Serbian Poker League 2014

EPT, Events, IFP, Match Poker, Member Nations, Mind Sport, Nations Cup

IFP’s Serbian member nation, Poker Savez Srbije (PSS), has launched the poker league of Serbia for 2014.

Supported by their sponsors – BalkanPokerStar, Poker Savez Srbije have organized 7 Tournaments (from 10^th to 16^th March) plus 1 Final Tournament, which is part of the European Poker Tour Vienna. The best ranked player will participate in this competition – the European Poker Tour in Vienna.

For future competitions, they have scheduled the Spring, Summer and Autumn leagues. The finalists of these leagues will join Poker Team Serbia, that will represent their country at international competitions organized by IFP.

Alongside the Serbian Poker League, they will host an “Open Poker School”, with more than 300 online poker tournaments, for all members willing to upgrade their skills needed for success in the game of poker!

March 13, 2014

Netherlands classifies Poker to be a Game of Skill

Match Poker, Member Nations, Mind Sport

Netherlands joins 11 other IFP member nations by a recent court ruling in Amsterdam where poker was classified as a game of skill.

The Netherlands was one of IFP’s founding nations and we are delighted with this ruling.

A total of 12 IFP National Federations now consider poker to be a skill game, and not a game of chance.

These are:

Belarus
Bosnia
Brazil
Costa Rica
France
Kazakhstan
Kyrgyzstan
Lithuania
Mexico
Netherlands
Romania
Ukraine

More information on the dutch court’s ruling can be found here – http://www.pokernews.com/news/2014/01/amsterdam-court-rules-poker-a-skill-game-17340.htm

January 28, 2014

Anthony Holden steps down as IFP President

ENC 2013 Cyprus, European Nations Cup, IFP, Match Poker, Patrick Nally

After a board meeting at the end of its highly successful European Nations Cup in Paphos, Cyprus, IFP announced that its founder President Anthony Holden was stepping down after four years distinguished service in the role. The Board also announced that it had elected as his successor Mr Patrick Nally.

Anthony Holden

Elected IFP’s first President at its founding congress in Lausanne, Switzerland, in April 2009, Mr Holden said that it had been a great honour to hold that office during IFP’s formative years which had seen it grow from the original seven founder members to almost 50, with 75 in prospect by the end of this year. The first four years also saw the development of IFP’s patent form of duplicate poker, Match Poker, and the hugely successful events at County Hall in London, in November 2011, which saw Germany crowned first winners of the Nations Cup and Raul Mestre of Spain triumph in the first individual IFP World Championship.

On stepping down as President, Holden, a distinguished journalist and author prior to taking up his IFP duties, expressed his thanks to all he had worked with over the four years and cited a desire to return to other literary projects, including memoirs.

Among Mr Holden’s 35 books are two cult classics in the poker world, Big Deal (1990) and Bigger Deal (2007), as well as an expert and widely acclaimed manual Holden on Hold’em (2008). A former PokerStars sponsored player, he won television’s first celebrity Late Night Poker in 2000 and he represented England in the 2006 World Cup of Poker.

While Holden is standing down as President he will not be leaving the IFP entirely, having been asked by the board to take up new Ambassadorial role, an appointment Holden is greatly looking forward to.

Patrick Nally

Newly elected President of the IFP Patrick Nally paid tribute to Holden.

“On behalf of the entire IFP Board I want to thank Anthony Holden and pay tribute to his four distinguished years as IFP’s founder President. Without his reputation in the poker world and his wide range of contacts we would never have been able to get IFP off to such a terrific start. We will miss him very much, but as his successor, I am delighted that Anthony will remain very much part of the IFP family as IFP’s Ambassador in the poker world at large.”

Often referred to as the “founding father of sports marketing”, Nally himself was instrumental in revolutionising major sporting events around the world, such as the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup. He still plays a central role in numerous projects both inside and outside the sporting world, experience that he believes will ensure an exciting future for poker and the IFP as it moves into an exciting new phase.

