Team Americas Wins Caesars Cup

Team Americas took revenge on their European counterparts, winning the second edition of the Caesars Cup by a 3-1 margin. The competition, which pits top North and South American players against top European pros, was last held two years ago during the World Series of Poker Europe.

The American team was captained by Phil Hellmuth, who put together his five-player squad in an attempt to retake the title that had been won by Team Europe. In that effort, Hellmuth put together a Team Americans that mixed top young players with legends of the game. In addition to Hellmuth himself, Team Americas featured Johnny Chan, Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier and Ben Lamb.

Meanwhile, the European team was captained by Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, and featured a talented group of poker pros. Grospellier tapped Jake Cody, Max Lykov, Gus Hansen and Tony G to round out the team he hoped would retain the Caesars Cup title.

In the first match, a doubles team of Lamb and Mercier faced off against Cody and Tony G. The Americans took the lead after two pair was god enough to beat a busted flush draw for the Europeans.

However, Team Europe fought back in the second match, as Gus Hansen and Max Lycov proved enough to defeat Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu. When Europe’s A5 was enough to beat KT suited in an all-in confrontation, it tied the series at 1-1.

But the rest of the competition was all Team Americas. In the third match, Johnny Chan defeated Grospellier in heads-up play, which put Europe down 2-1 in the best-of-five series. With their backs against the wall, Europe sent out Lycov to play heads up against Phil Hellmuth. While Hellmuth had previously had no success at the Caesars Cup, he finally found a little bit of luck in this match, eliminating Lycov when his QT outflopped the Russian’s K9.

With that, the final score was Team Americas 3, Team Europe 1, and the cup was given to the other side of the pond. While no money was at stake for the event, the players from Team Americas will hold bragging rights over their European counterparts – at least until the next edition of the Caesars Cup.