2013 Asian Nations Cup: Day 1, Session 4

ANC 2013 China, Asian Nations Cup

Check back to this page throughout the day for regular updates, the latest of which will appear at the top of the page.

Mongolia fighting back

Table 1, hand #109.

Action is folded to Asi Moshe in seat 5 who finds the calling chips, Yang follows suit in seat 6, Bold Uundai raises to 200 on the button. Sangeeth Mohan calls from the SB as do both Asi and Yang. The flop comes out 9d 10s 2h. Check-check is followed by a 600 bet from Yang. Bold finds a raise to 2,000 and Yang immediately announces all-in, Bold calls. Hands revealed: Yang is ahead with Q 10, Bold is holding 10 8, no flush draws. The turn brings a queen leaving Bold with extremely slim chances to catch up, he needs a jack and a jack only. The river – a jack!! Mongolia makes a dent in the Chinese lead.

Play is almost coming to an end for day 1, most of the players have headed for dinner, and we will be rounding off the Day 1 action in our next update.

Standings after 120 hands:

Position	Nation	4th Session Points	Change
1st	Australia	580	▲
2nd	China	577	▼
3rd	CPG	544.5	▲
4th	Israel	543	▲
5th	Singapore	537	▲
6th	Japan	514	=
7th	India	504	▲
8th	Mongolia	484.5	▼

A minute with Joe Barnard

Standings after 110 hands:

Position	Nation	4th Session Points	Change
1st	China	542	=
2nd	Australia	530	=
3rd	Singapore	499	=
4th	CPG	498	▲
5th	Israel	496.5	▼
6th	Japan	473.5	▲
7th	Mongolia	461.5	▲
8th	India	459.5	▼

A minute with Joe Barnard

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:

Your immediate thoughts on the event today? “This is living and breathing proof that poker is a sport.” On the question of where Joe has seen the most important improvements since the European nations Cup in Cyprus Joe replies “improved and faster technology, pot-limit preflop, shorter sessions with no substitutions, multiple seat draws from session to session, mood of the staff and in particular for the teams and their players a much better service in shape of frequent and actual standings and stats made available for analysis”.

Standings after 100 hands:

Position	Nation	4th Session Points	Change
1st	China	492	=
2nd	Australia	476	=
3rd	Singapore	458	▲
4th	Israel	455.5	▼
5th	CPG	455	=
6th	India	425.5	▲
7th	Japan	425	▼
8th	Mongolia	413	=

October 19, 2013

2013 Asian Nations Cup: Day 1 Summary

ANC 2013 China, Asian Nations Cup

ANC Day 1 Wrap Up

Play has concluded and data has been processed by Joe Barnard. Team captains have received hand histories and stats on all 120 hands played and it is now up to them to analyse and interpret and perhaps make adjustments to their play and strategy.

Before play commenced Mongolia was the only team without a public track record and they tried to turn that into an advantage early on – in particular Bold Uundai was a very active player willing to risk a lot of chips to take down the pots and run over his table. It worked! He performed way above the rest of the field over the first 30 hands and pulled his team clear of the field and into a solid first place. However, it seemed like he ran out of steam going into session 2, the rest of the table picked up on his tendencies and played back, now more willing to take flips and go for the big pots confronting him with less than premium holdings. Mongolia took a virtual rollercoaster ride from top to the very bottom of the scoreboard and they will need to work their mystery magic on Day 2 to get back into the game.

Looking at the personal stats from key players in the teams it seemed likely that Australia, Israel, China and India would be the favorites to take the important top four spots, and so far only India has disappointed a bit. The team arrived as the very last competitors and question is if a stressful trip took its toll on the players’ focus.

After Mongolia started sliding it was Australia and China who took over on the leaderboard for the rest of the day, taking turns in the lead. The two teams are virtually tied before the final day, but a lot of points are still at stake and it is still anybody’s game.

MVP of the first four sessions of play:

Session 1 – Bold Uundai/Mongolia

Session 2 – Wu Sai/CPG

Session 3 – Sangeeth Mohan/India

Session 4 – Queenie Kwan Yee Kim/Australia

Overall MVP standings going into Session 5:

1. Wu Sai/CPG

2. Sangeeth Mohan/India

3. Eyal Eshkar/Israel

October 20, 2013

2013 Asian Nations Cup: Day 2, Session 1

ANC 2013 China, Asian Nations Cup

Australia back on top

The battle for first keeps changing. 10 hands ago China held the lead, but the aussies just took it back. Further down Singapore and Israel are consolidating their qualifying positions, and it looks like it is getting closer to crunch time for India and Japan if they are serious about competing for the top spots.

Table 2, hand #138

Action is folded around to Singapore’s Freddy Kwek on the button who raises it to 125. Harsh Saraf folds from the SB, but China’s Ted Wang reraises the pot for an extra 275, Freddy calls. The flop comes 2c 9d Qc, both check. The turn is 3d, Ted leads out with a bet of 600. Freddy raises to a total of 1,900, Ted re-raises to 6,900, Freddy moves all-in and Ted calls. Much to the surprise of the other players Ted reveals Ad Jh for ace-high with no draws, Freddy is ahead with QdJd – and the river brings no help for China and Team Singapore makes a nice score.

