PartyPoker offers Poker Nations Cup preview

Get a sneak peek of Marcel Luske's play in the PartyPoker Poker Nations Cup.

The PartyPoker Nations Cup will make its television debut for this season on Channel 4 in the United Kingdom next week. However, poker fans looking for a little taste of the action ahead of time can check out a sneak preview on YouTube.

There are four different matchups featured on YouTube with players from several of the nations represented in the tournament. The videos are:

• Van Der Peet vs. Kang - www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5Mou9YQDyg
• Sunar vs. O'Dea - www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vUz5_kxELA
• Luske vs. Kang - www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR4UbvFz5aU
• Gold vs. Ocklind - www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbHbdad2fzg

The PartyPoker Poker Nations Cup is a team event that features players from Germany, Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Holland and the United States. Each team includes one PartyPoker VIP qualifier playing alongside five pro players from the participating nations.

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This time around, each player put up the $5,000 buy-in to create a total prize pool of $180,000, and PartyPoker added another $100,000 to boost it up to $280,000 total.

The players participate in six heats with each player competing once to score points for their team. The individual match winners pick up $20,000 for themselves as well. The points earned for each team will determine what size starting stack they get for the final round.

The final round is a tag event where each team's captain will be in charge of substituting in players and calling strategic time-outs to benefit their team. The nation with the last player standing is the winner and will split the $100,000 top prize.

The defending champions were Sweden, and Bo Sehlstedt captained the team this year. Other players on the team were William Thorsson, Johan Storakers, Mats Rahm, Anders Henriksson and online qualifier Johan Ocklind.

Roland De Wolfe captained the British team, which included Joe Beevers, Neil Channing, Ian Frazer, Surinder Sunar and online qualifier Francis Durbin. Ireland was led by Padraig Parkinson and included Donnacha O'Dea, Marty Smith, Ciaran O'Leary, Liam Flood and online qualifier Darren O'Brien.

The United States came out in full force as well with a team of Jamie Gold, Thomas Keller, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Chad Brown and captain Robert Williamson III. Because there couldn't be an online qualifier from the United States, Williamson recruited celebrity player Montel Williams as their sixth man.

Germany came to the table with Michael Keiner as captain and Andreas Krause, Benjamin Kang, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Thomas Bihl and online qualifier Thomas Potzal.

The Dutch team was captained by none other than Marcel Luske and featured Thierry Van der Berg, Eric Van der Berg, Hans Ritburg and Daan Ruiter, with Quirihn Van der Peet the lucky online qualifier.

Coverage of the show begins airing at midnight Sept. 16/Sept. 17 in the United Kingdom. It was produced for Channel 4 in the United Kingdom and is presented by Vicky Coren.