World Team Poker is the next “big event” in Las Vegas … gets underway at the Golden Nugget with a party tonight (of course) and cards in the air on Wednesday. The WTP will be the third big-dollar, made-for-TV attempt to bring team poker to Las Vegas (fourth if you include one that was canceled the weekend of) … and like all the rest, as the WTP teams came together, the usual on-camera stars lined up to get their airtime register. We can tell there is a definitive desire for team poker somewhere — why else would the pros keep showing up? — and everyone who ever plays in these events reports having an absolute blast. But for some reason or another, they often tend to falter.

Will the WTP be a matter of someone finally getting it right, or is there something inherent to the game itself that makes team tournament poker a concept that just can’t stick?

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It was a seemingly epic battle for a queen’s ransom that went well into the wee hours GMT … old-school poker in Poker’s N€w World, if you will.

And making his second consecutive go at the WSOP-E main-event title, runner-up Daniel Negreanu would come up two outs short of being “happy” that he just became the biggest winner in the history of tournament poker.

photo: The Tower / A World of Poker

Negreanu knocked out six of the other final table-ists to get heads-up. And yet in the end Barry Shulman — CardPlayer’s overlord emeritus — held strong in a war of presumably tight aggression to win £801,603 (= $1,283,687 USD). That, of course, is almost exactly the amount his son Jeff has been guaranteed for making the November Nine. No added pressure/father’s shadow issues for sure.

Negreanu’s second-place finish and £496k payday propelled him to the top of the all-time tourney-money leaderboard, passing Jamie Gold and Phil Ivey — who now needs to finish 6th-or-better this November to re-pass Negreanu as the winningest tournament player ever.

(Thanks, Lance, for the deets!)

Here’s video of the final two hands from The Casino at the Empire, Leicester Square:

(If for some reason the above vid disappears, you can find the original page here.)

For those of us debating how ESPN and PokerPROductions (a different film crew than the gang producing WSOP-LV episodes) should do their broadcasting jobs … it seems this 6-day event will be shown in 2 hours, not 20 … and that includes squeezing in the Caesar’s Cup! While that may not seem to do poker-junkie justice to a tournament that kept a bunch of us jaded, immune-to-tourney-hype types checking in on the action for more than 16 hours of final table play, I suppose movie-length could work, too.

UPDATE: Clarification of ESPN’s programming intent in the comments below (from ESPN sources who would know). They plan to give it way too much more coverage than implied above.

Click below for Nolan’s official write-up/script:

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And yet this time, he doesn’t even try to get camera-time, even though he’s holding the camera. Via twitvid … @Phil_Hellmuth gives us a tour into the bowels of the Casino at the Empire in Leicester Square, where, yes, he will indeed be making another uber-grand Caesar’s entrance for WSOP-Europe.

While I personally found it interesting to see the layout of the casino and how it fits innocuously within a cityscape, his encounters with Men the Master and Mike Matusow are also quite good.

Watch (a tired) Men for tells as Hellmuth calls him “the Vietnamese Godfather of Poker” and addresses when he will or will not get into the Hall of Fame. And hear Matusow explain why he thinks the Caesar’s Cup is a “farce” … he swears it’s not just because he didn’t get picked to play.

The final teams have been picked … Annette Obrestad and Daniel Negreanu did the equivalent of a coin flip when they drew for high-card … and now action is underway.

The WSOPE’s made-for-TV special event:

Team Europe is comprised of – Annette Obrestad, Peter Eastgate, Dario Minieri, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, Ilari Sahamies, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, and John Harvey – Betfair Qualifier.

Team Americas in comprised of – Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Huck Seed, John Juanda, Jennifer Harman, and Barry Greenstein.

Caesars Cup began at 1 pm on Friday, 25 September at the Empire Casino in London. Play is expected to last until Friday evening, when one team wins four match victories and wins poker’s ultimate bragging rights.

You can follow American coverage here. And for a European perspective, our friends at Betfair have it here.

Aww, sad for Annette_15: The European captain is the only player without a sponsorship patch, and it’s her site’s event!

Click below for a closer look at the trophy that Fake Phil Ivey is just dying to win. Says Fake Phil: “Winning this will be the pinnacle of my career. My patriotism is on the line. I’m doing it for America. I’m doing it for Barack Obama … oh and Jesus, of course, but I’m always doing it for Jesus. Big ups!”

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Teams are 3/4 of the way there …

Team Americas: Daniel Negreanu (captain), Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda, Doyle Brunson, Jennifer Harman

Team Europe: Annette Obrestad (captain), Peter Eastgate, Dario Minieri, Bertrand Grospellier, Patrik Antonius, Ilari Sahamies (aka Zigmund)

Also more on the format:

The Caesars Cup will feature the game No-Limit Hold’em with two teams of eight doing battle over a series of Heads Up and two-man doubles matches, with single points awarded for each match. The doubles formats will include alternate betting. The first team to 4 points will win.

