Oh, huh, whaddya know … another international team event. Yep, this concept of national pride meets team poker ain\’t going nowhere. (You know who you are who said that, dumbshit(s) ha ha.)
We\’ve got the Caesar\’s Cup coming up at WSOP-Europe, PokerStars has their America\’s Cup of Poker, there\’s another new op taking shape called World Team Poker … and at the APT-Macau tourney going on right now, they just had the JBET Battle of Nations, where the Koreans — represented by Brandon Wong, Chino Rheem, and Steve Sung — outmuscled the Vietnamese Le brothers — Nam, Tommy, and Allan — to take down an HK$406,000 first prize. (US$52,400.)
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I don\’t quite understand how it worked — teams of 3 playing macro-heads-up on 6-handed tables? — but click below for more details … I\’m sure it was a good time; team poker always is … and with all these events I think it\’s clear that team poker will indeed become a part of the true-to-life poker landscape … making the real question now: which format is gonna stick? I dunno, maybe I\’m jumping the gun … but the Winter Olympics, World Cup 2010 … how can flags not be coming into fashion on the poker table and off?
KOREA TRIUMPH IN INAUGURAL JBET BATTLE OF THE NATIONS EVENT IN MACAU!
2009 ASIAN POKER TOUR MACAU MAIN EVENT UNDERWAY TODAYMacau – 20th August 2009 – It was glory for Korea in the inaugural JBET Battle of the Nations event at the 2009 Asian Poker Tour Macau Festival. Dominant throughout the event, all three members of Team Korea advanced to the final table en route to their comprehensive victory.
The team of Brandon Wong and Poker Pack pros David ‘Chino’ Rheem and Steve Sung garnered 106 points to win the overall team championship before the final table even began. The Vietnamese team, which was composed of brothers Nam Le, Tommy Le, and Allan Le, was second with 89 points. For the team win, the Koreans picked up the HK $406,060 team championship prize.
David ‘Chino’ Rheem said: “We’re all delighted that the Korean team picked up first place and that our win was so comprehensive. Halfway through I really thought it was going to be our day. It is always fantastic to win any poker tournament but it gives you something extra when national pride is at stake too!â€
The top two individual awards, though, went to members of the Vietnamese contingent. Allan Le won the top player award for a prize of HK $95,700 while his brother and Poker Pack member Nam Le picked up HK $52,200 for second. Third place went to David ‘Chino’ Rheem, who went home with HK $26,100.
The JBET Battle of the Nations event was the ninth side event at the 2009 Asian Poker Tour Macau. Amongst the teams that took part included 888Poker Team Australia, sponsored by 888.com and captained and managed by James Potter – the line-up included 2009 Aussie Millions Main Event winner Stewart Scott. Team USA and Vietnam teams featured Poker Pack stars JC Tran, Quinn Do and Nam Le. Hong Kong was represented by the likes of 2009 Asian Poker Tour Macau High Rollers winner David Steicke and the legendary Johnny Chan. Vivek Rajkumar led the line for India, David Chiu was a key member of Team China, while Theo Tran was a flag bearer for Canada. One surprise package was the team from Belarus, featuring PartyPoker.com online qualifiers, while Japan also brought a strong side.
The JBET Battle of the Nations was a unique team no limit hold’em tournament. Teams were composed of three members from the same country. Teams faced each other, with all tables six-handed. There were13 teams of three, featuring 39 players. Every place was worth one point (eg. finish 39th you win one point). The top three players left and the winning team scooped the prize pool. The buy-in for the event was HK$48,000. 70% of the prize pool went to the winning team with the other 30% went to the top three players. Overseeing the action was the world’s leading Tournament Director Matt Savage.
The Asian Poker Tour Macau hosts over 20 events with 15 official side events. Amongst the online networks sending players are The Ongame Network, the iPoker Network and PartyPoker.com. In addition, online rooms BWin, PKR, Dafa Poker, JBET Poker, Betfriends, 888.com, Titan Poker, RedKings, 32Red, ChiliPoker, Winamax, BetSafe, PafPoker and PokerLoco are in on the action guaranteeing a significant online qualifier contingent. Sponsors of the side events and collaterals include the Hong Kong Game Club, DafaPoker, Dafa888, The Poker King Movie, JBet, PartyPoker.com, BWin, Zipang Casino, 777babycasino and PKR.The buy-in for the Main Event is set at HK$34,400.
Full details can be found at http://www.asianpt.com/Videos capturing the action and atmosphere at the festival can be found at: http://www.asianpt.com/videos
The event has already been successful for the Asian Poker Tour Ambassadors, ‘The Poker Pack’ with David Chino Rheem and Quinn Do both taking down side events.
