2013 Asian Nations Cup: Day 2, 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.

Who will be Asia’s team poker champion?

Play is coming to an end, in just a few hands’ time the winning team will be determined. Who will be taking Asian Nations Cup’s the trophy home? Who will be crowned as the tournament’s best individual player? Who are the best players of each eight sessions?

We will keep the suspense until the gala dinner and the award ceremony where trophies and medals will be awarded to the best players and teams. Not until then will it be revealed which teams have qualified for the Nations Cup Final – and the grand moment awaits when we will celebrate the Asian Nations Cup Champions!

Stay tuned for a final wrap up later tonight. A couple of highlight videos and interviews will be shortly available as well as IFP’s re-players and an ind-depth Match Poker analysis of the Asian Nations Cup.

Final stretch

Hand 211, table 7

Last session has started. Results will not be posted until after the last hand has been played out, but we will keep an eye on some of the key players and tables. Mongolia bounced off the last place ranking with an impressive surge and high scores from Temuulen Dashbat sitting at Table 7:

Australia’s Garth kay raises UTG to 175, CPG’s Mo Wei Liang and Temuulen both call as does Sangeeth Mohan in the SB. The flop is 7c 2c 7h. Check-check followed by a bet of 600 from Mo, Garth is the only one to call. The turn is Jc, both players check. The river brings 2h, and the players check it down. Garth is playing the two pairs on the board with an ace kicker but Mo wins with a better two pair holding pocket fives.

Hand 212, table 7

Mo folds UTG, Temuulen calls in 2nd position. Israel’s Hadas Wilf raises to 150 but Sangeeth on the button re-raises to 575 followed by folds around to Temuulen who calls as does Hadas. The flop is Ad 3c 4s and it is checked around to Sangeeth who takes down the pot with a bet of 1,550.

Charging batteries for the final session

Teams are getting together for the last stretch.

October 20, 2013

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