The first match will be Doubles: Alternate Bet where two players compete per side. One player per side will play pre-flop and on the turn; the other player will play the flop and the river.

Once players are designated, their roles will not change. Two matches of this format will be played, so that 4 of the 8 players on each team will be featured.

The next two matches will feature Doubles: Same Stack where two new players compete per side. They share the same chip stack. They alternate playing two hands at a time so both have the button.

After the doubles matches conclude, the matches change to Heads-Up – if necessary. Team captains will select which members of their teams play heads up and it will be an alternate selection process, where if the European team names their player first for Match 1, the Americas team will have to name their player first for Match 2. That format continues until one team has accumulated 4 total points. The strategy of when to use a player and whom they match up with will be critical in determining which team will come out victorious.

LOL, and BJ thought my “family poker” concept event seemed gimmicky.

One skillucky Euro, of course, can still qualify for one of that team’s two remaining seats online at Betfair.

Play kicks off for this new-fangled made-for-TV event in London on Sept. 25.

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.)

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?

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International team poker is just a fad, right? Maybe so … but this defending Dream Team Poker-WSOP champion who loves to monitor WSOP prowess by country is looking forward to the television coverage of the Caesar’s Cup — a special event at WSOP-Europe that pits the Canadians Americans vs. the Euros in an 8-player-a-side format. As the teams take shape, it’s looking to be quite the competitive experience vs. youth match-up:

Team Americas: Daniel Negreanu (captain), Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth and John Juanda

Team Europe: Annette Obrestad (captain), Peter Eastgate, Dario Minieri, Bertrand Grospellier

I still don’t quite have a grasp on the format, or how the other four slots will be selected. But I do know Euros can qualify for a seat on their team via our good mates at Betfair Poker.

It’s been a mixed week for European players at the WSOP. Things got off to a flying start in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament and the $3,000 No Limit Hold’em Triple Chance event. German players Joh Carsten ($1,500 NLHE) and Jörg Peisert ($3,000 NLHE Triple Chance) both took bracelets back to Germany with Deutschland über alles ringing in their ears. Carsten banked a $664,426 win whilst Peisert took a shade over $500,000 for his efforts.

The following events saw the Europeans go back into their shells somewhat. The $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo saw Jack Rosenfeldt finish the event as the highest European player in 11thplace. Rosenfeldt banked a little over $9,000 for his efforts. England’s Steve Jelinek was down in 19th in an event dominated by Americans.

The case was much the same as the next few side events concluded. Americans dominated while the Europeans picked up the scraps. The $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event saw France’s David Jaoui as the highest European player in 8th place for $87,855, as 2817 players made eventual winner Tony Veckey, from Illinois, $673,276 richer.

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The first ever Caesars Cup is set to happen at the World Series of Poker Europe this year. The WSOPE (presented by Betfair) will offer four tournaments, and in the midst of it all will be the Caesars Cup, an invitation-only tournament to pit the Europeans against the Americans, on September 25.

Annette Obrestad is heading up the European team, and today at the Rio she made her first pick. Peter Eastgate will be joining her on the team, along with several other players to be announced, one of whom will win his/her way onto the team through a Betfair online poker leaderboard competition. Daniel Negreanu is the team leader for the Americas, and his first pick was announced by Jeffrey Pollack as Phil Ivey.

Annette Obrestad & Peter Eastgate v. Daniel Negreanu & Phil Ivey

Hard to place any bets at this point, considering many picks have yet to be made.

Twenty-seven events are already in the books at the 2009 World Series of Poker and, so far, European players are having one of their best Series’ to date. As you might expect, it is the Americans that are dominating the majority of events but we’ve seen some spectacular results from British and European players.

The 2009 WSOP started in earnest with the $40,000 buy in No Limit Hold’em Anniversary event back on May 28th. Vitaly Lunkin, from Russia, took the honours and a $1,891,018 pay day after fighting his way past a plethora of world famous poker players. Lunkin has been in red hot form in 2009 and his victory brings his WSOP bracelet tally up to two following his success in the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event here last year.

UK players have been enjoying a great Series so far. According to the Pokerati 2009 WSOP Standings table players from the UK have made 72 cashes, 9 final tables and won 2 bracelets to date.

So who are the British bracelet winners? It was JP Kelly that was first to register on the WSOP bracelet radar. Kelly, despite his baby-face looks, has been a regular on the international poker circuit for a while now but he has been suffering a dry spell of late. With only two cashes in 2009, it was unlikely John Paul went into the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event on June 9th brimming with confidence. What a difference a tournament can make! Kelly took command of the final table with a power-packed display of aggressive poker like a player who has a sock drawer full of WSOP bracelets at home. Despite Erik Seidel (7th) in menacing mood and, fellow Brit’, Aaron Virchis (5th) looking dangerous there was simply no way Kelly was going to be denied the title and a $194,343 win. Credit should also go to second place player Marc Tschirch, from Germany, who pressed Kelly all the way in the heads-up stages.

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