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Team Korea is ready for their Match Poker debut!

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Team Korea, being represented by the newly federation Korean Poker Association, to participate the 2019 Asian Nations Cup in Taoyuan city, Taiwan will be comprised of:

Jung Hyung Sun – Jung Hyung Sun, better known as Sunny Jung, a professional poker player, ranked 3rd in all time money list of South Korea 2019. In 2008 – 2013 he was mostly playing cash games across Asia, that made him very famous. In 2013 he won his first live tournament the Main Event of the ACOP and got his highest cash – $561,228. in 2014 he once again proved that he one of the strongest poker players in Asia. He finished 2nd in the same Main Event of ACOP, that was even bigger than the previous one.

Hong Jinho – Hong Jinho was a famous Starcraft pro gamer in the world, who played under the alias “YellOw” together with “BoxeR”, who was his rival at that time. Even though he started his poker career only a year ago, he has already got great achievements. Actually, when he was a pro gamer, he was famous for always being 2nd, and now he also got many 2nd place finishes in poker tournaments. Just recently, he has become the Runner-up of the APT Main Event. However, he has also won two tournaments the Monster Stack of APPT and The Main Event of the J88PT Shanghai.

Shin Jae Wook – Shin Jae Wook, also known as Justin, started playing in online tournaments in 2010 and it did not take him much time to become a famous online poker player. In 2015, he decided to try himself in offline tournaments as well and he had a great performance. Since that time Justin has won several live events, however his biggest win was in 2019, when he became the Champion of the WPT Vietnam High Roller, that brought him the best live cash  – $82,696. Actually, High Rollers are his favourite types of tournaments. Right now, he is ranked 15th in the all time money list of South Korea.

Kim Jiyoung – Kim Jiyoung is a famous female professional poker player, who started  participating in live tournaments in 2015. Her best result was in 2019 when she won the Ladies Championship of the 50th WSOP with 968 entries and got her biggest cash – $167,308.

Lim Yohwan – Lim Yohwan “BoxeR” is a former professional StarCraft player, known as the Terran Emperor, who transitioned to poker after retiring in 2014. Since 2016, He has shown amazing results in various events. He is already 9th in all time money list of South Korea. In 2019 he got his best result by winning the Championship Event of the APT, that brought him $ 88,040.

Yea Joon Hee – Yea Joon Hee, better known as Steve Yea, is travelling all over the world participating in various tournaments like WSOP, Aussie Millions, APT, EPT, WPT, etc. Even though he won several events, he got the biggest live cash for the 2nd place of No Limit Hold’em, APT 2008 that brought him $250,000.

Lee Gyeong Byeong – Lee Gyeong Byeong, ranked 12th in the all time money list of South Korea, officially started playing poker in 2016 and he had the best start ever. His first cash was for the 1st place of the APT Main Event. In 2017 he participated in the WSOP, and finished 91st in the Main Event with 7,221 entries! And this year, he final tabled in the Main Event of Aussie Millions Poker Championship. His 6th place brought him the highest live cash – $ 222,078.

Sim Jae Kyung – Sim Jae Kyung, also known as “Simba”, is a professional poker player ranked 6th in the all time money list of South Korea. In 2013 he became the Champion of the APPT Cebu Main Event, that brought him $95,487 of live earnings. However, his best cash $103,256 was for the 3rd place in the Main Event of the EPT 2014 with 609 entries.

 

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Team Singapore Aiming for Asian Match Poker Gold!

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From Left to Right:

Top Row – Vince Lau (Singapore Poker Federation President),  Phua Tzai Wei (Team Captain)

Middle Row – Lisa Tan Meiling, Fong Xi Yuan, Brandon Gerald Tan, Desmond Oh

Bottom Row – Daniel Chua (Team Vice Captain), Lim Min Soon (Player-Manager), Freddy Kwek, Ivan Tan

 

Seasoned Veterans and Promising Young Guns Aiming to Improve their third place finish from their 2013 Asian Nations Cup Outing.

 

Phua Tzai Wei (Team Captain)

A huge Liverpool fan! Tzai Wei enjoys the competition, mental simulation and freedom to “be your own boss” aspects of Poker the most. Tzai Wei left school to pursue poker as full time profession and first ventured into tournaments in 2018. He made history earning a coveted Pokerstars Platinum Pass when he won a Manila Megastack event last year. He looks set to make his mark in the game in years to come.

 

Lisa Tan Meiling

Lisa takes pride in being a casual tournament player, despite claiming 3 titles this year and becoming the first woman to win the Manila Megastack Main Event. She enjoys grinding out cash games with strangers and prefers burying herself in a book or two to pass the time. But as a female, she fairly warns anyone in her way who try to outplay or give her a bad beat, hell has no fury like a woman scorned!

