performances
| Justin Bonomo | USA | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
| Jason Mercier | USA | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 |
| Michael Gathy | Belgium | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 |
| John Monnette | USA | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Benny Glaser | England | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Ian Johns | USA | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| Brandon Shack-Harris | USA | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Rafael Lebron | USA | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Loren Klein | USA | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Ryan D’Angelo | USA | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| George Danzer | Germany | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Marco Johnson | USA | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Koray Aldemir | Poland | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Tommy Le | USA | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Randy Ohel | USA | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Dan Smith | USA | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Yequi Zhu | China | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
Among this select group of multiple medalists is a more exclusive club, as a handful happened to make their mark within the $10,000 and $50,000 Championship-level tournaments.
As mentioned above, all three of Mercier's podium finishes occurred at the Championship level, as he won Event #16: $10,000 2-7 Single Drawand Event #24 $10,000: H.O.R.S.E to bookend a runner-up lead to Event #20: $10,000 Razz.
Bonomo also landed three medals in Championship events, taking silver in Event #55: $50,000 Poker Players Championship, and bronze in both Event #39: $10,000 Six-Handed No Limit Hold'em and Event #43: $10,000 Stud Hi-Low.
In the latter, Bonomo was busted by eventual victor Danzer, who scored either one of his medals in Championship events. Together with his fourth career bracelet within the stud hi-low, Danzer finished third in Event #3: $10,000 Stud Championship.
With yet one more bracelet event left to settle, the approaching November Nine will produce three more medal winners.
Canada's Griffin Benger enters the principle Event final table sitting with a seventh-place chip stack, but when he's capable of maneuver his method to the podium, he'll push his homeland into the whole international lead. German representation on the November Nine is nil, leaving Canada's route to an undisputed medal count triumph clear for Benger.
Kenny Hallaert has the fourth-largest stack left in play, and a medal for him would increase Belgium's already impressive haul to 6 — good for a tie with England in third place overall.
If Vojtech Ruzicka can spin up his sixth-place stack right into a place at the Main Event podium, he'll double the Czech Republic's count from one to two.
And even supposing he's riding the fast stack, Fernando Pons has an outdoor chance to transport Spain out of the present five-nation gridlock at three total medals into more rarefied air.
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