Great Britain Wins PartyPoker.com Nations CupNeil Channing Steers Team To Victory Over Ireland |
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Team Great Britain, captained by Roland De Wolfe and featuring Irish Open winner Neil Channing, has won 2008 PartyPoker.com Poker Nations Cup. The team, featuring de Wolfe and Channing, as well as Surinder Sunar, Joe Beevers, Ian Frazer and PartyPoker.com VIP online qualifier Charlie Durbin beat Ireland heads-up to lift the prestigious title and $100,000 first prize.
There was a total prize pool of $280,000 to be won over six heats, with each player scoring points for his team and individual-match winners lifting $20,000 for victory. The triumphant team took down $100,000.
The final was again a tag-team format wherein the team captain can make tactical substitutions and strategic time outs.
This year’s teams were:
Sweden (defending champions) — Bo Sehlstedt, William Thorsson, Johan Storakers, Mats Rahm, Johan Ocklind, and Anders Henriksson
Britain — Roland De Wolfe, Joe Beevers, Neil Channing, Ian Frazer, Surinder Sunar, and Francis Durbin
Ireland — Padraig Parkinson, Donnacha O’Dea, Marty Smyth, Ciaran O’Leary, Liam Flood, and Darren O’Brien
USA — Robert Williiamson III, Jamie Gold, Freddy Deeb, Chris Ferguson, Chad Brown, and Montel Williams
Germany — Michael Keiner, Andreas Krause, Benjamin Kang, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Thomas “Buzzer” Bihl, and Thomas Potzal
Netherlands — Marcel Luske, Thierry van den Berg, Eric Van der Burg, Daan Ruiter, and Quirijn Van Der Peet. (Luske still has one selection to make)
“I’m absolutely delighted,” said team captain de Wolfe. “In many ways it is even better to win a team event for your country than win an individual title. I am so proud that the selections for my team were vindicated,” he added.
“We knew that it would be tight early on so I played Surinder. We fancied that he could exploit his tight image and he had played so well in his heat that it simply had to be him. Next we put on Joe Beevers. At that point we needed to sure things up as we were near the chip lead. This was a choice I made based on the situation. If we had been leading I would have put in Ian Frazer to get at them but Joe did a good job. I played third and always fancied this period of the tournament. I had a good run against Holland’s Thierry Van Den Berg and knew that blind stealing would be key at this stage before the blinds got too big. Neil had to play last as he had the form and confidence. Even though neither Ian Frazer or Charlie Durbin were involved at this stage, both were key to our success. Both played excellently in the heats and the decisions were hard but we were only allowed to play four players in the final.”
Channing claimed victory after beating Ireland’s Donnacha O’Dea heads-up. Play swung both ways but the key-turning point saw Channing go all-in with 8-4 off suit, and get called by O’Dea’s 2- 2. He hit a 4 on the river and O’Dea never recovered and Great Britain won the cup they first won in 2006.
Channing, who was a late substitute and was originally supposed to conduct the TV interviews said, “I am just as proud of this as I am of my win in Ireland. It was an honour to be picked to represent my country and great to be chosen to play the crucial final leg for the team.”
Irish captain Padraig Parkinson was philosophical about the defeat. “We were the oldest team in the tournament,” he said. “It’s quite obvious that poker is a young man’s game.” Parkinson only played one hand in the final before substituting himself.
The event was filmed for TV and will be broadcast on Channel 4 in the UK in autumn and around the world thereafter.
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