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In the Lion’s Den
It is unthinkable to begin play without first being sent off with a blessing from the host – much to many players’ big surprise a loud “gong” sent two Chinese lions onto the floor in a wild dance for luck and good fortune, just as Tournament Director Robert Huxley started briefing the team captains on general rules and conditions of play.
For each session players will be competing over 30 hands followed by a break and another session of 30 hands. During the breaks teams will get a chance to discuss and strategize making the competition a real team effort.
Day 1 consists of 4 sessions, two before lunch and two after lunch. Seating is changed between morning and afternoon sessions, so we will see four different seating configurations over these two days of play.
So, the question everybody as asking is which teams are likely to come out on top? One thing which is likely to happen is that our prediction will be wrong! Some teams are featuring very experienced and successful individuals while others are virtually blank sheets when it comes to international poker competitions and results. However, if cashes in major poker tournaments are any indicator of success – or at least experience – Australia come out on top with live cashes of more than $1.5 million. Spearheaded by Julius Colman who jumped onto the world stage in 2007 with a deep finish in the Aussie Millions, the Aussies have brought in a very experienced team and they will have to accept the burden of being the favorites to take home the trophy.
Other teams are very keen on proving this prediction wrong. Israel, India as well as the hosts from China all have collective live cashes of more than $300,000, but also Singapore and Japan can display noteworthy results from mostly Asian poker tournaments. The only squad without a public track record is the team from Mongolia, and we are very excited to see if they can surprise and challenge the pre-game favorites.
Feel free to click through the gallery for a presentation of the teams participating.
You will notice that we display two scores, one for overall chip gain or loss and one for the team points won. The latter is the one which is determining the eventual ranking, but the chip count can come into play as a tie breaker.
As the scores have started to count and the tally has started to run on the monitors displayed throughout the playing area, the participants have started out quite concentrated. The scope of this grand championship is making an impact on most. One exception seems to be at Table 6 where Singapore’s Jacky Wang and India’s Sangeeth Mohan are chatting it up and spreading laughter around the felt. At table 3 Australia’s Queenie Kwan Yee Kim called a river bluff by Japan’s Tsuneaki Takeda and has likely added to a positive score for the Aussies.
While some of the participants may be unknown to the public, a good handful will be worth mentioning for their previous results in other poker events. We have already highlighted Julius Colman and David Borg – of the entire field the two of them have cashed for almost $1,5 million. From India Abhishek Goindi will remember a heads’up battle for almost $300,000 against China’s Nicky Jin, a fight he lost to the Chinese pro back in 2012 – and here they are now, competing for their nation’s pride and participation in the Nations Cup Final!
Hand 86, Table 1:
Table 1, hand #109.
As a relatively new format and technology the Match Poker concept is under constant scrutiny and always in the process of improving. After a hectic start to the day we found a more relaxed “COO” Joe Barnard in the corner of the room with a bottle of water in his hand, catching a moment for himself. Guess we ruined that moment when we asked him a couple of questions: