Spain has emerged victorious from the Pokerstars World Cup of Poker online competition which this year – its tenth anniversary – saw players from 96 nations commence battle at the end of November, working through a series of levels and groups until a winner was decided.
The NLHE tournament this year was based on free-to-play action to accommodate US players, and departed the usual format in that the finals took place online and not in a live venue.
Players paid the buy-ins on a sliding scale through play chips available through the Pokerstars site, and the traditional cash prizes for winners were replaced with generous play chip prizes.
Four teams managed to best the rest to compete in the final clashes over last weekend, with Italy and Kazakhstan competing for third place and Canada and Spain duking it out for the title this year.
Third place went to the Kazakhstan players who defeated their Italian opponents to fill the first four places in the semi-final, with player “pavlino277” coming out tops to claim 23 million free chips.
In the final, the Canadians had the bigger team at 102 players in the tournament, but Spain’s 38 players turned out to be more skillful, taking the honours after a thrilling 21-hand heads up between Spanish player “minnie2354” and “Scottycel” from the Great White North, which the Spanish player won to seal an overall Spanish victory and claim 64 million free chips.