Not too long ago, we reported how James Bord made the boast that no American would win the 2011 WSOPE Main Event because European players had advanced past their US counterparts in terms of poker skill. Bord even put himself at risk by adding, “I’m prepared to put my money where my mouth is and refund any losing bets up to $500 if an American wins.”
The bets that Bord was backing were at the MatchBook sports betting site, and it appears as if his comments were a PR stunt for MatchBook. Even still, Bord did make the original comments, and now somebody is going to have to pay losing bets made on European players since American Elio Fox won the WSOPE Main Event. The 2010 WSOPE Main Event champion tweeted Ben Lamb about the whole ordeal by typing:
Looking for new employment @BenbaLamb can I be the waterboy for you’re Nov9 final table!
Bord also proved to be a good sport about having to eat his word by sending this tweet to Fox:
Congrats @Smokrokflock Please don’t visit Matchbook head office anytime soon 
The Brit further explained why he made comments about Americans being inferior players as he said, “World Series of Poker Europe is special to Europeans, maybe the same way that the WSOP in Las Vegas is special to Americans. We’d like to build this event into what we all know it can be because poker’s massive in Europe.”
To hear James Bord dive a little deeper into his statements does make sense because it can’t feel good having US players come across the pond and win the WSOPE Main Event three out of five years. So far, John Juanda won in 2008, Barry Shulman won in 2009, and now Fox has won in 2010. The only non-US winners are Norwegian Annette Obrestad in 2007, and Bord in 2010.
