T he inaugural event took place Wednesday, May 19, 2010 at The Grand in the Golden Nugget Hotel in Las Vegas. Eight teams from Australia, Brazil, China, England, Greece, Israel, Vietnam and USA were there to compete for the $400,000 prize. Five tables were set up and the last two players from each table would go to the final table.
China, the sleeping giants, won the World Team Poker tournament after many hours of strategic playing. Quietly, and with precision, the co-captains Johnny Chan and David Chiu led their team to victory after playing for over 20 hours. In the team were Maria Ho, Rich Zhu, Chau Giang, Winfred Yu and Derek Cheung. Johnny Chan is currently tied at 10 with Doyle Brunson for second most WSOP bracelets. David Chiu holds 4 WSOP bracelets and is one of the best limit hold’em players in the world. (www.worldteampoker.com)
USA team captain Doyle Brunson, with 10 WSOP bracelets, coached his legendary team—Phil Hellmuth, Jr., who was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2007; Chris Ferguson holds 5 WSOP bracelets; Jennifer Harman with 2 WSOP bracelets and the third woman in this event; Howard Lederer holds 2 World Poker Tour championships and Mike Matusow holds 3 WSOP bracelets. It was so exciting to watch our USA team play and everyone was routing for them.
Greece had a team of lively young men who were very charming and friendly and they were very excited to be in the tournament. The captains, George Theofanopoulos and Georgios Kapalas led their team to the final table. Team Greece was by far my favorite team.
Israel had Eli Elezra as its captain who is a regular on the game show “High Stakes Poker.” On his team were David Levi, Robert Mizrachi, Michael Mizrachi and Abe Mosseri. They all were a strong and powerful team.
Brazil had a young lively team also, which brought them all to the final table. Captain Juliano Maesano led his enthusiastic team, Christian Krukel, Leandro “Brasa” Pimentel, Rodrigo “Zidane” Caprioli and Felipe “Mojave” Ramos and encouraged every winning play with his strumming on an instrument.
Australia co-captains Jeffrey Lisandro and Tony G calmly interacted with his team, Billy Argyros, Gary Benson, Mel Judah, Grant Levy, David Saab, Steve Topakas and Marsha Waggoner who is the “Grand Dame of Poker.” Waggoner, with 33 years of poker experience became the first woman to be inducted into the 2010 Australian Poker Hall of Fame.
Vietnam had Men “The Master” Nguyen as their captain. He holds six WSOP bracelets and has won over nine million dollars in tournament winnings. Scotty Nguyen, Van Nguyen, Karina Jett, Kenny Tran and John “The Razor” Phan were focused and an outstanding team.
England captain Ben Roberts had a dedicated team of players. James Akenhead, Joe Beevers, David Colclough, Peter Costa, Surinder Sunar, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot and Ram Vaswani.
After 12 hours of playing, five teams won their places at the final table. Team Australia, Team Brazil, Team China, Team Greece and Team Vietnam were now going to bring us their Pride—Passion—Country.
Congratulations to China who, after 20 hours of playing, won the $300,000 prize and to Brazil who came in second place and won $100,000. We all look forward to the next World Team Poker this summer which will have 31 countries competing for the title.
A thank you goes out to the commentators, Kenna James and Matt Corboy, who did a great job.
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