Germans Win International Poker Fest
Tuesday, November 22, 2011 : Inaugural Nations Cup in London was organised by the International Federation of Poker
A strong German team captained by Tobias Reinkemeier and comprising Sebastian Ruthenberg, Moritz Kranch, Hans Martin Vogl and Sandra Naujoks took down the inaugural Nations Cup in London Friday after two tough days of poker action.
The tournament was organised by the International Federation of Poker as part of the Mind Sports Festival (that's the organisation that has done so much in the past to lift the reputation and profile of the game as a sport).
Twelve teams – one from the social poker software developer Zynga – travelled to London for the big event, which featured a style of play titled ‘Duplicate Poker," a format designed to put the emphasis on skill rather than chance in which each table is dealt the same hands, with players receiving points for how successful they were in a hand when compared to those with the same cards.
"With all the players in a particular seat given the same allocation of cards the only determining factor in the result of the tournament is how skillfully each player uses them," explained IFP President Anthony Holden.
The quality of players in the tournament was outstanding, and included internationally respected online and live tourney names like Andre Akkari (BRA); Brian Turnbull (Zynga); Nicolas Levi (FRA); Leo Margets (ESP); Fatima Moreira de Melo (HOL); Hans Martin Vogl (GER); Fabrice Soulier (FRA); Raul Mestre (ESP); Rob Hollink (HOL); Noah Boeken (HOL); Raúl Paez (ESP); Marcel Luske (HOL); Alex Gomes (BRA); Juan Maceiras (ESP); Roger Ellis (Zynga); Rolf Slotboom (HOL) and Felipe Ramos (BRA).
Germany proved to be the best of the best, followed by Brazil and France, with the Zynga team finishing in fourth – an impressive achievement for a team made up of six members of the Zynga online community.
Many of the players will remain in London to compete in the IFP World Championship and the chance to take home a winner's prize of $250 000.
For a blow-by-blow account of the Nations Cup, visit http://int.pokerfed.org/blog/live-coverage-of-the-nations-cup-day-2
