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?

More…

David Chiu – Courtesy of World Poker Tour

Gus Hansen went into the final table with the chip lead and momentum to take down his fourth WPT title – this one being the sweetest of all. A WPT World Championship title was on the line, along with nearly $3.4 million. The start of the final table looked like this:

Seat 1: John Roveto 2,720,000
Seat 2: Gus Hansen 8,570,000
Seat 3: David Chiu 6,050,000
Seat 4: Tommy Le 1,950,000
Seat 5: Cory Carroll 6,670,000
Seat 6: Jeff King 1,305,000

The Great Dane took out players with a quickness – Jeff King, Tommy Le, Cory Carroll, and John Roveto. Suddenly, the player who had only played two hands at the final table thus far – David Chiu – was in the position he hoped for. An epic battle ensued… and to the shock of everyone including Gus, David played an incredible heads-up match and took it down.

BJ Nemeth wrote a first-class, first-hand account of the final table. Can’t wait to see this one on GSN!

Well-played, David. Congratulations, sir.

They’re into the money in the $25k WPT World Championship Event. Every remaining player is guaranteed $39,570 (a $14.5k payday) while they compete for the $3.4 million first prize.

As of this moment, there are 85 players left — Anna Wroblewski just went out … she was looking strong all tourney long. Our best friend Tom Schneider is still alive with a slightly above average stack. (Notice he’s our best friend as opposed to just a friend or Pokerati contributor now that he’s secured the money. If he can make the final table, he’ll be our super-best-very-best friend … and I’m sure that’s what’s motivating him.)

Other names of note (to me) that are still live include Carlos Mortenson (defending champ), Rhynie Campbell (met him last night, he seems funny and cool), Mark Seif (who’s been keeping people posted about the condition of his wife’s cervix), Isabelle Mercier and Kristy Gazes (attractive women), Jared Hamby (Go Texas!), Tommy Le (one of my MySpace friends with a really cool name), Steve and Danny Wong (Go 2007 Fantasy Team!), and TJ Cloutier (Go same Dallas flight!)