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Considering the size of Finland and the fact that the local casino and poker room scene is virtually non-existent, the fact that Finland is home to some of the most respected (and feared) poker players on the planet, says a great deal about the character and perhaps even the fierce competitiveness of Finns.

Poker history is filled with breakout players dating back to the early 1970’s, except in the case of Finnish players. The internet poker boom in the early part of the 2000’s gave birth to the Finnish pro. Universally the Finnish players brought a wildly aggressive style to the table. For some time, the other internet players referred to them as “fish” a poker term for weak, exploitable players. They also had a tendency to lump them all into the “Scandinavian” category. Those players soon learned (usually as they saw their chips being pushed to “fish”) that their read was totally incorrect and that the Finns, while technically Scandinavian, were in a category of their own.

Determining who the top players in the poker world are is a somewhat tricky problem. The only reliable and verifiable method is to rank players based on their tournament results. Tournament poker, however, is only a part of many players’ poker career. Finnish players have excelled in both.

Juha Helppi

Like many poker players, Helppi got his start in gambling as a dealer; unlike many of those professional players, Helppi was a croupier, not a poker dealer, in Helsinki. Prior to be introduced to poker by some friends, he was a champion paintball player. Like many other poker players around the world, he was also an avid Magic: The Gathering Player.

Many poker fans and players got their first introduction to Finnish players by Juha’s appearance on one of the first World Poker Tour broadcasts from Aruba. After winning his seat in the Aruba tournament, he bested a field of amateur players in Aruba, which earned him a seat in a single table tournament where he faced five professional players. His aggressive style earned Helppi his first major victory after he defeated poker pro Phil Gordon in heads-up competition.

His victory convinced him to try poker professionally, which has turned out to be a very good career decision. His tournament earnings are approaching $5.5 million.

Patrik Antonious

Patrik Antonious’ is arguably the best-known Finnish poker player in the world. He came to poker after a career in professional tennis and, not surprisingly, modeling. While Antonius has tournament winnings which near $7 million, he is better known for his skill and aggression at the cash tables. He excels at both Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha. He holds the title for winning the largest single pot in online poker history ($1.35 million). He plays in some of the largest cash games in the world in Macau. The combination of his skills, aggression, and good looks has also made his a regular on televised poker broadcasts around the world.

Ilari Sahamies

Like many Finnish players Ilari Sahamies, who is better known as “Ziigmund” in the poker world, was introduced to poker by playing at a friend’s house. In his case that friend was Patrik Antonious who he met while playing billiards. While Sahamies tournament earnings are “only” in the $1.5 million range, his has earned that amount many times playing cash games and he is considered on the best high stakes Pot Limit Omaha players in the world. Like Helppi and Antonious, Sahamies is an active online player, where he has over $4 million in online cash game winnings. Ziigmund is one of Finland’s more colorful players. In addition to his aggression, on both the virtual and real world, tables he is one of the most talkative players at the table and takes particular delight in verbally taunting his opponents.

Ziigmund is in many ways the more typical Finnish player, as most are cash game specialists. Players like Jani Sointula, Ville Wahlbeck, Sami Kelopuro, and Jens Kyllonen pop up on the tournament circuit from time to time but do not have as high of a profile with poker fans as the others on the list. However all are respected by the players at the cash games both online and in casino poker rooms.

Gambling is a major part of Finnish life. The ubiquitous slot machines are everywhere and the low minimum age for playing means that Finns learn to gamble at an early age.

One recent incident may be an indication that there is more to the success of Finnish players at casino games than just availability.

Earlier this year, former Miss Finland Sara Chafak participated in Shark Cage, a broadcasted poker tournament powered by PokerStars. The Shark Cage pits professional and amateur players against one another for a $1 million top prize. In one of the first hands of the tournament Chafak made major bets on every betting while heads up against a seasoned pro will on a total bluff. While most of the table, even her opponent to a degree, wanted to have the beautiful Chafak at the table as long as possible, a million dollars is a lot of money and the pro eventually folded the best hand to Chafak’s aggression. The hand instantly became an internet sensation as poker players worldwide watched the amateur make a play that would be commonplace for Antonious and Sahamies but almost unheard of from an amateur.