 

Fong Xi Yuan

Professional cash game player. A feared and respected regular in RWS. Years of experience sweeping chips of cash game tables in Singapore. A Business Management graduate from SMU, he declares his other hobby as playing 狼人杀 (werewolf kill) online game. Xi Yuan is immensely passionate about poker and enjoys the freedom it brings.

 

Brandon Gerard Tan

A self-declared foodie, Brandon is a professional poker player focusing on live and online cash games. He was featured on the highly popular Live At The Bike stream earlier this year. A recent graduate of SMU in 2018, he cites tennis and pool as his other hobbies.

 

Desmond Oh

Asian Game Gold Medalist, of Team Singapore Contract Bridge that made history when Contract Bridge made its Asian Games debut in Jakarta in 2018. Desmond is a public servant that loves card games since he was young. A former international chess player of Team Singapore Youth team, he has transited to playing card games. Desmond is the founder of KDR Bridge school, and coaches aspiring students in the game of Contract Bridge.

 

Daniel Chua (Vice Captain)

Daniel is an esteemed veteran of the game. He has over 26 cashes in Hendon Mob since 2009 and has a phenomenal 9 first place finishes. One of the most dangerous tournament players around, this card shark represented Singapore in Chess and Pool during his youth.

 

Lim Min Soon (Player-Manager)

Min Soon works in a global bank as a fraud risk manager when he’s not catching bluffs at the poker table. A Manchester United fan and former college football captain, he is the only triple crown winner of the highly popular Singapore Poker Championship series. A well respected name in the Poker community, he’s happily married with 2 lovely daughters.

 

Freddy Kwek

Freddy is a veteran of the game, having started playing in 2008 and fell in love with the game ever since. He won the main event of the Singapore Poker Championship and has numerous cashes in this long running poker cruise series. Freddy is happily married with 1 daughter and is a Chief Operating Officer of a regional marketing company.

 

Ivan Tan

Currently retired, Ivan is widely regarded as a pioneer and one of the best poker players in Singapore, with winnings in excess of USD 200,000, Ivan burst onto the scene in 2007 finishing runner-up in an APPT Macau Main Event.

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2019 European Nations Cup Round Up

Current Match Poker World Champions, Ukraine, played host to the 2019 European Nations Cup after their incredible debut performance in Dublin at the 2018 Nations Cup where they managed to dethrone the Irish on home soil to become gold medalists.

The European championships this year sees 13 nations come together to determine who will join Ukraine on the Road to Peru as European qualifiers at the Nations Cup Finals in December, and to see if Ireland can defend their continental crown!

Participating nations were Ukraine, Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Poland, Serbia, Spain and the UK. All apart from Belarus have participated in a Match Poker event previously, some more often than others. Day one started with an opening ceremony and dinner where president of the Ukraine Sports Poker Federation, Sergey Efimenko, thanked all participants for being there and welcomed everyone to Kyiv and Ukraine. IFMP president Patrick Nally then spoke about the events calendar for the rest of this year which includes continental championships in Asia and America’s to determine the qualifiers for the Nations Cup Final in Peru. These regional qualifiers leading up to a grand finale event will be an annual occurrence for Match Poker athletes going forward.

100 hands were played on day one and we saw a familiar sight in Ireland ending the day in the lead with Lithuania and Ukraine behind them. Only 20% of the group stages had been played and the bottom 3 of UK, Spain and Denmark could use the night to analyse their play and return the next morning with a new team strategy. Day two was scheduled to see 6 sessions of 50 hands each with the balance 2 sessions of 50 hands being played on the morning of day 3. The Estonians put in a strong performance in the morning and after 200 hands held the lead going into lunch with Ireland, Ukraine and Germany on their heels. The fan zone was buzzing as team analysts and strategists carefully observed their teams play, taking meticulous notes which were conveyed during the breaks in play. Along with the athletes having to fulfil their anti-doping obligations, the breaks between sessions were as important as the actual time spent playing!

The next 100 hands saw Spain and Italy climb up the leaderboard but not enough to topple Germany, Ireland and Ukraine in the top 3 with the Germans in the lead overall after 300 hands had been played. Day 2 ended with the first Match Poker world champions, Germany, in the lead! 400 hands had been played with another 100 to go before the top 6 and bottom 7 are separated for the finals. Fierce competition throughout with various teams outperforming the others in certain sessions but after a marathon 500 hands of highly competitive Match Poker we had our top 6 – Germany, Ireland, Spain, Belarus, Ukraine and Poland. The 3 most consistent teams in Germany, Ukraine and Ireland making the top 6 was no surprise. Big push from the Spaniards towards the end ensured they cemented their spot along with the Poles and Belorussians.

