Few words muster as much anticipation and excitement as "World Cup of Poker". The ninth running of the Cup begins today, a highlight not just of the PCA schedule, but of the poker calendar in general, for few events can compete in levels of sheer unadulterated complication as this innovative favourite.
It's the tournament that defines complexity, bringing together nine national teams within the Bahamas for 2 days of seat-of-your-pants poker that regularly eclipses the principle event for tension because it goes all the way down to the wire.
The winner of the PCA main event will likely reach the pages of newspapers across the world, but World Cup of Poker winners can enthrall a whole nation. Within the streets of Taipei they still discuss the side that won in Season six, the players given hero's welcomes as they hit the tarmac.
What's the appeal in an event dominated by amateurs as opposed to any high profile names? Well, something in it transcends regular poker tournaments. We have seen grown men laugh, cry and nearly come to blows. Sure, there's money to be won, an entire $22,500 each to the winners, with prizes for everybody. There's even a $2,500 for probably the most Valuable Player. But nobody would say it was a life changing amount. Instead, national pride drives the competition, that is great, as it means people more readily overlook how complicated it sometimes gets.
The World Cup of Poker about to start
Rumour has it, that the principles to the arena Cup of Poker were originally the results of an unlimited collection of monkeys hitting keys at random on an old typewriter for a limiteless period of time. The outcome, printed in black and white, is the format for this year's cup, which today will play out as follows:
Who are those participants? Let's meet the teams:
Team Canada - Captain Adrienne "talonchick" Rowsome
John Schindler, Robert Hordejuk, Bradley E.Marsh and Justin Mackay
Team Brazil - Captain Andre Akkari
Tiago Cecilio, Victor Hugo Cativo, Douglas Ferreira Souza and Pablo Brito Silva
Team Germany - Captain Jan Heitman
Stefan Ludwig, Matthias Frost, Michael Forster and Pascal Hartmann
Team Bulgaria - Captain Svetoslav Yordanov
Stoyan Danailov, Velizar Yordanov, Tonyu Tonew and Mihail Stoykov
Team Belgium - Captain Christophe de Meulder
Kevin Callebaut, Philippe Daemen, Leandro Gaone and Quentin Dellis
Team Russia - Captain Ivan Demidov
Dmitriy Kulikov, Anton Yakuba, Ismael Erkenov and Maksim Tyurin
Team Tajikistan - Captain Maksimov Andrey Dmitrievich
Parvin Sharifovich Majidov, Akmal Sultanov, Firuz Khasanov and Shamshold Niyatbekov
Team Japan - Captain Naoya Kihara
Ippei Nishiyama, Susuma Toge, Yoshiihiko Kanno and Nobuyuki Tanaka
Team France - Captain Julien Brecard
Hugo Roger, Jerome Arnoux, Fabien Flahaut and Matthieu Holveck
The scoring is understated. No it isn't. Each player will score points for his or her team dependent on their finishing position. Within the heads-up round a win is worth 5 points with 10 points for a team victory. If a team sweeps another it's worth 15 points.
The winner's trophy
In the sit & go rounds points may also be awarded to players in step with finishing position, with 10 points to the winner, all the way down to one point for the ninth place finisher. AN ANALOGOUS system works within the short handed sit & gos, with levels in each round QUARTER-HOUR long and starting stacks of 3,000 chips.
Play will end for the day after all of the three rounds are completed. Players will then return tomorrow to play more rounds in an effort to determine the brand new champions.
If it sounds fantastic this is because it's fantastic, without anyone having the ability to nail down why. Either way, it's game on.
Stephen Bartley is a PokerStars Blog reporter
Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com :: World Cup of Poker]
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