“I’m very pleased that the board has given me the honour of serving as President of IFP. We have many exciting challenges ahead, following on from our success at the European Nations Cup in Paphos, and our revolutionary use of smartphone technology. Such innovations take poker into a new era and I look forward to even greater success in the future as we build on the achievements of the past four years.”

April 15, 2013

Cyprus plays host to 13 nations for the first IFP European Nations Cup in Match Poker

ENC 2013 Cyprus, European Nations Cup, Events, Match Poker, Member Nations, Tournament

From 12^th April 2013, top players from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Estonia, France, Hungary, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Spain and UK arrived in Cyprus eager to challenge the Cypriot team for the honour of being crowned IFP European Nations Cup champion.

This event, which used IFP’s new Match Poker technology developed by XpressHD, was something of a coup for Cyprus as it was the first time anyone anywhere has seen playing cards being delivered to players via their individual smartphones.

Such was the interest in the event that many countries beyond the 14 competing nations broadcasted the live event stream to follow the action in the wonderful surroundings of the Annabelle Hotel in Paphos. Ireland ended up winning and became the first ever IFP European Nations Cup champion. Russia, Spain, UK, Estonia and the home nation, Cyprus, all qualified for the IFP Nations Cup 2013 final which will be held in November/December this year. Germany is the defending Nations Cup champion from the inaugural event, which was held in London in 2011.

“Organising an international competition is always a challenge for the host and recent events in Cyprus have made it even more so.” said IFP Board and founder member Patrick Nally. “The fact that we are here today is testament to all the hard work and support of our friends in Cyprus and I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of IFP, to express our sincere gratitude to the Mayor of Paphos and the Cyprus Poker Association. We are proud to work alongside you to present the first IFP European Nations Cup in Match Poker and to promote poker as a mind sport and game of strategic skill.”

Mayor of Paphos has said “We are delighted to welcome the IFP, the players, the world’s media and the many supporters to Paphos for such a wonderful event. We are also grateful to the Cyprus Poker Association for securing the event for Cyprus.”

Antonis Theophanides of the Cyprus Poker Association has said “We are delighted to be able to host this historical event on behalf of the IFP and bring this radical and innovative approach to the poker playing public. Cyprus has been through a very difficult time recently and this shows the strength of character that we have here to bounce back immediately and host such a prestigious event.”

April 17, 2013

Interesting hands of IFP’s European Nations Cup

ENC 2013 Cyprus, European Nations Cup, Events, Match Poker, Report

IFP’s new ‘Match Poker’ technology allowed for the first time ever to collect data from four 3-hour+ sessions of play containing 51, 65, 71, and 72 hands respectively (259 hands in total). Here are some interesting hands we’d like to share with you.

Read between the lines

Here’s the frequency of how many times each team scored above average (blue) and how many times they scored below average (red). Perhaps this is the clearest visual representation of why Ireland became champions!

The Quad 6 Hand

Hand 128	J9	QT	66	99	TOTAL	Points
Netherlands	-25	10300	10075	-250	20100	14
France	-25	-50	5175	-1000	4100	13
Russia	-50	-50	5400	-2200	3100	12
Hungary	-25	-150	4700	-1925	2600	11
Poland	-25	-50	1150	-475	600	10
Cyprus	-150	-150	350	200	250	9
Estonia	-25	-50	10075	-10000	0	8
Ireland	-125	-50	1075	-1075	-175	7
UK	-25	-50	2175	-2675	-575	6
Serbia	-25	-125	2275	-5000	-2875	5
Lithuania	-150	-50	-125	-4625	-4950	4
Bosnia	-25	-50	-150	-5225	-5450	3
Spain	-25	-50	2750	-10000	-7325	2
Denmark	-25	-50	675	-10000	-9400	1

The Netherlands destroyed the field in this hand, achieving two separate double-ups against the 99 (no other team got beyond the flop with the QT in Seat 2). One double-up would’ve been enough, however, since they also minimized the damage when they held the 99 in Seat 4. Cyprus was the only team to win with the 99 (re-raising pre-flop to take a small pot) but slow-played their quad 6s to death! Estonia’s uber-aggressive play in both spots evened itself out, and it was Denmark and Spain who lost out most with the 99s without managing to compensate with their 6s. Two other interesting points to note from this hand – Cyprus might have gained a point over Poland if they hadn’t got involved in the blinds (half the other teams simply folded both spots). The UK (Ross Boatman) also gained a point over Serbia by folding a 3k river-bet and making the correct laydown.

