Raul Mestre Outlasts Victoria Coren To Win IFP “The Table” World Championship

In a thrilling heads up battle, Spain’s Raul Mestre defeated the United Kingdom’s Victoria Coren to take down “The Table,” the International Federation of Poker’s first ever World Championship.

After eleven hours of play on Saturday, the 135 invited players were whittled down to the nine player final table. Through outstanding performances, three women – Germany’s Sandra Naujoks, Australia’s Marsha Waggoner and Coren – were at the final table. In another fine effort, Japan was represented by two players. The nine players were all in pursuit of the $250,000 first place prize and the chance to call themselves the IFP’s World Champion.

At the start of play on Sunday, the final table lined up like this:

Seat 1: Igor Trafane (Brazil), 369K
Seat 2: Sandra Naujoks (Germany), 167K
Seat 3: Takuo Serita (Japan), 41K
Seat 4: Kinichi Nakata (Japan), 29K
Seat 5: Victoria Coren (United Kingdom), 204K
Seat 6: Slavko Tomic (Serbia), 44K
Seat 7: Marsha Waggoner (Australia), 32K
Seat 8: Tim Reese (Germany), 44K
Seat 9: Raul Mestre (Spain), 426K

Prior to the start of play, each of the final table players was presented with a special award for their achievement. Swiss watch manufacturer Perrelet, the official sponsor of “The Table,” gifted the players with their special Perrelet Turbine watch, valued at just short of £4500. It would be a nice parting gift – along with the prize money – for eight of the combatants.

Coren was highly combative in the early going, eliminating Kinichi Nakata and Tim Reese from the tournament within the first hour of the start of the tournament. She maintained this aggressive approach as she began to climb up the leaderboard to threaten chip leader Raul Mestre. Those two players maintained a running battle throughout the play at “The Table” that gave poker fans viewing the event live on the IFP website – with excellent commentary by the legendary poker announcer Jesse May and former World Series of Poker Europe champion Annette Obrestad – some excitement.

After the elimination of Takuo Serita in seventh by Slavko Tomic, Sandra Naujoks would fall in what was arguably the worst beat of the tournament. Holding pocket Kings, Naujoks saw a 2-7-8 rainbow flop with Mestre and bet 28,000. To her surprise, Mestre decided to push his leading chip stack to the center and Naujoks made the call. Mestre could only table a 9-8 off suit and it looked as if Naujoks would double up and Mestre would sacrifice his lead. A ten on the turn opened up some more outs for the Spaniard and, stunningly, an eight came on the river, giving trips to Mestre and eliminating Sandra Naujoks in sixth place.

Mestre used the elimination of Naujoks to continue his march up the leaderboard, but a new competitor was rising up to challenge him. Igor Trafane was quiet through the early action, but he and Mestre locked up in a couple of hands to balance their stacks between each other. At one point of “The Table,” the duo held over four-fifths of the chips in play.

Coren kept her hands in the game, bumping Marsha Waggoner from the game in fifth, and Mestre continued to play big stack poker in taking out Tomic in fourth. Down to three handed play, Mestre (732K) held more chips than Trafane (486K) and Coren (134K) combined. The triumvirate would play for almost two hours before the heads up battle was determined.

In what could also take honors for beat of the match, Coren and Trafane decided to head to battle against each other. The players got their chips to the center pre-flop and they both showed A-Q, although Coren’s was suited in spades. “He’s got two flush draws,” Vicky deadpanned upon seeing Trafane’s cards. “I only have one.” The flop would stun the audience in attendance in County Hall and the players themselves.

An all spade flop hit the felt, sending the arena into hysterics and even Coren herself to slightly gasp and cover her mouth. “That’s not right,” Vicky said as she offered condolences to Trafane. Knocked down to 14K in chips, Igor Trafane would be eliminated on the next hand by Mestre.

As heads up play began Mestre had the edge, but Coren gradually worked her way into the chip lead. Over the span of fifty minutes, the duo parried each other before a clash that would determine the championship. After a raise by Coren, Mestre put his remaining chips in the center and Coren called. With his pocket fives, Mestre held the lead over Coren’s A-J and the board would do nothing to change the situation. Once the chips were counted, Coren was left with slightly less than 180K in chips and Mestre had shot up to 1.17 million.

Although she attempted to make a comeback (commenting to Mestre at one point, “Oh, dear, I think we’re going to be here quite a while longer”), Coren would eventually fall when her A-3 was dominated by Mestre’s A-5 on the final hand; an unnecessary five on the flop virtually locked the hand and, once the turn blanked, Raul Mestre became the IFP’s first World Champion.

1. Raul Mestre (Spain), $250,000
2. Victoria Coren (United Kingdom), $100,000
3. Igor Trafane (Brazil), $50,000
4. Slavko Tomic (Serbia), $25,000
5. Marsha Waggoner (Australia), $20,000
6. Sandra Naujoks (Germany), $17,500
7. Takuo Serita (Japan), $15,000
8. Tim Reese (Germany), $12,500
9. Kinichi Nakata (Japan), $10,000

Following the thrilling battle, IFP President Anthony Holden presented the appropriate medals – silver for Coren, gold for Mestre – for their performance and awarded Mestre the Champion’s Trophy (“It’s a nice piece of crockery,” Victoria half-heartedly joked while staring longingly at the trophy following heads up play, “I could see myself eating bacon and eggs on it.”) Both players congratulated the other on an excellent display of poker before the live broadcast ended.

Kudos must not only be handed out to the players in the two tournaments over the past few days but to the IFP as well. Except for some minor glitches on the first night of the Nations’ Cup play, the organization put on outstanding poker tournaments and demonstrated that the game of poker is a sport of intelligence, psychology and skill.