The International Federations of Match Poker (IFMP) Nation’s Cup is a global event geared towards promoting and sportifying the game of poker. Due to the COVID-19 spread, the Nation`s Cup recently moved online and this weekend on 30 & 31 May saw some of the best poker players coming together to battle it out for the coveted IFMP Nation’s Cup World Championship title. Over 120 players from 12 nations competed in the Nation’s Cup using CISCO`s Webex digital platform. Eventually, it was the reigning champions Ukraine Team that emerged the world champions to win the title for the second time.
Ukraine entered the competition just last year and proved their worth and skills by winning the title on their debut itself. Repeating much of last year’s feat, the team took an early lead and maintained it to win it for a straight second year. In the competition, they battled it out with some of the best teams from the world, including the European champion`s Spain, Singapore, Australia, Belarus, Lithuania, Ireland, Taiwan, South Korea, Germany, Poland, and last year’s IFMP Asian Nation’s Cup winner India.
Day 1
The 30th May saw Day 1 that began with 12 teams playing 4 sessions, each consisting of 50 hands. The session 1 ended with Team Taiwan coming on top and Team India holding sixth place. By the end of session 2, it was Team Ukraine capturing the top spot, while Team India slipped to the ninth place.
Team Ukraine continued their dominance and ended Day 1 in the lead with 1412.5 points. They were followed by Singapore with 1386.5 points and Australia with 1349 points and India with 1337 points.
Day 2
Day 2 saw the teams playing two more sessions for a total of 300 hands with each session comprising of 50 hands. By the end of session 1, Ukraine still leading the way with 1,736.5 point, while Australia pushed Singapore down scoring 1,709 points and India maintained the 4th place. Session 2 then saw Singapore taking the lead with 2074 points, followed by Team Ukraine, Australia, India, Taiwan and Lithuania – the top six teams that qualified for the finals comprising of two sessions of 75 hands each.
While Team Singapore entered the finals with a lead, it was ultimately Team Ukraine (1369 points) coming out on top to once again clinch the coveted title . Australia (1320 points) finished runner-up, Lithuania (1281.5 points) notched up a third place finish and Team India finished fourth with 1,270 points.
Team India
Team India has competed in the IFMP Nation’s Cup for the third time. Indian Team had grabbed big headlines last year for winning the IFMP Asian Nation’s Cup. Captained by Gaurav Gala, that team had Tanmay Bagga, Rishab Jain, Aditya ‘Bitti’ Agarwal, Prateek Mishra, Krina Gala, and Taran Mundkar.
Once again led by Gaurav Gala for the IFMP Nation’s Cup, Team India comprised of eight other talented members who included Tanmay Bagga, Rishab Jain, Aditya ‘Bitti’ Agarwal, Krina Gala, Zubin Panthaki, Vidur Singhal, Anujkumar Kodam and Kalyan Chakravarthy. Day 1 was swingy but India finished fourth at the end of Day 1 and retained the same position, eventually finishing fourth with 1,270 points.