America Wins Poker Bragging Rights At Caesars CupTeam Americas Beats Team Europe 3-1 At 2011 Caesars Cup |
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This year the title of Caesars Cup champions goes to Team Americas. In its first year it was easily won by Team Europe, but two years later, Phil Hellmuth and his team have got their own back by beating Bertrand Grospellier and co. 3-1 in a best-of-five match format.
Being selected for the team is deemed a great honour and this game is not about money, titles, trophies, or bracelets but about pride and glory. ElkY and his team Jake Cody, Maxim Lykov, Gus Hansen, and Antanas Guoga could not overcome the Poker Brat’s team made up of wonder kids Ben Lamb and Jason Mercier plus the older, more experienced Johnny Chan and Daniel Negreanu.
During the battle, Gus Hansen said, “It’s not about winning the most hands. It’s about minimizing the losses. That’s why we’re the champions.” However it was thrown back in his face as Hellmuth and his team refused to take anything less than first.
In the first match, Lamb and Mercier took on Tony G and Jake Cody. Cody has also made the final table of the main event in Cannes but despite obviously being in good form, the first game went to the Americas. Team Americas made two pair against Team Europe’s busted flush draw in what turned out to be the key hand.
Next Hellmuth and Negreanu faced Hansen and Lykov. Negreanu was team captain of the 2009 squad who walked away from the Cup in London after being shown how it’s done by Annette Obrestad and her Euro team, so this time he was looking for a different result. It was déjà vu however as Team Europe made it a tie in the second match after they scooped a heap of chips with A-5 versus Team Americas’ K-10 suited, all-in preflop. The Europeans made a full house and a few hands later it was over.
ElkY then stepped up to the plate in the hopes of pushing Europe into the lead but Chan stood in his way. The two tussled back and forth for a bit with Chan getting the better of it, and then Chan finished things off with pocket fours all in versus ElkY’s A-6.
Team Europe needed to win the fourth match or it would all be over. Russian pro Max Lykov took on Phil Hellmuth and after about 30 minutes the final hand came with Hellmuth holding Q-10 and Lykov holding K-9. All the chips were in when a queen hit the flop and Team Americas took back their dignity.
It is now 1-1 in what has come to be a very interesting bi-annual poker event played solely at WSOP Europe.
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