The Poker Nations Cup is an international

poker tournament A poker tournament is a tournament where players compete by playing poker. It can feature as few as two players playing on a single table (called a "heads up poker, heads-up" tournament), and as many as tens of thousands of players playing on th ...

, televised on

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

from March 2006 onwards. The series is commentated by

Jesse May Jesse May is an American poker commentator and player. Jesse May was born in New York City in 1971 and raised in Madison, New Jersey, where he first became hooked on poker playing with friends. In 1988, he started attending The University of C ...

and

Barny Boatman Barny M. P. Boatman (born 1956 in St Pancras, London) is an English professional poker player and the oldest member of the poker-playing foursome known as The Hendon Mob. He is the older brother of Ross Boatman, and resides in Archway. Dur ...

Padraig Parkinson Padraig Parkinson (born 1957 in Galway) is an Irish poker player. He is chiefly recognised as the grand final winner of Late Night Poker series 5 (where he defeated Korosh Nejad) and as the third-place finisher of the 1999 World Series of Poke ...

covered for Boatman in preliminary match 2. The series was filmed in

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

Thomas Kremser Thomas Kremser is a poker professional, working in the industry since 1988. He is a consultant and executive in tournament administration. He is the chief executive of TK Poker Events, a company specialized in organising poker events. His career ...

was the tournament director, and the dealers were Marina Kremser and Stevie Pollak. The event in 2006 was sponsored by

888.com 888 Holdings PLC, () known commonly as 888, is a public company which owns several popular gambling brands and websites, including 888sport, 888casino and 888poker. 888 is based in Gibraltar. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a con ...

. In 2007 888.com has been replaced by Partypoker as main sponsors. The event will also be televised on Channel 4.

Format

Six nations compete in the series, with six members to each team. Each team has a captain and an internet qualifier. The captain chooses one player from the six available to compete in each of the six preliminary tournaments (each player on the team plays once, and once only.) Points are awarded for the finishing position of each player in each preliminary event. These points are totalled and used to calculate chips in the Grand Final. Points are awarded as follows: *1st: 10 points *2nd: 7 points *3rd: 5 points *4th: 3 points *5th: 2 points *6th: 1 point Team captains can choose to substitute team members during the Grand Final, where the winning team receives $100,000. (NB: As members of a nation's team never face other members of the same team, there is no possibility of collusion, as is possible in other team-format poker tournaments.)

Teams

''NB: The flags within this article show the country the player is representing. e.g.: below Scott Gray is identified with the

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

flag as that is the country he is representing, despite Gray being born in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

.'' ¹: denotes Team Captain
²: denotes online qualifier

Results

Preliminary rounds

Grand Final

Team captains chose three players to compete in the Grand Final. Only one player started, who then had to be substituted by the end of the third level. The second player had to be substituted for the third player at the end of the sixth level. Blind levels ran twice as long as in the preliminary heats. Team captains were also entitled to call a 60-second time-out with any player in their team once per game. The Grand Final's television broadcast spanned over two episodes.

2007 Event

The 2007 event aired in March 2007 featuring teams representing Great Britain, USA, Germany, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands with the winning team receiving $100,000 prize money.

External links

Article by Joe Beevers
{{Major Poker Tournaments Television shows about poker Poker tournaments in Europe