Doyle Brunson Selects Team USA World Poker Team

With 11 World Series of Poker bracelets to his credit Phil Hellmuth was selected as the captain of Team USA, but the “Poker Brat” decided to defer to 10-time bracelet winner Doyle Brunson. The decision -a rare glimpse at the humility of Phil Hellmuth who said, “If he accepts I’m going to give him the captain jersey because he deserves it, and I’ll play the number two spot”-allowed Doyle to select the rest of Team USA for the international poker competition.

To go along with himself and Phil Hellmuth, Brunson went with a group of seasoned poker veterans to round out Team USA:

Annie Duke -2010 NBC Heads-Up Poker Champion and 2004 Tournament of Champions winner, and WSOP bracelet holder

Howard Lederer - 2-time WSOP bracelet winner and 2-time WPT champion

Jennifer Harman - 2-time WSOP bracelet winner and high stakes poker expert

Allen Cunningham - 5-time WSOP bracelet winner, 4^th place in 2006 WSOP Main Event with over $10 million in career tournament winnings

Chris Ferguson - 5-time WSOP bracelet winner, 2000 WSOP Main Event Champion, 2008 Champion and 2-time runner-up in the NBC Heads-UP Poker Championship, and one of the innovators of online poker

Mike Matusow - 3-time WSOP bracelet winner and 2005 Tournament of Champions winner

Erik Seidel - 8-time WSOP bracelet winner and WPT champion

When the player with the weakest poker resume is Mike Matusow or Jennifer Harman, you know you have a really strong group of players to choose from!

The World Team Poker is an international poker league with teams representing countries around the world. Each team is made up of four pro poker players and one alternate, with the captain having the option of substituting players at different matches.

The first stop will be at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, where the teams will face-off in a $50,000 buy-in tournament on May 19. The game will rotate between Limit Holdem, Pot Limit Omaha, and No Limit Holdem at which point substitutions can be made.

The other countries fielding teams for the competition include:

• China, co-captained by Johnny Chan and David Chiu.
• Australia, co-captained by Jeffrey Lisandro and Tony G.
• Israel, captained by Eli Elezra.
• Vietnam, captained by Men “The Master” Nguyen.
• England captain by Ben Roberts.
• Brazil, captained by Juliano Maesano.
• Greece co-captained by George Kapalas and George Theofanopoulos.

Poker fans can look for the USA toughest competition coming from China, Australia, Vietnam and England, as each country has a slew of big-name poker talent.