PokerWorks

It is no surprise that the 2008 PartyPoker.com Poker Nations Cup will have an interesting line-up for all participating countries, but Team USA might be the most entertaining of all. Montel Williams has been asked to join the team, and he gladly accepted the invitation.

The captain of Team USA, Robert Williamson III, has an all-star line-up prepared to play the Poker Nations Cup, which is set for April 7-10 in Cardiff, Wales. The team consists of Freddy Deeb, Chris Ferguson, Jamie Gold, and Chad Brown.

What was missing was the qualifying player, one whom finds his or her way to the tournament via satellites on PartyPoker.com. However, since PartyPoker has closed its doors to U.S. customers due to the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), it is not possible for an American player to qualify for that team. Williamson came up with an alternative – invite a celebrity player who is not quite a professional but does have poker skills. And Williams was the ideal choice.

“I am thrilled and honored that I have been invited to be a part of Team USA for the Poker Nations Cup,” commented Williams. “My teammates are extraordinary as I have played against many of them in the past year and now look forward to teaming up with them in our quest to defeat poker pros from around the globe.”

Williams has become much more of an avid player over the past few years, most notably performing impressively well on the first day of the 2007 WSOP main event. Since then, he has played numerous tournaments, mostly in the United States, and even coordinated his own series of events at the Golden Nugget in downtown Las Vegas. His affection for the game is obvious through interviews and actions, and the opportunity to play in Wales with such esteemed teammates is an exciting one.

The 2008 Poker Nations Cup will be comprised of teams from Great Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Holland, Germany, and the United States. Each player buys in for $5,000, which creates a prize pool of $280,000 with $100,000 added by PartyPoker. Over the course of six heats of play, each person plays once and attempts to score points for their team, and winning a heat brings with it a $20,000 reward. There is also a tag-team component, and the winning player will represent the winning team and bring them a $100,000 first prize. The entire event will be filmed and eventually aired on Channel 4 in the U.K.

The complete list of teams is as follows, with the first listed player being the team’s captain and the last player as the qualifier:

Sweden: Bo Sehlstedt, William Thorsson, Johan Storakers, Mats Rahm, Anders Henriksson, Johan Ocklind

Ireland: Padraig Parkinson, Donnacha O’Dea, Marty Smyth, Ciaran O’Leary, Liam Flood, Darren O’Brien

Great Britain: Roland de Wolfe, Joe Beevers, Neil Channing, Ian Frazer, Surinder Sunar, Francis Durbin

Germany: Michael Keiner, Andreas Krause, Benjamin Kang, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Thomas Bihl, Thomas Potzal

Holland: Marcel Luske, Theirry Van der Berg, Eric Van der Berg, Daan Ruiter, (one more pro to be announced), Quirijn Van der Peet

United States: Robert Williamson III, Jamie Gold, Freddy Deeb, Chris Ferguson, Chad Brown, Montel Williams