Italy Wins 2011 World Cup of Poker

Jan 18, 2011

Author: Susan Arnold

Italy claimed victory in the 2011 World Cup of Poker, besting the United Kingdom to win the title. It was Italy’s first ever victory in the World Cup of Poker, which has been held seven times.

Italy was led by professional poker player Luca Pagano, who helped the team come from behind at the final table. Each of the nine teams that reached the final through regional qualifying was represented by four players, and was appointed a “celebrity captain” to help them out in the final event. Each player played in a single-table tournament against players from the other qualifying teams, with the results of these tournaments determining the chip stacks for each country at the final table. The final table was held in a “tag team” format that allowed all team members a crack at playing in turn.

The starting stacks were as follows:

France: 50,000 chips

Philippines: 45,000

Ukraine: 41,000

Argentina: 37,000

Spain: 34,000

Italy: 31,000

Slovakia: 29,000

United Kingdom: 27,000

United States: 25,000

Despite being second in chips, the Philippines were the first country eliminated when their pocket aces were cracked by the UK’s pocket kings. The United States was the next to leave, followed by Agentina, Spain, Slovakia, France and Ukraine.

That left just two initial short stacks – Italy and the UK – to battle for the World Cup title. The team from the UK moved in preflop with A3, running into the AQ held by Italy. The Italians hit a Q on the flop, and a river 3 was not even to save the UK.

The Italian team split $100,000 between its members for their victory, while the United Kingdom shared $75,000 as the runners up. Here is the complete prize breakdown:

1^st: Italy ($100,000)

2^nd: United Kingdom ($75,000)

3^rd: Ukraine ($50,000)

4^th: France ($30,000)

5^th: Slovakia ($10,000)

6^th: Spain ($10,000)

7^th: Argentina ($10,000)

8^th: United States ($5,000)

9^th: Philippines ($5,000)

Previous World Cup of Poker winners include Taiwan, Germany, the United States, Poland, and Costa Rica, which is the only country to win the event twice.