Sweden, previously best known for its blonde women, saunas and ABBA, is now a famous for exporting fearless, aggressive, and ultimately successful poker players to tournaments around the world.

The PartyPoker Nations Cup tournament proved no exception. The Swedes began the tournament with a strong team, including two WSOP bracelet winners in Anders Henriksson and Mats Rahm alongside the famous pros Johan “Striker” Storakers and William Thorsson.

But the Swedes were by no means the favourites, as the USA and defending champions Great Britain also put out extremely strong teams, with Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Laak, Robert Williamson III, Clonie Gowen, Kevin O’Donnell and Jennifer Tilly representing the US, while the UK could count Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot, Ram “CrazyHorse” Vaswani and Joe “The Elegance” Beevers among their ranks.

Holland, with Marcel Luske, were also well represented, as were Germany and Denmark.

On paper Sweden, Great Britain and the US were the strongest teams, and as the tournament progressed their greater experience did indeed begin to tell. The Germans were the first team eliminated, and they were quickly followed by Denmark and Holland, leaving the three big guns to battle it out.

The US, despite getting off to a shaky start, took the advantage when play became three handed, mainly due to some excellent play by Antonio Esfandiari. When Robert Williamson III took over from Esfandiari and soon eliminated the Devilfish the US had accumulated almost all the chips in play and began the heads-up stage with an 8-1 chip advantage over Sweden.

But Anders Henriksson is a master in these situations, typifying the infamous coolness of Swedish poker players. He remained calm and focused despite the perilous situation and gradually began to turn things around, first doubling up and then powering his way to victory.

Bo Sehlstedt, Captain of the Swedish team, said afterwards: “I have won bigger sums of money but this is a real career highlight, I am so proud of my team. Anders is one of the best players around right now, he just doesn't seem to lose. Even when we were almost out I was scared but confident that Anders can beat anybody shorthanded even from such a weak position.”

Meanwhile the losing US captain Robert Williamson III could only bemoan his failure, explaining “I don’t need a bar right now, I need a doctor.”