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Thursday, March 27, 2008

Montel Williams makes European poker debut

Montel: Cancelled

By Arthur Crowson

Montel Williams has talked his way into a spot at the PartyPoker.com Poker Nations cup scheduled for April 7-10 in Cardiff, Wales.

The famous talk show host will play for Team USA, which will be captained by Robert Williamson III. The team will also feature Jamie Gold, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Freddy Deeb and Chad Brown.

"I am thrilled and honored that I have been invited to be a part of Team USA for the Poker Nations Cup," said Williams. "My teammates are extraordinary as I have played against many of them in the past year and now look forward to teaming up with them in our quest to defeat poker pros from around the globe."

Williams burst onto the poker scene at the 2007 WSOP Main Event, where he held the chip lead for the majority of one day.

No stranger to poker, however, Williams first played the game when he was in the Navy, and often saw entire paychecks on the line during his tour of duty. Since then he has organized numerous charity poker tournaments for multiple sclerosis, with which he was diagnosed in 1999, according to Wikipedia.

This year's Poker Nations Cup will include teams from Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Holland, Germany and the United States. The tournament sees one PartyPoker.com VIP qualifier on each team playing alongside five world-class poker professionals from the same participating nations.

Each player pays a buy-in of $5,000, making for a total prize pool of $280,000 ($100,000 is added by PartyPoker). Over six heats, each player will compete once to score points for their team, and individual match winners scoop $20,000 for themselves for their efforts.

All six teams will then compete in a "tag" final where each team captain's judgment is vital, as it is up to them to make tactical substitutions and strategic "timeouts." The size of the team chip stacks for the tag final depends on the points gained by the players in six heats. The triumphant nation will be the last with a player standing.

There will obviously be no qualifier from the United States because PartyPoker doesn't accept American players due to U.S. online gaming legislation, so Williamson III thought Williams would be an excellent candidate to make up for the lost player.

The team of defending Swedish champions will once again be captained by Bo Sehlstedt and feature Mats Rahm, William Thorsson, Johan Storakers and Anders Henriksson. Online qualifier Johan Ocklind will join them as they attempt to repeat as champions.

The luck of the Irish will have to be with Team Ireland if they want to upset the Swedes, but they do have a great roster headed up by Captain Padraig Parkinson. He is joined by Donnacha O'Dea, Marty Smyth, Ciaran O'Leary and Liam Flood. The aptly named Darren O'Brian will join the team as a qualifier.

The British team will be captained by Hendon Mobber Rolande de Wolfe, along with recent Irish Poker Open champ Neil Channing, Ian Frazer, Surinder Sunar, Joe Beevers and qualifier Francis Durbin.

The Dutch team will have to rely on Marcel "Flying Dutchman" Luske, who will act as their captain, for some power poker. Joining Luske will be Eric van der Berg, Daan Ruiter, Thierry van der Berg and Quirijn van der Peet, the qualifier. Luske still has one more selection to make but rest assured there are plenty of Dutch pros looking for a spot.

Finally, the German team will be comprised of Captain Michael Keiner along with Andreas Krause, Benjamin Kang, Sebastian Ruthenberg and Thomas "Buzzer" Bihl. Thomas Potzal is the German qualifier.

With a diverse group of players the PartyPoker Poker Nations Cup is sure to be one of the most international tournaments in recent memory.

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