Ukraine finishing in the top 6 meant that the winner of the Plate Championship (bottom 7 teams) would also secure their spot to Peru and the Nations Cup Finals. All to play for now as the scores were reset to zero and the finals of the Cup (top 6) and Plate (bottom 7) kicked off after lunch on day 3. These would have 4 sessions of 60 hands each to take the total number of hands to be played to 740! The scoreboard was hidden after the halfway point so players would have to wait till the awards ceremony to know who won the championship and which nation was joining them in Peru.

Excitement and nervousness enveloped the room as thanks were offered by Sergey as Patrick was handed the microphone to make the final announcements. When Lithuania was announced as the winners of the Plate and the last team to qualify to the Finals in Peru, they erupted with joy as though they’d just been crowned World Champions! Skirmantas, team captain and president of the national federation, thanked the other teams and expressed his gratitude in being the last nation to qualify. To top if off, Dainius from Team Lithuania was awarded Player of the Tournament! Now it was time to announce the European Champions – Ireland were looking confident and the others quite nervous. Surprisingly Germany finished 6th, Belarus 5th, Poland 4th and Ukraine 3rd – these 3 teams had just 3.5 points between them!!! Then Ireland were announced as runners-up and the roar that emerged from the Spanish contingent was absolutely incredible! They all began jumping and screaming with joy, hugging each other and unable to contain their emotions! Congratulations Team Spain, on a very well deserved and hard fought Match Poker European Championship.

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The Serbians are Aiming at Top 6 and Peruvian Dreams!

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Being amongst IFMP’s stronger national federations, Team Serbia will be eager to make their performance in international competitions match their local structure and secure their spot in Peru.

Vladimir Bozinovic – 30 year old poker player from Serbia. Started playing poker back in 2006, turned pro a few years later. Mostly playing cash games, but had some tournament success as well, including winning a World Poker Tour main event in 2013. Loves travelling and exploring world restaurants, resides in Belgrade with his wife and son.

Danilo Velasevic – 31 year old poker player from Serbia. He’s been a professional poker player since 2013. He plays live high stakes cash games and online and live MTT’s.

Vlada Stojanović  – Tournament poker professional, 32 years old. Coach at pocar.com

Danka Todorovic – is a poker player from Belgrade, capital of Serbia. Born and raised in Belgrade, she graduated in 2009 at Faculty of Philology at the University of Belgrade. Today she owns and manages a family business, a bar known as Splav Knjaz in Belgrade on Sava river. She started playing poker with her father back in 2008 and is proud to be the daughter of one of the pioneers of Texas Hold’em poker players in Serbia, Žarko Stokanić.

Slobodan Ružičić – Serbian godfather of poker. One of few people responsible for bringing poker in Serbia in 2006. and developing it to higher levels. Owns a legal poker room in Grand casino Belgrade. Successful businessman and father of two, also competes in the highest stakes both cash games and tournaments. Known worldwide by his nickname “Ruza”.

Mladen Kratović – Born and raised in Belgrade, he started playing poker professionally after college in 2013. He has several notable results in online and live tournaments, but the one he’s most proud of is winning Battle of Malta high roller in 2015. Passionate about sports, traveling, and FPL.

Miloš Babović – Serbian poker professional since 2013, won several online tournament series, luckiest player in Eastern Europe, proud husband and father.

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A Revamped UK Team Looking to Impress in Kyiv

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Tony Dobbie – Seasoned international marketeer. Passionate about keeping fit and cooking. Determined to learn something new with every game of poker. Perfected ‘Poker face’ by telling his children about Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.
Jon Theobald – Normally found in the photographers pit at rock concerts, Jon is also a licensed drone pilot for his own photo/video business. Mainly a live recreational player, when off the table he enjoys riding his motorcycle and tending to his bees.
Mike Tattersfield – Usually salt encrusted spending much time at sea as a professional yacht skipper. Honed my Texas Hold’em skills during a winter at a BAS scientific station in the Antarctic. I’m a skier/boarder, hang glider pilot and all round top bloke. Although, not as shinny as I used to be.  Hoping to be fully spruced up by the time cards are dealt.
Sue Smith – My hobbies include golf and walking my dog. Poker fame includes cashing twice in WSOP in Vegas.
Kevin Pike – Hobbies= Mountaineering. Interests=Survival of the aforementioned. Work Prowess=Making money when ever possible. Poker Prowess= ditto the above.
Andy Gallagher – Retired IT consultant and lecturer. Now an ’empty nester’ and free to try out a new career-whatever that maybe? Love all sport, now more as a spectator and have had an excellent track record in junior coaching. Hobbiest poker player