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?
More…
Amir Vahedi will be leading Iran whether Ahmadinejed likes it or not.
On the same day the APT had their inaugural international team poker event, the WTP (not to be confused with the WPT) announced their team leaders … with Phil Hellmuth taking the role of Captain America this time.
I may not be able to say it for long, but I’d like to point out that at the moment Pauly, Lana, and I have more team poker titles and prize money than Hellmuth does. Of course who doesn’t, but still … just sayin’.
The beginnings of the World Team Poker league:
Country Team Captain
1 USA – Phil Hellmuth
2 China – Johnny Chan
3 Vietnam – Men “The Master” Nguyen
4 Philippines – Toto Leonidas
5 Lebanon – Freddy Deeb and Dany Joe Georges
6 Australia – Jeff Lisandro
7 Iran – Amir Vahedi
8 Israel – Eli Elezra
9 Mexico – Mario Esquerra
10 Korea – Kevin Song
11 Egypt – Mark Seif
12 Switzerland – Chris Bigler
13 Greece – Chris Tsiprailidis
14 Russia – Ralph Perry
15 Germany – Dan Heimiller
16 Armenia – Chris Grigorian
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…