Standings after 150 hands:

Position	Nation	5th Session Points	Change
1st	Australia	708	▲
2nd	China	698.5	▼
3rd	Israel	670.5	=
4th	Singapore	669.5	=
5th	CPG	662.5	=
6th	India	645.5	▲
7th	Japan	639	▼
8th	Mongolia	598.5	=

Mongolia struggles

Hand 124, Table 8

Huang Wen Fei folds UTG, Takuya Suzuki in seat 2 raises to 125, it is folded to Daniel Chua who calls from the SB, Bold Uundai calls from the BB.
The flop is dealt – 9c Ks 8c – Daniel checks to Bold who takes the lead with a bet of 575. Takuya folds, Daniel calls. The turn brings 9d, Daniel checks, Bold moves all-in. After a few moments Daniel makes the call and reveals a pair of Queens, Bold is on an open-ended straight draw with 67o which he fails to get when Jd is exposed on the river. Mongolia drops another chunk of chips.

On table 3 we find the current leader in the MVP race Wu Sai, let’s follow the action in hand #133:

In seat 4 Enkhtuvshin Davaasuren from Mongolia raises UTG to 175. Manish Adnani in seat 5 folds, Wu Sai reraises to 600. Gani Weiss on the button folds, Kyle Sharpe folds in the SB as does Kinichi Nakata in the BB. Action back on Enkhtuvshin who re-pots it to a total 2,550. Action back on Wu Sai, who re-repots it for another 3,825, the Mongolian player calls. The flop is Qc 3h 5c. Enkhtuvshin announces all-in, Wu Sai snap-calls. She is way ahead with pocket rockets against Enkhtuvshins 77, and there is no help for him when the 2d appears on the river. Wu Sai with another solid score for herself and Team CPG.

Standings after 140 hands:

Position	Nation	5th Session Points	Change
1st	China	664	▲
2nd	Australia	662	▼
3rd	Israel	631.5	=
4th	Singapore	630	=
5th	CPG	622.5	=
6th	Japan	602	=
7th	India	599.5	=
8th	Mongolia	556.5	=

Tight fight for fourth

Sanya is a great host of IFP’s first Asian Nations Cup.

Singapore and Israel are making a charge for the qualifying spots.

Standings after 130 hands:

Position	Nation	5th Session Points	Change
1st	Australia	619	=
2nd	China	616	=
3rd	Israel	593.5	▲
4th	Singapore	585	▲
5th	CPG	583.5	▼
6th	Japan	567	=
7th	India	5553.5	=
8th	Mongolia	526.5	=

Teams are getting ready

Breakfast time on the final day, the teams are gathering in groups to work out their game plan for the final stretch. We caught up with the Australian team, everybody dressed in uniform, going through the data from Saturday’s sessions. David Borg: “We expect all other teams to be folding to our bets today!” Laughs around the table, team captain Julius Colman adds: “We are proud of Queenie’s performance last night, but most of us had a horrendous performance in session 4 and we are all determined to improve today – go Aussies!”

We also found a few players from Team China, Nicky Jin shared his thoughts with us: “We believe the team as a whole delivered a pretty good performance all day yesterday, and we have high hopes on our chances to win this trophy!”

Huang Bing Fu of the CPG team tongue-in-cheek: “Our main goal today is to take down Team China!” A couple of the players from Team Japan looking seriously focused on their way to the playing area: “We are not content with our current standing and we are making adjustments to our strategy so we can move up and compete for the trophy.”

October 20, 2013

2013 Asian Nations Cup: Day 2, Session 2

ANC 2013 China, Asian Nations Cup

Check back to this page throughout the day for regular updates, the latest of which will appear at the top of the page.

Home field advantage

The field of teams and players have now played 75% of the hands and are off to a lunch break. They will now get a chance to go through the re-player when they come back and adjust play if they believe it necessary. Australia has had quite a negative outcome of the most recent session and China has brought themselves in a very favourable position for the Championship. In the middle of the pack a fierce fight is about to unfold to secure a spot in the Nations Cup Final.

Standings after 180 hands:

Position	Nation	6th Session Points	Change
1st	China	850.5	=
2nd	Australia	825.5	=
3rd	Singapore	821	=
4th	CPG	820.5	=
5th	Israel	809.5	▲
6th	India	799	▼
7th	Japan	773	=
8th	Mongolia	740.5	=

Action from table 5

Let’s take a look at table 5, hand #158

Zang Shu Nu folds UTG, Izzy Kranz raises to 150 followed by folds around to CPG’s Fu Jun in the BB who finds the calling chips. The flop opens with 5h Js Ac followed by check-check. The turn is 4s, Fu Jun checks again, Izzy bets 350. After a minute’s pause Fu Jun min-raises to 700, Izzy folds.

