From September 14th to September 17th, 2023, the Herzdamen Festival took place at the Grand Casino Aš in the Czech Republic and 4 members of the German national Match Poker team were there to put their skills to the test. The guaranteed prize pool for the event was €70,000, but it was significantly exceeded, reaching nearly €108,000.

The German National Match Poker players were highly successful over the course of the series, proving their exceptional individual skills once again.

 

Julie Schumacher (co-organizer of the Herzdamen Festival)

  • Royal Class (€250 Buy-In): 5th place for €1,883
  • Queens Cup (€150 Buy-in): 8th place for €1,211

 

Kai Rieche (key national team player and a regular at the Grand Casino Aš)

  • Queens Turbo (€50 Buy-In): 1st place for €1,107
  • Dealer’s Choice NLH/PLO (€60 Buy-In): 1st place for €1,491

 

Daniel Eylenfeldt (Team Captain)

  • Royal Class (€250 Buy-In): 1st place for €6,727
  • Queens Cup (€150 Buy-In): 14th place for €615

 

Rene Schlemon (new addition to the national team)

  • Queens PKO (€90 Buy-In): 6th place for €840 including bounties.

 

In summary, that’s 3 tournament victories, 6 final tables, and a total prize money of nearly €14,000 for the 4 players. A fantastic result from the World Champions!

 

“A Chip and a Chair”

During the Royal Class tournament, with blinds at 8k/16k, Daniel Eylenfeldt went all-in preflop with KJs vs. AQo for about 20 big blinds and was left with only 7k chips afterward. However, with less than half a big blind, he started his comeback and managed to secure the tournament victory after around 13 hours of play, at 7 o’clock in the morning!

https://www.hochgepokert.com/2023/09/16/herzdamen-club-uebernimmt-gca-pokerroom-daniel- eylenfeldt-siegt/

After the success of the inaugural season of the national Match Poker league in 2022, the Polish national federation (Związek Pokera Sportowego) decided to create a new position in the structure of the association – Sport Director for the National Team.

This honour was bestowed upon Adam Pawlikiewicz, who has been an active member of the Souther Match Poker Conference.

Adam is an IT and internet marketing specialist with a deep passion for the digital sport of Match Poker and loves to play & compete on a level playing field while putting his skills on display.

Adam Pawlikiewicz

The main responsibilities of the Sports Director are primarily organisational management of the Polish national team, ensuring good & regular communication between the squad and the coach, planning activities related to the development of the team such as training & strategy discussions, and taking care of the image of the team.

Adam, thank you for your contribution to the sport and we wish you many successes with the Polish National Match Poker team!

After topping the standings for most of the World Championships in Macedonia last year, Team Singapore narrowly missed out on their podium finish. Leading by example, Lisa and her team will surely come to Hong Kong with one goal – becoming Champions of Asia!

 

Name: Lisa Tan Meiling

Age: 34

Profession: Tech Industry

Bio: This captain who loves poker, hearthstone, and problem solving suffers daily anxiety attacks from managing a team of quintessential poker players. She’s also extremely proud of her talented teammates and how far the team has come. Lisa is very much looking forward to competing in the upcoming Asian Championships!

 

Name: Zefirelli Noordin

Age: 36

Profession: Semi-retired investor

Bio: A semi-retired investor and recreational poker player, Zef supports the Singapore Match Poker team operations and finance.

 

Name: Phua Tzai Wei

Age: 28

Profession: Self employed

Bio: Big Liverpool and football fan, avid risk taker.

 

Name: Ng Qingyang

Age: 33

Profession: Poker coach

Bio: Qing Yang (better known as QY) is an Elite Coach at Run It Once. He played 10/20 live for most of his career, and about 5 years ago started coaching on the side. As of today he’s worked with more than 100 students, and his Run It Once videos are among the most well-received on the site.

 

Name: Wee Yee Joon Darren

Age: 31

Profession: Self-employed

Bio: Recreational tournament player, previously played for Singapore in 2021 world finals and helped team qualify to 2022 finals.

 

Name: Keith Joel Seah Jia Qiang

Age: 32

Profession: Self-Employed

Bio: Been playing poker for 4 years and enjoyed the previous match poker experience.

 

Name: Lin Ruizi

Age: 32

Profession: Lawyer – Litigator

Bio: I’m a strategy game nerd – started out with Chess and Magic: The Gathering. Also play Hearthstone, Marvel Snap etc.
Shortly before university, my friends introduced me to poker and I… well I still looked back and played all my usual games. But poker is very interesting too and there are a lot of misconceptions about it when it is a strategy and math game at heart! Was in last year’s Worlds team where we sadly fell short of the podium despite leading all the way – still don’t know what’s going on sometimes when I see the many colour coded charts but I have learned that a big face card with another big face card usually gets you more points in Match Poker especially if they match – unless all the same colours come out. Hoping to learn more from all the tough players out there and willing to play learning fees in home games!

 

Name: Feng Zhao

Age: 34

Profession: Financial Adviser

Bio: I like travelling and playing poker in different countries.

Vietnam has seen tremendous growth in the poker industry over the past few years and even more so during the pandemic. This has lead to widespread adoption of the game with many players traveling to this beautiful country to compete in tournaments. A new member to the Match Poker family, the national team will be making its first ever appearance at a global IFMP event at the 2023 Asian Nations Cup in Hong Kong. They are coming with lofty ambitions and a strong team, aiming to go home with the Winners trophy and gold medals!

