The International Federation of Poker will be hitting the felt again next month with the European Nations Cup event. Scheduled for April 12-15 at the Annabelle Hotel in Paphos, Cyprus, the tournament will feature players from across the European continent vying for the honor of being the inaugural European Nations Cup champion. In playing the event, the IFP is also testing out some new technology in its unique tournament format.
The IFP European Nations Cup will be played using the “Match Poker” format that has been promoted by the IFP as a true test of poker skills. Much like Duplicate Bridge, Match Poker sets up every table with the exact same deck of cards. Players at each table play out the hand and points are awarded as to how well each player handles the situation(s) presented to them against those players who played the same hand as them. By doing this, the randomness of the game is eliminated and a true vision of the skill of the players is obtained.
The Match Poker format has been used previously by the IFP. In 2011, the organization debuted the event with a tournament in London that drew some of the biggest names in the game. Twelve countries, including the United States, Spain, Ireland, Denmark and Australia (among others), took part in the tournament, which was eventually won by Team Germany over Team Brazil and Team France.
This time around, the IFP is presenting a new wrinkle for the Match Poker format. Instead of preparing live decks for action, the entirety of the tournament will be played without chips, cards or dealers. Instead, players will have smartphones that they will receive their hole cards on and the action will take place there instead of physically “live.” The new technology will be a first for a poker tournament of any type and will allow the IFP to log and replay every hand for analysis.
Fourteen nations will battle it out for the right to claim the first IFP European Nations Cup championship. The host country, Cyprus, will be joined by teams from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Denmark, Estonia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Spain and the United Kingdom. The top six teams will advance to the IFP Nations Cup Final, expected to be played later this year.
At this point, six countries (Russia, Lithuania, Serbia, Poland, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Netherlands) have announced their rosters for the event and two in particular stand out from the pack.
Team Russia has put together a powerful unit that can boast a great deal of success on the international tournament poker scene. Ivan Demidov, Konstantin Puchkov, Andrey Pateychuk and Alexey Popov head the cast for the Russians, names that have been a part of some of the biggest tournaments around the world. They are joined by Sergey Rybachenko, Lika Gerasimova and Alexander Lakhov.
Team Holland (the Netherlands) also can boast some powerful players. Rolf Slotboom, Rob Hollink and Koen de Bakker have committed to play in the European Nations Cup, with each bringing excellent skills to the table. The remainder of Team Holland is filled out with Joris Ruys, Jorryt van Hoof, Wendy Van Veenendaal and Raymond Wynia.
This isn’t to say the other four squads that have announced their rosters are lacking in skills. In many cases, the individual team captains (who are in some cases presidents of their nation’s poker federations) have chosen players that might not be familiar to many in the poker community but are respected by their country’s poker federation for their skills. In addition, some teams have to potentially field a team that may lack some “star power” due to the slate of international tournaments going on during the IFP European Nations Cup event.
With eight more teams that have to unveil their rosters prior to the start of the tournament (including what should be strong units from the United Kingdom, Ireland and France), the IFP European Nations Cup should be an exciting event. The demonstration of the game of poker as a skill and mind sport – something that all poker players should be interested in – should draw a good deal of attention from the poker community.
