Football & Poker Legends Cup

Posted on | October 30, 2008 | No Comments

Sometimes football players compete against one another outside the football field. The most epic battle of this kind went down in when the poker site Party Poker hosted the Football & Poker Legends Cup.16 teams from different countries participated in the team poker tournament, which was played in England and aired on television. Each team consisted of two professional poker players and one former or current professional football player.

These were the participating teams in the Football & Poker Legends Cup:

England: Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot, Ian Frazer, Alan Ball.
USA: Mixe Sexton, Kenna James, Carlos Bocanegra.
Canada: Daniel Negreanu, Evelyn Ng, Jason deVos.
Australia: Tony G, Damon Rasheed, Mark Bosnich.

Ireland: Andrew Black, Peter Roche, Tony Cascarino.
Russia: Alex Kuzmin, Olesya Kabbaj, Sergei Baltacha.
Germany: Toni Vardjavand, Lothar Landauer, Uli Stein.
France: Claude Cohen, Anthony Lellouche, Laurent Charvet.

Italy: Michael Greco, Alan Vinson, Wesley Garcia.
Netherlands: Marcel Luske, Noah Boeken, Glenn Helder.
Sweden: Ken Lennaárd, Erik Sagström, Tomas Brolin.
Denmark: Gus Hansen, Theo Jorgensen, Kim Christofte.

Norway: Henning Granstad, Torstein Iversen, Espen Baardsen.
Northern Ireland: Conor Tate, Marty Smith, Norman Whiteside.
Wales: Dave Colclough, Iwan Jones, Neville Southall.
Scotland: Tony Chessa, Rory Matthews, Ray Stewart.

Teams were matched against each other in elimination matches. A match was actually a Texas Holdem tournament, just as the ones you find in the best poker rooms, with six players (three from each team). The winner of the tournament progressed to the next round along with his team members.

A few special rules were used: If the tournament wasn’t finished in three hours, one hour of extra time would take place, and if that wasn’t enough there would be a penalty shootout. In addition to this, tournament director “Mad” Marty Wilson had the authority to give players yellow and red cards, if they behaved badly at the table. Something I think they should start with in poker on line!

If a player received a yellow card, half his chip would be given to the other team, and if a player received a red card, the opponents would get all his chips.

In the very first match, two footballers reached heads-up play, with Germany’s Uli Stein defeating England’s Alan Ball. Sweden, Northern Ireland, The Netherlands, Ireland, Denmark, USA, Australia were the other teams who made it to the quarter finals.

Uli Stein, who played in the 1986 World Cup final, was knocked out first in the quarter final against Sweden, but Germany still won thanks to Lothar Landauer. The Netherlands defeated Northern Ireland, Denmark defeated Ireland, and USA beat Australia after a tough battle between classy WPT host Mike Sexton and trash-talker Tony G.

Lothar Landauer proved his poker skills again by winning the first semi-final. He defeated Dutchman Noah Boeken heads-up to take Germany to the final. Theo Jorgensen was the hero in the match between Denmark and USA.

Just like in the Euro 1992 the final was to be played between Denmark and Germany. Denmark’s Kim Christofte was actually a part of the Danish team who shocked the world of football by becoming European champions, and even though he was knocked out first in the final, he would get to celebrate another victory over the Germans. His pro team mates Theo Jorgensen and Gus Hansen didn’t have any problems defeating the German players, and Denmark had won the Football & Poker Legends Cup.

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