So perhaps, there is something in the basic Finnish DNA or the cultural makeup of the country that leads to players who are not only aggressive but also incredibly successful. Taking into account that the history of professional poker in Finland is only slightly more than a decade, poker players may well be advised to protect their bankroll and avoid taking a seat at the table if they are facing a Finn now or in the future.

The Non-Invasive Prenatal Test (NIPT) is a DNA test on maternal blood to safely and reliably screen pregnancies for the most common fetal aneuploidies Trisomy 21 (Down syndrome), Trisomy 18 (Edwards syndrome) and Trisomy 13 (Edwards syndrome).The fetal sex can also be determined.

Although NIPT can be performed without specific indication, it might be most appropriate in pregnancies with an increased risk for fetal aneuploidy based upon a high maternal age (> 40 yrs) or abnormal result of the first trimester screening. In these cases NIPT is an alternative for invasive tests, where there is a risk of a miscarriage. The reliability of NIPT results is very high (more than 99% for Down syndrome), which is much higher than the reliability of first trimester screening (80 %)

The maternal blood can be taken from week 10 of the pregnancy. The sample has to be sent by Express mail to GENDIA‘s lab in Antwerp, Belgium, and arrive there within 2 days of withdrawal.
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Finnish people love gambling. That is a fact. You can see slot machines in every supermarket and the casinos are always full of people. For many young Finnish people, playing onlinevhas become their number 1 hobby or even their most steady source of economical income. It is notorious the cool temperament of Finnish in their everyday life, not easy for a foreign person to read their thoughts. That behavior extrapolated to gambling makes them really ferocious opponents that mix an attitude cold as ice together with a determination hot as a sauna.

Among those players, there are some professional poker players ranked among the best in the world. Probably the top Finnish player is Patrick “Pate” Antonius who resides nowadays in Monaco and has earn more than 5 million dollars during his career, having won among other titles the European Poker Tour.

It is also common for some players to alternate playing both live and online tournaments. That is the case of Juha Helppi who started working as a dealer and combines online with real tournaments, being the only Finn who has won the WTP.

One video that has gone viral lately is the one showing ex Miss Finland Sara Chafak during her participation in the Shark Cage poker TV show held in Barcelona that features celebrities and professional poker players battling for a price of 1 million dollars. Following the tradition of aggressiveness that Finnish poker players tend to show, she was able to win with an amazing bluff to pro player Ronnie Bardah while the other players and the audience got astonished by the performance of the beautiful lady.

Every Saturday night hundreds of thousands Finns gather around their TV sets for the national Lottery draw. The lottery is organized by the national betting company Veikkaus and it’s quite simply called “Lotto”. Lotto has been played since the end of 1970 and it has created around 1 500 millionaires along the years (large share of those naturally during the time before euro). Nowadays there’s also the Viking Lotto, drawn on Wednesdays and played also in other Nordic countries and the in Baltic states. Another popular newcomer is the Eurojackpot, played in altogether 16 European countries. The largest jackpot in the history of Eurojackpot was won by a Finnish player based in Espoo, in September 2014 – 61.1 million euros!

Of course there are other ways for Finns to chase their millionaire dream. Finland really offers only one true land-based casino, based in Helsinki. Taking this into account, it’s no wonder that Finnish casino players direct their interest to the Internet when looking for gaming options. And that naturally multiplies the available options. Problem is that it’s hard to know which online casino are not only reliable but which offer services tailored specially for the Finnish market. There’s a number of so called netticasino sites offering useful information to those who want to try their luck, like for example www.netticasinosuomi.info. There are plenty of different types of lottery games online, too, if lottery really is the way to get your fix of excitement.

And although Finland is pretty restrictive country when it comes down to gambling, the Finnish authorities have at least so far taken pretty relaxed or at least passive stand for playing on foreign-based sites. Finland is ranked pretty much on top positions when talking about press freedom, freedom of speech and related topics. Blocking access for legally operating websites wouldn’t really fit into that image, and that’s one reason such drastic measures haven’t been taken in regards to accessing online casinos from Finland.

There’s a modern Finnish proverb: “On lottovoitto syntyä Suomeen” which roughly translates as “Being born into Finland is like winning in the lottery”. Whether that now might be true or not depends on your perspective. But one thing is certain: Finns love their lotteries.

