China wins the Asian Nations Cup

ANC 2013 China, Asian Nations Cup

The world’s first Asian poker team champion

It is official – the host nation outperformed the competitors and got to keep the trophy on Chinese soil. While Team China’s closest competitor throughout the first six sessions Australia experienced a disappointing Sunday session, the Chinese squad maintained their cool and with a very steady performance they kept adding distance to the trailing teams and went into the last session with a healthy lead. Congratulations to China on this their first historic victory in an official IFP Championship event.

The exhibition team and local Hainan province hosts from China Poker Games delivered a very strong performance and managed to squeeze into second place – a clean sweep for the host nation left the local crowd and their supporters very excited about IFP, Match Poker and the prospects of future events in this part of the World.

Team Singapore took the bronze medals, while Israel and Australia managed to hang on to the coveted 4th and 5th place releasing tickets to the Nation Cup Final and a seeded entry into the battle for the World Championship.

We will publish further analysis and statistics shortly.

October 21, 2013

A look back at the Asian Nations Cup

ANC 2013 China, Asian Nations Cup

One week on from China’s historic win at the very first IFP Asian Nations Cup, here are a few overall stats from the tournament.

Overall scoreboard

Team	Chips	Points
China	188725	1152.5
CPG	51496	1114
Singapore	87365	1111.5
Australia	49530	1104.5
Israel	5242	1079
India	-25013	1045.5
Japan	9132	1026
Mongolia	-366482	1002.5

China consistently scored highly throughout each of the 8 sessions to finish almost 40 points clear of the runners-up. Show team CPG made a late charge to pinch the silver medal position from Singapore, with Australia and Israel picking up the final two qualification spots at the IFP Nations Cup Finals.

The individual player awards were given to the players who gained the most chips in a session/overall, relative to the average of all other players playing the same cards.

Individual standings

Session	Player (Nation)
Session 1	Bold Uundai (Mongolia)
Session 2	Wu Sai (CPG)
Session 3	Sangeeth Mohan (India)
Session 4	Queenie Kwan Yee Yim (Australia)
Session 5	Mudit Agarwal (India)
Session 6	Kinichi Nakata (Japan)
Session 7	Temuulen Dashbat (Mongolia) – Player of the Tournament
Session 8	Garth Kay (Australia)

Of note also is that Zang Shu Nu of China won the most chips overall (55750).

After each session teams were handed Stats Sheets from the play of each set of 30 hands. Here are some final numbers from all 240 hands combined:

Best Strike Rate	China	4.80	points per hand
Worst Strike Rate	Mongolia	4.18	points per hand
Most Hands Won	Mongolia	58
Most Hands Lost	Mongolia	70
Most Pots Won	Mongolia	405
Least Pots Won	China	175
Largest Average Win	China	3760	chips
Smallest Average Win	Singapore	2352	chips
Smallest Average Loss	Singapore	-252	chips
Largest Average Loss	Mongolia	-1370	chips

October 26, 2013

Interesting hands of the ANC – 1/5

ANC 2013 China, Asian Nations Cup

Can anyone stop Bold Uundai?

The 2013 ANC wouldn’t have been the same without Mongolia. Their uber-aggressive style eventually got found out, destroying their chances as a team, but such volatility helped them to pick up a few of the individual player awards. An example here is Mongolian captain Bold Uundai making a straight against Japan’s AK in seat 5. No other seat 3 player got beyond the flop with their 54 of hearts, but Bold managed a double-up, putting him way out ahead in the individual standings. Of note is that he did the same thing again in the next hand, spiking a river king for a full house against China, to record back-to-back double-ups that no other seat 3 player achieved. On paper Hand 4 looked like a classic AKvTT scenario. Think again when Mongolia is in the house!

The art of pot-limit

In another ‘action hand’ we see four spots showing particular interest. There are the pocket pairs of 7s and 9s, plus the QJ and K3 that connect well with the flop. The QJ in particular is key here, as despite half the teams folding this pre-flop, it turned out to be the overall winner. The K3 on the other hand flops a nice flush draw, turns top pair, but misses on the river. With Match Poker’s pot-limit pre-flop structure, a lot of flops are seen. Teams must figure out how to maximise their winning spots and minimise their losses. China won this hand by extracting the most chips with the 9s in seat 2 and losing little elsewhere. Despite CPG and Israel being the only two teams to double through their QJ in seat 5, it is the result across the whole team that counts.

October 28, 2013

Interesting hands of the ANC – 2/5

ANC 2013 China, Asian Nations Cup

Everyone loves a flush draw

In an unusual situation here where seats 2, 3 and 4 all flop a diamond flush draw (seat 2 also with top pair), we see five of the eight teams getting it all-in bad. Sometimes a flush draw, especially a nut flush draw as in seat 3, is just too hard to let go. This is another example of China’s dominance, trebling up with their QT and not committing more than 150 chips elsewhere. In contrast, Singapore and India were two of the teams unsuccessfully chasing draws and also not capitalising from their one strong holding. Looking across the rows it is also interesting to compare how teams played their rag hands. Every team folded pre-flop with their 95 off-suit in seat 6, yet there is quite a range of play seen with the J3 suited in seat 5.

Kings busted

In regular poker events getting a big hand cracked can seriously dent a player’s prospects or even result in their elimination from the tournament. In Match Poker, however, such scenarios impact only single hands, and more importantly, are dealt equally to all teams. The KK in seat 4 here is destined to walk into either the flopped flush in seat 5 or two-pair in seat 6. India and Mongolia outmaneuver everybody by winning the hand in both these spots. India also managed to get away lightly with their kings, while Mongolia (and CPG) even managed a sizable win in this spot as well. One of the biggest single pots won in Hand 50 was by Japan’s Tsuneaki Takeda (11325 chips) yet the team scored below average due to action elsewhere.

October 29, 2013

Interesting hands of the ANC – 3/5

ANC 2013 China, Asian Nations Cup

When monsters meet

While we have already seen total team chip scores ranging by over 30000 chips in a single hand, here is an example of a range of just 400. Since players are completely isolated from their team mates and play at other tables, it is impossible to know by how much their own decisions will affect the team overall. The moral is that “every chip counts” and this hand scores just as heavily as any other. Not a single team managed to escape the confrontation of their QQ against KK, but the real story is in the detail. Australia, India and Mongolia lost out in the hand by simply getting involved in the seat 2 position. CPG, Israel and Japan were joint winners as they eked out marginally bigger wins with their kings. Play in seats 1,4,5 and 6 was almost identical across the board.

Unexpected fireworks

Suited connectors and pocket pairs are pretty, but it is still surprising that this hand played out anything other than just the classic QQ v AK in seats 4 and 5. Could it be that teams were trying to finish Day One with a flourish? Was there some exploration going on strategy-wise, with an opportunity shortly forthcoming to review play overnight? Were some teams reacting to the in-running scoreboard and panicking? Is it simply human nature to want to push chips into the middle of the table, knowing that in Match Poker you get them back again in the next hand regardless? Three of the top scoring four teams in this hand didn’t get too carried away with their AK in seat 5. The losing teams once again got embroiled in big pots in multiple positions.

October 30, 2013