It’s been a busy couple of weeks in the world of professional poker, what with satellites for the WSOP underway, the EPT San Remo and the WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic all taking place in the past fortnight.  To add to that the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo is currently taking place.  If that wasn’t enough the PartyPoker.com Poker Nations Cup also took place between 7th and 10th April in Cardiff.

We may have failed in football and various other sports but I’m pleased to say Great Britain are Poker Nations Cup winners for 2008, after defeating Ireland in the final.

Great Britain fielded a strong team for the tournament consisting of Neil Channing, Surinder Sunar, Joe Beevers, Ian Frazer, PartyPoker.com VIP online qualifier Charlie Durbin and captain Roland De Wolfe.

After the victory Roland De Wolfe said, “I’m absolutely delighted.  In many ways it is even better to win a team event for your country than win an individual title.  I am so proud that the selections for my team were vindicated.”

As well as Britain and Ireland the tournament included USA, Germany, Holland and Sweden each fielding world class players.  All of the teams played in a “tag” final whereby the captain’s judgements were a crucial part of the game, as they could make tactical substitutions and strategic timeouts. 

Neil Channing was going to be a television reporter for the event but after his Irish Open victory he was chosen as a member of the British team. 

He said after the victory, “I am as proud of this as I am of my win in Ireland.  It was an honour to be picked to represent my country and great to be chosen to play the crucial final leg for the team.”

After six heats Germany were chip leaders at the start of the final table, with Great Britain sharing second place with the Dutch.

Team USA fielded a strong team as ever and few people predicted they would be the first team to be eliminated.  Their team captained by Robert Williamson III also featured Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Chad Brown, Montel Williams, Thomas Keller and Jamie Gold.  However, they were the first team to be eliminated. 

Sweden were last year’s champions but failed to emulate that success this year and were eliminated into fifth place.  The Germans who had started the final table as chip leaders failed to continue their good form and were out in fourth place.  Holland had been up and down with their chip count throughout the final table action so far.  Captain Marcel Luske played their final hand as he lost out to Ireland’s Donnacha O’Dea.  The Dutch team were outsiders for the tournament and so Luske was pleased with his team’s performance as they finished in third place.

This left Britain and Ireland to battle it out in the heads-up final.  Channing took on O’Dea and the recent Irish Open winner defeated the Irish poker legend to claim victory for the home nation.  Irish captain Padraig Parkinson said afterwards, “We were the oldest team in the tournament.  It’s quite obvious that poker is a young man’s game.”

The Irish team share the consolation prize of just over £15,000 between them. 

The Great Britain team were presented with the PartyPoker.com Poker Nations Cup and rewarded with prize money of nearly £51,000 to share amongst them.

A PartyPoker.com spokesman said, “Neil Channing is running so good that Great Britain looked like the winners when it got short handed.  Full credit must go to Ireland, however, who brought a great atmosphere to the tournament and very nearly pipped them at the post.  On paper, the likes of Chris Ferguson and Jamie Gold for Team USA look very intimidating but it seems like when they cross the Atlantic for these tournaments they just can’t get it right.”

The event will be shown on Channel 4 in the UK.   

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