When Raul Mestre tried to bite into the The Table trophy, he could have been forgiven for wondering if it was all real – the trophy, the money, the prestige of winning such an exclusive event. Well it was, and so was his title of “Official World Champion.”

“Official World Champion”?That “official” tag was something several players asked about during the four days of the IFP World Championship. Was it some arbitrary prefix that the International Federation of Poker had added for faux prestige? On the contrary, the IFP is the only organisations sanctioned to stage a World Championship of poker. At this point we ask you to properly brace yourself for the formal explanation why…It comes down to The European Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which has agreed to be the arbitrating authority for all matters relating to IFP and to arbitrate under the Swiss Civil Code.The IFP has secured observer status of the International Mind Sport Association and also has an outstanding application to join SportAccord (formerly the General Association of International Sports Federations), the global body responsible for recognising sports and sanctioning their governing bodies.

IFP hopes to secure full membership of both IMSA and SportAccord in May 2012 and with this recognition comes the global recognition required for IFP to be a full International Sports Federation and the authority to organise one official world championship.