World Cup of Poker: Spain are the brand new Champions!

Spain is the tenth annual World Cup of Poker champion - upsetting Canada in a fiercely contested final.

On Saturday 140 players paid the 100K play chip entry fee to the no limit hold'em heads-up final. Of these players only 38 were Spanish, leaving them at a vital disadvantage with just over 1 / 4 of the sphere representing the eu nation.

As it got to the business end of the tournament, Canada had held onto their advantage with ten of the last 16. A poor round though saw six in their number fall in comparison to just two Spaniards - leaving it evenly poised at four players apiece.

Honours remained even throughout the quarter final and semi final, with a good choice of players being eliminated from either side. With just two players to move it will all be settled by a single heads-up match between 'minnie2354' from Spain and 'scottycel' from Canada.

It was a brief and feisty affair, with neither player showing a willingness to grind out a result. It came to the 20 th hand of the match when 'scottycel', having just given up the chip lead, made a gigantic pre-flop raise with king-queen. 'Minnie2354' smelled blood and moved all in with ace-ten, which was quickly called. The board ran out ten-high, handing the victory to Spain.

'Minnie2354' earned 64M chips for claiming probably the most prestigious title in team poker for her country, while 'scottycel' picked up 38M for his efforts in falling just short.

Meanwhile, within the third place playoff match Kazakhstan deservedly saw off Italy. They'd all of it wrapped up by the semi-final stage with all four participants hailing from the Central Asian country. In any case it was 'pavlino277' that secured the consolation victory and 23M chips.

Here is the contest bracket in full:

Click to enlarge image

To discover more concerning the World Cup of Poker please visit the dedicated homepage.

Read More... [Source: PokerStarsBlog.com]