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Macedonia to Host the Nations Cup Finals in May

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IFMP’s first live event since the Asian Nations Cup held in Taipei, Taiwan in November 2019 and we could not be more excited to bring our qualified nations together and competing for the Match Poker World Championship!

We hosted a series of virtual qualifiers throughout 2021, where Asian and European national teams participated from a central venue to secure their qualification for the 2021 Nations Cup Finals.

Over 25 national teams participated in 11 individual qualifying events over 4 months, leading to the following list of qualified teams:

  • India
  • Mongolia
  • Kazakhstan
  • Singapore
  • Israel
  • Iceland
  • Austria
  • Germany
  • Switzerland
  • Macedonia
  • Italy

These nations will be joined by the current Nations Cup Champions, for 2019 and 2020, Team Ukraine who will be looking to defend their title for the second time after successfully doing so for the first time in the 2020 Virtual Nations Cup.

 

 

The beautiful town of Gevgelija will be our host city in Macedonia with the Apollonia Hotel being our venue.

The 2021 Nations Cup will kick off on 23rd May and run till the 27th, incorporating an exciting elimination structure playing down to a final 6 teams for the final session of play.

3 full days of play will ensure both physical and mental stamina are tested along with Match Poker skill and strategy, producing a truly deserving World Champion.

The IFMP team will be visiting Gevgelija on 18 & 19 April for a pre-event press conference with the Mayor of the town and a site visit with the local organising committee.

It has been very encouraging to see the growth of Match Poker in Macedonia, with the first season of the national league being run very successfully and producing a national champion, the Vardar Sharks, to go on to represent the league in the Global Champions League later this year.

Match Poker’s formal sporting recognition by GAISF has been extremely important in helping its national acceptance as a mind sport and game of skill within our member nations.

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Taiwan uses Poker as a Teaching Tool in Universities

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President of Taiwan Formosa Poker Sports Association, David Tai, has brought poker to universities in Taiwan and has begun teaching as an assistant professor.

Students from the universities mentioned below have established social poker clubs, and CTP is serving as their official partner to assist on poker lectures and poker development.

National Tsing Hua University
National Chengchi University
National Dong Hwa University

Students have been very keen to setup social poker clubs in their university, and with the assistance from CTP, the school has approved their request subject to more than 40 students jointly signing up in each university.

‘Let poker step to the world, and let the world step into Taiwan’.

David is an assistant professor for Wanung Universtity, and has been invited to be their host lecturer together with ex-team Taiwan IFMP coach BONSAI YIN to assist to promote Poker as a game of strategy to the students.

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An Experienced Team GB is Eager to Impress

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Name: Shameen Jivraj
Profession: Design Consultant
Bio: Product designer, poker player, world traveller, sun-seeker, ocean lover, coconut drinker, mango eater, skydiver (once), loves life… Sometimes :)

 

Name: Jon Theobald
Profession: Rock photographer, videographer and virtual event producer
Bio: stepped off corporate merry-go-round after 30 years, life is now focussed on my partner, our dog, beekeeping, live music, playing poker and riding my Harley.

 

Name: Luke Barton
Profession: Investor, Advisor, Future technology
Bio: A calculated risk-taker both professionally and on the table, 4 times winner of the Marlow High Roller Event, avid skier, mountaineer, peloton enthusiast, and with a dry sense of humour always on tap.

 

Name – Ben Brocklesby
Profession – Sales & Marketing Guru
Bio – Guaranteed to give 100% to whatever I undertake. Whether it be business – Origin Doors & Windows, family life – married with two boys, sport – Olympic lifting, CrossFit, skiing, marathon running or poker – I am always all in.

 

Full Name: Andy Gallagher
Age: 54
Profession: De-programmer
Bio: Happy go lucky poker player and Match Poker athlete

 

Name: Sue Smith
Age: 74
Profession: Retired
Bio: Love playing poker. Got lucky twice at the World Series so actually have a WSOP profile.

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Team Singapore are Going for Gold

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Team Singapore will be lead by a female, becoming the 2nd nation to have a woman captain after Belarus. A strong squad with a mix of experience and youth, the Singaporeans will be eager to show their skills once again and make a run at the World Championship! Here is their squad:

 

Team Captain – Lisa Tan Meiling

Profession – In Tech Industry

Bio – Fell in love with the game since my university days, and been firmly in love with the game since. It’s been a thrilling and empowering ride being a female player in this game, and I encourage more females to try Match Poker!

