IFP hosts Nations Cup and World Championship this past week

One of the poker advocacy groups trying to bring legitimacy to the game of poker is the International Poker Federation, who has been fighting not for legislation, but to gain mainstream respect for poker as a mind-sport; on par with chess, backgammon, go, and bridge.

This past week the IFP held a huge poker event in London where it held two distinct events: The first event was the Nations Cup, a team competition where 13 nations and an online entry from Zynga took part in the first-ever Duplicate Poker tournament. In Duplicate Poker each player receives the same starting hand and points are awarded based on the way they play the hand.

The Nations Cup was won by the team from Germany skippered by Stephan Kalhammer that included some of Germany’s top poker talent including Sebastian Ruthenberg, Moritz Kranich Tobias Reinkemeier, Sandra Naujoks, Konstantin Buecherl, Hans Martin Vogl and Tim Reese. The Germans captured the Nations Cup on the strength of their 24 points, narrowly edging out Brazil and France, who each earned 22 points - with Brazil taking second place on the strength of finishing with a larger chip-stack than the French contingent.

As the weekend approached the IFP’s attention switched from the Nations Cup to the World Championship; an invitation-only freeroll tournament that boasted a massive $500k prize-pool, with $250,000 of that going to the winner.

A total of 120 players showed up for the World Championship and after a full day of play the final table participants were decided, and an amazing three women managed to make the final table -and the money in the process.

The three women who made the final table are three of the biggest names in the world of poker, including two former EPT champions in Germany’s Sandra Naujoks (who was also a part of Germany’s Nations Cup team) and the UK’s Victoria Coren, as well as Women in Poker Hall of Fame member Marsha Waggoner.

Coren would come within a hair of winning the tournament, but in the end it was Spain’s Raul Mestre who would claim the first ever IFP World Championship and the $250k first-place prize-money, as he bested Coren heads-up -Coren would have to settle for the runner-up showing and $100k in prize-money.

Here is a look at the complete final table payouts from the event:

1. Raul Mestre (Spain) - $250,000

2. Victoria Coren (UK) - $100,000

3. Igor Trafane (Brazil) - $50,000

4. Slavko Tomic (Serbia) - $25,000

5. Marsha Waggoner (Australia) - $20,000

6. Sandra Naujoks (Germany) - 17500

7. Takuo Serita (Japan) - 15,000

8. Tim Reese (Germany) - 12,500

9. Kinichi Nakata (Japan) - $10,000