Ho was part of the winning Chinese team at the WTP event

Yesterday the World Team Poker (WTP) organization attempted a bold experiment at the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas.  Namely, they organized and a team poker event. They are not the first group to try and pull off the team poker concept, but this event was one of the larger-scale team tournaments the poker world has ever seen.

For starters, the event streamed over the internet on a 10-minute delay so fans could keep up with every step of the action, even what players’ hole cards were. Fans uninterested in watching online for hours on end can also catch the final, edited product, which will air on FSN at a later date. The field was a stacked one too, with players like Doyle Brunson, Eli Elezra, David Benyamine, Maria Ho, Johnny Chan, David Chiu, Felipe “Mojave” Ramos and Tony G.

The 48-person field was divided up into eight teams of six players with each team representing one of the following countries: USA, England, Vietnam, Greece, Brazil, Australia, Israel and China. The tournament was set up as a double shootout, with the top two players at each of the five Round One tables advancing to the finals. However, each team could only have one seat at the final table, so if they qualified more than one player, their individual stacks would be combined into one.

Each of the Round One tables consisted of eight seats, with the captains of each team seated together at the feature table to begin play. They didn’t always stay there though, as one of the twists in WTP play allowed teams to substitute in players at will and team members could even call over their respective captain for advice when faced with a tough decision. Teams used the substitutions strategically, taking advantage of the events three-game rotation of Limit Hold’em, No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha and subbing in players who excelled at one of those games more than the other.

The tournament was intended to be a one-day event, but it ended up being a marathon affair, beginning around 1:30PM PT and continuing until 8AM the following morning. Only Team Brazil and Team China would be around until the bitter end though, as they were the two teams duking it out heads-up for the top prize of $300,000. Only five of the eight teams advanced to the final table. Teams USA, England and Israel all failed to make it out of the first round.

Team Vietnam was the first group eliminated at the final table, losing a crucial Omaha pot against Brazil when their A-A-J-4 failed to hold up against Brazil’s K-K-10-2 and then busting out shortly after that. They were followed to the rail by Team Australia and Team Greece after that. With Greece’s elimination in 3rd place, Brazil and China began their heads-up battle with Brazil holding a nearly 3-1 chip advantage over China. China found a spot to double up though, swinging the momentum in their favor. It took a while after the double up, but the Asian team eventually battled their way to victory when their K974 held up against Brazil’s T765 on the final hand to bring the marathon event to a close.

Team China, which consisted of Chan, Chiu, Ho, Rich Zhu, Chau Giang, Winifred Yu and Derek Cheung, took the top prize, while Team Brazil, which consisted of Ramos, Juliano Maesano, Christian Kruel, Leandro Pimentel and Rodrigo Caprioli, earned $100,000 for their runner-up showing.

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