Sandra Naujoks had played flawlessly up to this point, and when she got her chips in with pocket kings against Mestre’s eight-nine, it looked like the double-up she seemed entitled to would arm her well for a run on the title.

But Mestre found that crucial drop of luck at the perfect time, flopping an eight and rivering another. Naujoks, who managed a smile, was suddenly out.

The main benefactor? That would be Marsha Waggoner.

Waggoner, one of the grand dames of poker, had nursed her short stack for most of the afternoon, hand rearing it to health with a double up before it began again to fade. Naujoks’s shock departure moved her up a place, into fifth, capping a commendable performance.

When Slavko Tomic departed in fourth (another player cursed by a short stack), it left arguably the three best players of the day – Coren, Mestre and Igor Trafane.

Trafane (right), who serves as President of the Confederação Brasileira de Texas Hold’em, impressed yesterday and did the same today. Were it not for two big hands we might now be writing about the world title heading to Brazil.

In the first, Mestre was rivered by Mestre. The second, some time later, was even crueller. Coren moved in with ace-queen and Trafane called with ace-queen. But crucially Coren’s cards were both spades. She wished for a chop, but got the exact opposite; the flop bringing three spades to devastate her as much as Trafane.

The pair embraced, it being unclear who was comforting who, Trafane left with no more than a couple of blinds. Within a hand he was gone in third place.

The heads-up contest is best summed up by the comments in our previous post.

Coren and Mestre had tangled brilliantly at the start of the day (the bluff, re-bluff, re-re-bluff is worth a read) and now again at the end. Back then Coren had been in charge and it seemed she’d got the upper hand at the end also, taking the lead and looking to seal it when she called Mestre’s shove with fives with her own ace-jack.

It was to be Coren’s high point; the race won by Mestre and a short while later, when Mestre’s ace-five dominated Coren’s ace-three, it was all over.

Raul Mestre, a deserving world poker champion and first winner of The Table.

Some, like Team Spain, formed a huddle, bottling team spirit in empty beer bottles. Elsewhere post-mortems were already under way.

IFP President Anthony Holden then took to the stage, tapped the microphone and prepared announce the news everyone had been waiting for. The results were in and it was extremely close. France and Brazil were tied on 22 points, Brazil taking second by virtue of a higher chip count (6,350 to France’s 4,620). But Germany’s 24 points bettered them both.

Kalhammer accepted the trophy on behalf of his team, hoisting it above his head and sending people on the front row scurrying for cover. There was no need. At least a dozen German hands reached up to hold it aloft, not one prepared to let go.

The Nations Cup had been played in the finest of spirits, exhibiting the best elements of the Mind Sport that each player had come to London to celebrate.

There was still time for one twist.

As the remaining places were announced it quickly became clear that Zynga had exceeded all expectations, finishing in fourth place. When the time comes for the Zynga players to end their London adventure and fly back home to real life, they’ll at least do so with a smile on their face and one hell of a story to tell.

It’s that image that brings to a close the first half of the IFP World Championships.

Duplicate poker, with all its administration and arithmetic, now makes way for a new event starting tomorrow. The Table.

The Table is an invitation-only freeroll with $500,000 up for grabs to the 130 top professionals and celebrities invited to play, which on Sunday will crown the first official world champion of poker.

It looks and feels like a regular no-limit Texas hold’em contest and yet this should prove a little different.

Coverage of The Table starts tomorrow at 1pm.