Jari Litmanen, the son of two footballers, carried on the family tradition in style. Litmanen’s father, Olavi played for Reipas and as a Finnish international player. His mother also played for Reipas at the highest level in women’s soccer in Finland.

In 1987, at the age of 16, Litmanen played for Reipas for the first time in what was the top division in Finland at the time, Mestaruusarja. Litmanen’s international football career began in 1989 and only ended in 2010. Between 1996 and 2008, he was the captain of choice for the Finnish national football team. In November 2003, while he was still playing professionally, the Football Association of Finland picked Litmanen as the best Finnish footballer of the previous 50 years.

Over the years, Litmanen has represented a number of clubs both in Finland and abroad. In Finland, he played with Reipas, MyPa, Lahti and HJK. Abroad, he played with Barcelona, Ajax, Hansa Rostrock, Malmö, and Liverpool.

In the 1993 – 94 season, Litmanen scored 26 goals, the top-scoring player in the league. In 1995, the midfielder made his name on an international level when he was playing with the Amsterdam team, Ajax, and won the Champions League.

Having started his international career in 1989, and playing into 2010 when he played with Finland against South Korea on 19 January 2010. Litmanen, also known as “Kuningas” or “The King” had earned the distinction of playing professional football in four different decades.

The King was voted as the Finnish Footballer of the Year in 1990, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, and 2000. He was voted as the Dutch Footballer of the Year in 1993, and as the Finnish Sports Personality of the Year in 1995.

With all these football achievements under his belt, Litmanen is also the face associated with the Betsson sports betting site at this time. Finland has also erected a statue of Litmanen in October 2010. He is the first team sport player in Finland to receive a statue. The statue stands at the place where Litmanen’s career began in the 1970s, at Kisapuisto (Lahti).

Related articles:

http://www.freemagazine.fi/the-hand-of-god-maradona-by-kusturica/
http://www.freemagazine.fi/euro-champions/

If you are a new visitor in the Finnish capital or just basically if you live in Helsinki, it is almost impossible that you spend many days without your steps guiding you around the Railway Station Square or “Rautatientori” as it is called in Finnish. I still remember the first time I stepped there and I was naively surprised to find many of the street signals written in both Finnish and Swedish languages.

Rautatientori is the spot where most of the foreign people get the real first contact with Helsinki, as trains from St. Petersburg arrive there as well as buses from Vantaa airport. Added to that, it is also the main point where all the local trains connect to destinations in Helsinki and nearby cities Espoo and Vantaa, as well as the most transited metro station and also the departing point of many bus lines on both sides of the Station building and also the trams that allow you more slowly and pleasantly to have a great view of the city.

Although relatively a new building, opening its doors in 1982, the Helsinki Railway station is also one of the most recognizable architectural work in Finland due to the unmistakeable two pair of statues holding spherical lamps that decorate the facade outside and that are widespread used in commercials and parodies, giving the station a unique “Gotham City alike” touch.

But not only the station itself is worthy to mention in the square. The visitor can pretty much find anything interesting to do in every corner of the station square. Around in a few meters the walker can see and visit the National Finnish Theatre and the Ateneum Museum if you are into arts and culture. For those who like tempting the luck live apart from gambling online in sites like casino.com, the Casino Helsinki is also located in the Railway Square surrounded by many interesting bars and restaurants to enjoy good food and relaxing drinks. And on winter there is also the possibility to practice ice skating in the ice rink located there.

Shopping is also pretty much just something that you can do walking a few meters away from the station, as you can find shopping malls just in front of the station and a few meters away like the infamous Sokos, Forum or Stockmann. The station has also a lot of R Kioski where travelers can load their travel cards and buy snacks and drinks apart from different fast food chain restaurants to have a tasty quick bite before continuing the journey. The main office of Helsinki Transportation Office is located also in Rautatientori, downstairs near the Metro entrance, and if you are a permanent resident of Helsinki you can get a transport card that can make your live much more easier to move around the city.

As you see, Rautatientori has just condensed almost everything that a visitor needs for enjoying the stay in Helsinki. Although we advise you just to visit as many areas as possible, do not waste your chance to investigate all the adventures that the emblematic Railway Station and its square have awaiting for you!