The KK v AT Hand

Hand 150	Qd6d	44	AT	A7	Tc2c	KK	TOTAL	Points
Lithuania	-650	10075	825	-50	0	1650	11850	14
Russia	0	11200	-700	-50	0	1075	11525	13
Hungary	0	10075	-975	-50	-250	900	9700	12
Estonia	0	7350	-25	-50	0	-175	7100	11
UK	0	3275	-1500	-250	0	-150	1375	10
Ireland	0	-1400	-25	-50	0	900	-575	9
Netherlands	-150	-2000	-700	-150	0	2250	-750	8
Spain	0	-150	-250	-50	0	-800	-800	7
Serbia	0	-700	-25	-50	0	-925	-925	6
Cyprus	0	-150	-2400	-125	0	1050	-1625	5
Bosnia	0	-350	-25	-50	0	-3200	-3625	4
France	-10000	-250	-25	-50	0	2725	-7600	3
Denmark	-175	2700	-1950	-50	0	-10000	-9475	2
Poland	-50	-150	-725	-5250	0	-10000	-16175	1

With an A23 flop (2 diamonds), Th on the turn and 5h on the river you might expect this hand to go to the KK half the time (pre-flop) and half the time to the AT (post-flop). NOT TRUE!!! Lithuania were the only team to win with the AT here – amazing stuff!

The Final Hand of the Tournament

After 258 hands
1	Ireland[C]	2011
2	Russia [Q]	1993.5
3	Spain [Q]	1986.5
4	UK [Q]	1973.5
5	Estonia [Q]	1970
6	Cyprus	1949.5
7	Denmark	1947.5
8	Poland	1946.5
9	France	1944
10	Serbia	1907.5
11	Bosnia	1879.5
12	Lithuania	1871
13	Hungary	1868.5
14	Netherlands	1841.5

Of course the teams didn’t know if it was close or a forgone conclusion at this point – they only knew how things stood at the beginning of the session. And with just the last hand to be dealt 5 of the teams were safely through, plus the European Championship decided. However, that final qualifying spot for the IFP Nations Cup Finals was still up for grabs with just 5.5 points separating 6^th-9^th place. If ever there is a lesson to be learned in sport, to keep fighting to the end, this is it!

Hand 259	54	Q5	84	K2	86	TOTAL	Points
Cyprus	-50	175	0	450	675	1250	14
Poland	-50	0	0	0	150	100	13
Spain	-50	0	0	0	125	75	12
Russia	25	0	0	0	-25	0	10
Denmark	-50	0	75	0	-25	0	10
Netherlands	25	0	0	0	-25	0	10
UK	-150	75	0	75	-25	-25	8
Ireland	-50	0	0	0	-25	-75	6
Estonia	-50	0	0	0	-25	-75	6
France	-50	0	0	0	-25	-75	6
Bosnia	-150	0	0	0	-25	-175	4
Serbia	-125	-125	0	0	50	-200	3
Hungary	-150	75	200	-625	150	-350	2
Lithuania	-50	0	-375	0	-25	-450	1

Exhausted and fatigued from close to 15 hours play over the two days, all six French players folded their final hand. Poland and Denmark also only contested the hand in just one spot each (achieving a 2^nd and 5^th respectively), but Cyprus kept their heads down and won this “nothing hand” in three spots (with Q5, K2 and 86). The hosts kept their 6^th place and haven’t stopped partying since.

April 23, 2013