PokerStars.com World Cup of Poker

Team USA: (left to right standing) Phil Myers, Tom McEvoy, Michael Ebert; (seated left to right) David Smith and Joe Harwell

I just returned from Barcelona, Spain, where I represented Team USA in the PokerStars.com World Cup of Poker. Players from all over the world survived qualifying rounds to have the honor of representing their teams. The final eight survivors were Team USA, Team Canada, Team Israel, Team Brazil, Team Iceland, Team Poland, Team England, and Team Ireland. PokerStars posted the entire $200,000 in prize money and paid for hotel accomodations and transportation for the finalists. There were five members on each team, including four online qualifiers and one celebrity player. I was the celebrity player for Team USA, and Isabelle Mercier was the celebrity player for Team Canada.

There were five preliminary matches, with one member from each of the eight teams participating once. Points were awarded according to how players finished in each match. First place was worth 15 points, second 12, third 9, fourth 7, fifth 5, sixth 3, seventh 2, and eighth 1.

We got off to a great start when team captain Joe Harwell from Greensboro, North Carolina, came in second. Our next player, David Smith from Fayetteville, North Carolina, won the next heat, then I came in fourth in my heat, so Team USA had a solid lead after three of the five matches. I played a key hand in my heat against Isabelle Mercier. I raised from the button when fourhanded with Q-10. She called from the big blind with K-J. I looked at her and not the flop. The announcer called out a flop of Q-J-5 of different suits. Isabelle checked, and I instantly moved all in. She barely had me covered. This was the key hand of my tournament, and was very important for Team Canada, as well. They came in eighth in their first heat, so they had a lot of ground to make up to get back into contention. She looked at me, trying to get a read. I broke out into a smile.

Who can keep a straight face when an attractive lady like Isabelle is staring at you, trying to look into your soul - or at least your hand. Finally, she said, "I can't read you." I then responded, "If you call, you will be sorry."

I knew she did not have top pair. She would not call off all of her chips on a draw, so that had to mean that she had a jack for second pair. Finally, she called and turned over her hand. I now had her down to five outs with a possible redraw if she hit two pair. That is precisely what happened on the turn card. She spiked a king to make two pair. I still had an open-end straight draw, but nothing came and I went out in fourth place. Fortunately, that did not hurt our team, and we were almost guaranteed a spot in the finals. Our next heat featured Michael Ebert from Kernersville, North Carolina. He got off to a bad start and finished eighth, but the anchorman of our team, Phil Myers from Charlotte, North Carolina, came in fourth in the final heat to cement our spot in the final four.

Only four of the eight teams would advance. At that point, it would be a tag-team tournament with each team playing the same stack of chips. Only three of a team's players could participate. Each team started the finals with $25,000 in chips. Each round lasted 30 minutes and nobody could play more than three rounds unless he was tagged out. If he was, he could come back in just once. Only the final four teams were eligible to compete for the $200,000 in prize money. The bottom four teams got nothing. Each member of the winning team got $20,000.

The runner-up team members got $10,000 each. Third was worth $6,000 each, and fourth received $4,000 each. With this much of a gap in the prize money, everyone was focused on winning. Team Israel barely edged out Team Brazil for fourth place and the last spot in the finals, and caught no cards and was soon eliminated by Poland.

Poland, Canada, and the USA traded the lead back and forth for a while, and then Poland pulled steadily ahead, eventually eliminating Team Canada and getting heads up with us. They had about a 2-to-1 chip lead. David Smith played the first three rounds for us and more than held his own, adding several thousand in chips to our stack. I went in next. I lost some chips on a bluff; I had a draw and thought I could steal the pot from my opponent, but I was wrong. I settled down after that and steadily chipped away to get us back to more than $30,000 in chips. After playing two rounds, we called a timeout to discuss strategy. We decided to tag me out and put our team captain Joe Harwell back in. If he did well, he would finish the tournament. If not, I would tag him out and finish it for Team USA. Unfortunately, disaster struck almost immediately. Joe made a big all-in preflop raise with 6-3 and got called by A-6. We flopped an open-end straight draw, but nothing came and we had to settle for second place. Naturally, we were disappointed that we didn't win, but second was not too shabby.

Barcelona is a beautiful, modern city, and the Casino de Barcelona, where we played, is near the ocean. Several cash games were spread each night, including no-limit hold'em, pot-limit Omaha, and limit hold'em. Barcelona also has some very old churches that are well worth seeing and a great zoo that I decided to explore one day.

It was a great trip, and I hope I get invited back again next year. I want to add that Dave's wife, Cindy, was there for every match, rooting for her husband and our team. The same can be said of Joe's girlfriend, Meredith Kindl, who was a shutterbug and took lots of pictures. Phil Myers' girlfriend, Belinda Call, was also in attendance giving moral support.

Tom McEvoy is a representative of PokerStars. He is also the voice of ProPLay, a new and innovative way to learn winning poker strategy. Find out more at www.ProPlayLive.com/tommcevoy.