World Cup of Poker

After a long battle at the final table, the Italian team was victorious and shared the top prize of $100,000 in this year’s World Cup of Poker.

The 2011 World Cup of Poker was won by Italy after they defeated the United Kingdom. This is the first time that Italy has won the tournament which has now taken place a total of seven times.

Italy’s team was led by professional poker player Luca Pagano, his help was vital to the team at the final table where they had to come from behind. There were nine teams that reached the final through the regional qualifying and each was represented by four players. In addition to the players each team was appointed a “celebrity captain” who was there to help out in the final event.

In the final event each player played in a single-table tournament against players from the other qualifying teams. The results of these tournaments were used to decide the chip stacks for each country at the final table. At the beginning of the final table the stacks were:

France: 50,000
Philippines: 45,000
Ukraine: 41,000
Argentina: 37,000
Spain: 34,000
Italy: 31,000
Slovakia: 29,000
United Kingdom: 27,000
United States: 25,000

The game was played in a “tag team” format which meant that all team members took part and had their chance to play.

Even though they were in second place with chips, the Philippines were the first team to be knocked out after their pocket aces were beaten by the UK’s pocket kings. Soon after the Philippines it was the United States turn to be knocked out and they were followed by Argentina, Spain, Slovakia, France and the Ukraine.

This left just Italy and the UK to battle it out for the World Cup of Poker 2011 title. In the final hand the team from the UK went in pre-flop with A3 and they came up against the AQ held by Italy. The Italians were lucky when the flop showed a Q and the river produced a 3, nothing was going to save the UK.

Each member of the Italian team received their share of $100,000 and the United Kingdom’s team shared $75,000. Each team that had played at the final table took home cash prizes as follows:

1st: Italy ($100,000)
2nd: United Kingdom ($75,000)
3rd: Ukraine ($50,000)
4th: France ($30,000)
5th: Slovakia ($10,000)
6th: Spain ($10,000)
7th: Argentina ($10,000)
8th: United States ($5,000)
9th: Philippines ($5,000)

In the past the World Cup of Poker has been won by Taiwan, Germany, the United States, Poland and twice by Costa Rica.