 

This is the Vietnamese squad for the Asian Championships:

 

Name: Jul Tran (Tran Duc Ngoc) – Team Member and Team Coach

Age: 39

Profession: Poker professional

Bio: I knew poker since I was living in France and then I love this mental game, have spent a lot of time researching about this mathematical game. I won many trophies around Asia like WPT, APT, APL and specially focus on high-roller games or other deep-stack games in which I can apply the strength of math. Match Poker is also based on skill and math while reducing many chances of luck, I think I can quickly follow this kind of game.

 

Name: Terry Nguyen (Nguyen Tien Thanh) – Captain

Age: 39

Profession: Lecturer

Bio: I am a teacher (on the financial field) and I love poker since I found out it is a skilled game although there is still luck involved. I have played poker for quite a long time and won many trophies like APT and APL. I got to know about Match Poker recently and really love the rules which can reduce almost all the luck in the game, so I can apply the math, probability factors and mind skills to the games. I hope this game will be popular in Vietnam in the near future, that is also my mission.

 

Name: Tran Huy Hoang

Age: 48

Profession: Businessman

Bio: Love travelling and poker. I really want to prove this game is a skilled game, I hope I can meet many players from around the world at the 2023 Asian Nations Cup and win the trophy for Vietnam.

 

Name: Linh Ran (Nguyen Dieu Phuong Linh)

Age: 30

Profession: Real Estate Sales

Bio: I love traveling, movies and poker, first female Vietnamese player to win trophies of WPT (WPT Ladies event 2018, NLH APT 2019). Proud to be representing my nation.

 

Name: Ha Manh Tuong

Age: 35

Profession: Math Teacher

Bio: I am a math teacher for secondary school, I studied many theories and poker professional and get some achievements. The biggest I won is the Main Event of WPC in 2022 with the biggest prize in Vietnam at that time. Beside that I also like reading books, music and math.

Some achievements:

1st Main event WPC 9 – 2022.

2nd Main event VSOP Championship II 11 – 2020.

1st Main event GrandLoyal poker CUP 4 – 2022.

1st Main event VSOP Grinder Series II 12 – 2021.

3rd Main event WPT Warm up Series 4 – 2021.

1st Mistery Bounty VSOP Championship IV 8 – 2022.

3rd Kick off WPC 1 – 2023.

 

Name: Dang Thanh Luong

Age: 35

Profession: Financial Analyst

Bio: I played poker for the first time about 6 years ago and I see the development of poker industry in Vietnam very fast. After Covid time, the poker industry in Vietnam is developing even faster and my love for the game of poker is still bigger and bigger. I was recently introduced to Match Poker by a friend and I really like the rules of it and want to challenge myself. I am very happy to be selected to represent the Vietnamese National Team to compete in the Asian Nation Cup 2023 in Hong Kong. I will try my best to take the medals and trophy home with my team to Vietnam.

 

Name: Nguyen Huu Dung

Age: 35

Profession: Businessman

Bio: I enjoy psychological challenges in general and the competitiveness in poker in particular. I like the hard headed mindset that poker puts me in. It is the mindset to always have faith and maintain mental strength in any circumstances.

Some Achievements:
•1st Championship event – APT Manila Championships 2017
•1st Opening event – APT Manila Championships 2017
•2nd High Roller – Macau Poker Cup 27 2017
•2nd Main event – National Poker Championship II 2017
•3rd Super High Rollers – APT HCM 2018
•3rd High Roller – APL Danang 2019

 

Name: Nguyen Anh Minh

Age: 32

Profession: Owner of a radio station – Through the Radio The Voice of Vietnam

Bio: I take on Poker as a hobby as early as 2012, starting out playing home games with friends during weekends. From time to time, the interest for the game grew larger and I start taking Poker more seriously. I was very fortunate to have many opportunities to play poker during my time studying and working in the United States from 2008 to 2017. Had my first professional poker tournament in 2016 during the World Series of Poker in Rio Las Vegas, Nevada. Since 2017, I moved back to Vietnam and start participating in many other poker events both locally and internationally such as: WPT; APT; APL; Poker Dream; etc. Poker has definitely evolved into something bigger than just a weekend hobby; it offers me a chance to connect with people and bring something greater for the local community.

This will China’s first participation in a Match Poker event since their victory at the 2013 Asian Nations Cup, held in Sanya, China! The Chinese team has been created by China Poker Games (CPG) and they still have very fond memories of the first Asian Championships.

 

Here is their squad for the 2023 Asian Nations Cup:

 

Name: Taowei Zheng (郑陶威)

Age: 39

Profession: Lawyer

 

Name: Zhu Xingbiao (朱星彪)

Age: 36

Profession: Poker player

 

Name: Zhe Li (李哲) 

Age: 36

Profession: Poker player

 

Name: Wang Junjie (王俊杰)

Age: 26

Profession: Poker player

 

Name: Chen Guangcheng (陈光城) 

Age: 45

Profession: Poker trainer

 

Name: Neves Yang (杨崇贤)

Age: 35

Profession: Entrepreneur

 

Name: Wu Ya Ke (吴亚轲)

Age: 31

Profession: Freelancer

 

Name: Chen Dong (陈东)

Age: 39

Profession: Businessman

 

Name: Yuan Yi Lu (袁亿璐)

Age: 43

Profession: Financial practitioner

 

Name: Lulu Yang (杨曦)

Age: 21

Profession: TV Host