 

Team Coach – Phua Tzai Wei

Profession – Cryptocurrency investor

Bio – I started playing poker in 2013 back in my college toilet/library. There are many transferrable skills to life itself, skills I have equipped myself with over the years have helped me in many ways in real life and games which rewards hard work and effort, where performance/results mostly correlated with effort and hard work one puts in.

 

 

Team Manager – Ivan Tan

Retired 

Bio – I started playing in 2000. I enjoy the social aspect of the game, and that it is a skill game which requires a lot of self-discipline in order to excel. 

 

Team Player – Lee Jia En Bernice

Student 

Bio – I started playing poker in 2017. I love meeting new people and love the thrill of poker

Team Player – Kevin Quek

Retired Hedge Fund manager

Bio – Picked up poker in 2004 when I was working in Wall Street, New York City. Got to play more when I was working in HK as Macau was just a 1 hour hop away. I would typically play for 20-25 hours straight on the weekends. Love the game as it has many similar characteristics to trading, where a mix of probabilities, psychology, bankroll management and patience comes into play!

 

Team Player – Foo Jie Long 

Profession – Banking

Bio – Started playing poker since university days where I started off playing cash games and slowly transitioned to tournament. Love how poker is multifaceted and like life there’s always a chance to win no matter the cards you are dealt!

Team Vice Captain – Zefirelli Noordin

Profession – Dogecoin Investor

Bio – Loved the game since school days. Played on and off, loves the competition and social aspect of the game.

 

Team Player – Lin Ruizi

Profession – Lawyer

Bio – I first learnt how to play poker shortly after A levels and before the start of my national service, and was very drawn to the strategic aspect of it as I was then a competitive Magic: The Gathering player, amongst various strategy games. Further, although the money wasn’t the main aspect of it for me, it was nice to have a hobby that potentially paid, as opposed to just continually outlaying money! 

 

Team Player – Keith Joel Seah Jia Qiang

Profession – Entrepreneur

Bio – I started playing at the age of 21 and I love the money aspect of it.

 

Team Player – Desmond Oh

Profession – Public Servant

Bio – I love card games since I was young, and enjoy grinding online (Former PokerStars Supernova). As a mind sports lover, I like the competitive nature of the game.

 

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The Austrians are Back and Ready to Prove Themselves

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Introducing Team Austria for the 2021 Nations Cup Qualifiers for Europe:

Theresa Berthold (34, HR Manager) likes the entertaining aspect of poker as much as the competitive characteristic. In her profession she often has to “read” human behaviour and interests which brings her an advantage on the poker table. She loves both talking about poker strategy and enjoying the beauty of the game when playing with friends.

 

Sebastian Klebert (35, Corporate Identity Specialist) started playing poker in 2008 at the club he has now been president of for a number of years. He tremendously enjoys the sense of community in the poker world and trying to understand new poker concepts together with his poker friends.

 

 

Alexandra Enders (36, Associate Manager) plays Poker since 2007. She is the first female player ever who won the Austrian Poker Masters. Poker requires skill and self-control to win consistently and that’s why she is obsessed by the game. It’s a great honour for her to be part of the Austrian team and her goal is helping Austria to qualify for the Nations Cup Finals 2021.

 

Jörg Liwa (47, IT Expert, self employed) started playing home game poker after watching movies like “The Sting” and “The Cincinnati Kid”. As a former national youth bridge player for Austria he is also experienced in matchplay and looks forward to this new competitive style for poker.

 

Martin Sturc (36, Teacher) founded the Austrian Pokersport Association back in 2006 and wrote his diploma thesis about poker being a mind sport rather than a game of chance. He worked as poker coach in Austria and Germany and was the only poker professional that could not be beaten by DeepStack, the most sophisticated poker AI on the market, in a study executed by researchers of the University of Alberta in Canada.

 

Jakob Enders (39, Consultant) is board member of the Austrian Pokersport Association (APSA) and plays Poker since 2007. He has been #1 of the Austrian Ranking for about 2 years as well as two times Viennese Poker Champion. He loves playing poker and is looking forward to represent Austria at the Nations Cup Qualifier 2021.

 

Herbert Bieber (69, IT-Security and Privacy Consultant, retired) has been playing poker for about 20 years and loves this game. His favourite discipline is live MTT and he has already played in several countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Germany, England). He highly appreciates poker theory, loves to analyse quizzes and invest a lot of time to increase his poker skills.