Same table, hand #162

Hadas Wilf folds UTG as does Fu Jun, China’s Zang Shu Nu raises to 150. Izzy on the button folds. Singapore’s Lin Min Soon pauses in the SB, finds a re-raise to 500, Zang calls. The flops comes out 10s 6d 10c. Lin continues with a bet of 600, Zang calls. The turn brings the Js, check-check. The river is the Jd. Lin bets 750, Zang calls. Lin tables pocket aces, “nice hand” says Zang and flashes the Ac.

Standings after 170 hands:

Position	Nation	6th Session Points	Change
1st	China	800.5	=
2nd	Australia	774	=
3rd	Singapore	774	=
4th	CPG	760.5	▲
5th	India	757	▲
6th	Israel	756.5	▼
7th	Japan	739	=
8th	Mongolia	686.5	=

Back to play

After a short break teams are back to session 6 of ANC’s final day.

There are three more sessions to play today before IFP officially announces the winner of its first Asian Nations Cup. Four teams in total will qualify for the world’s Finals. Team CPG won’t be able to progress.

Standings after 160 hands:

Position	Nation	6th Session Points	Change
1st	China	749.5	▲
2nd	Australia	746	▼
3rd	Singapore	730.5	▲
4th	Israel	717.5	▼
5th	CPG	712.5	=
6th	India	703.5	=
7th	Japan	695	=
8th	Mongolia	669.5	=

October 20, 2013

2013 Asian Nations Cup: Day 2, Session 3

ANC 2013 China, Asian Nations Cup

Check back to this page throughout the day for regular updates, the latest of which will appear at the top of the page.

Last hand of session 7

Hand 210, Table 2

Fu Jun folds UTG, Singapore’s Daniel Chua raises from 2nd position to 175. Three folds around to Kinichi Nakata in the BB who makes the call. The flop comes out 4h Kc Ad. Kinichi leads out with a bet of 325, call from Daniel. The turn is 3c. Kinichi check-raises to 2,600 after a bet of 1,025 from Daniel – Daniel calls. The Ace of spades shows up on the river – Kinichi fires out 3,000, Daniel moves all-in and Kinichi folds. Daniel shows AQo for trip aces.

Standings after 210 hands:

Position	Nation	7th Session Points	Change
1st	China	1003.5	=
2nd	Singapore	973.5	▲
3rd	Australia	959	▼
4th	CPG	953	=
5th	Israel	942.5	=
6th	India	917.5	=
7th	Mongolia	893.5	▲
8th	Japan	881.5	▼

Teams reviewing IFP’s re-player

The power of IFP’s re-player can hardly be overestimated – during the lunch break all players enjoyed this amazing tool in team sessions where they were able to go through each and every hand they wanted to see all the action both in a log and in an animated version. As play is getting closer to the finish every decision becomes more crucial to team standings and every little piece of information on opponents’ play can prove vital.

IFP’s re-player will be available online on pokerfed.org after the event.

Standings after 200 hands:

Position	Nation	7th Session Points	Change
1st	China	957.5	=
2nd	Australia	926	▲
3rd	Singapore	922.5	▼
4th	CPG	909	=
5th	Israel	903.5	=
6th	India	869.5	=
7th	Japan	858.5	=
8th	Mongolia	853.5	=

Two more sessions to go

During a break I talked to Stas Tishkevich, the president of The Israeli Poker Union:

What were your expectations going into this event?

Our expectations were first of all qualifying for the finals in Brazil, anything less than 4th place would be a failure. We are aiming for 1st place, as the Israeli team is combined of very good poker players and most of them play poker for a living.

How did you pick your national team and how did you prepare?

I’ve picked the team according to live tournaments winnings given by HendonMob, online poker winnings given by OPR, and volume in MTTs. Israel is a small country, and the poker community knows each other, so it was easy to choose the players, whom I personally know.

As for preparations we talked strategy in our 8 hour stop in Amsterdam, on the way to China.

After day 1 you are at 543 points (540 average) and just above the qualifying threshold. Are you happy with your performance? Will your team be analyzing Day 1 play and make adjustments?

After day 1 we made not so impressive results. After sitting all night and analysing the hand log given to us by IFP, we realised 2 things – the main thing was that we were over-thinking regarding the tournament structure instead of just playing poker.

2nd thing was realising that the tournament results are greatly affected by teams playing against the Mongolian team. Our team ran poorly against them in All-Ins pre-flop, unstacking with our TT losing to K3o etc. We believe that if IFP checks results without team Mongolia we will be in the top 2 at least.

Tell me a little about your national federation. How many members do you have and what kind of activities are you organizing? What are the plans and ambitions for the future of your NF?

Our national federation is very young – just 2 months old and we have yet to start recruiting members. The Asian Nations Cup is the first official competition of the Israeli team, and it is actually the first official activity of the union. We are planning to make Match Poker competitions in Israel, we will try to bring an official WPT event into Israel and have many more activities on the go. You will definitely be hearing about us in 2014, we hope to make IFP proud!

Standings after 190 hands:

Position	Nation	7th Session Points	Change
1st	China	905.5	=
2nd	Singapore	879.5	▲
3rd	Australia	876	▼
4th	CPG	870	=
5th	Israel	853.5	=
6th	India	840	=
7th	Japan	816	=
8th	Mongolia	799.5	=

October 20, 2013