Party Poker Nations Cup Field Announced; Montel Williams Joins Team USA

The third annual Party Poker Nations Cup field has been set and the schedule has been announced.  Taking place April 7-10 in Cardiff, Wales, the Nations Cup will pit teams from the United States, Sweden, Ireland, Germany, Great Britain, and Holland against each other in an effort to take home the $100,000 first prize.   

Each team consists of six players, one of whom is a PartyPoker.com VIP qualifier, while the other five are hand-picked pros.  Each player pays $5,000 to play and Party will chip in another $100,000, to bring the total prize pool to $280,000.   

In the preliminary round, one player from each team will compete at a table in six separate heats.  Points will be awarded based on finish, and the winner of each heat will win $20,000.  In the final round, all six teams will compete in a “tag” style tournament, where the team captains can choose to sub players in and out.  Starting chip stacks will vary, with the largest stack going to the team that garnered the most points in the preliminary round.   

“Mr. Omaha” Robert Williamson III will serve as Team USA’s captain.  Playing alongside him will be a solid team of Jamie Gold, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Freddy Deeb, and Chad Brown.  As Americans are not able to play on PartyPoker.com and thus can’t have an online qualifier, Williamson III was able to choose the sixth player.  His choice was an interesting one: famed talk show host and short-lived 2007 WSOP Main Event chip leader, Montel Williams. 

The other teams are as follows: 

Great Britain -- Roland de Wolfe (Captain), Joe Beevers, Ian Frazer, Surinder Sunar, Neil Channing, Francis Durbin (qualifier)

Germany -- Michael Keiner (Captain), Andreas Krause, Benjamin Kang, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Thomas Bihl, Thomas Potzel (qualifier)

Holland -- Marcel Luske (Captain), Thierry Van den Berg, Eric Van der Berg, Daan Ruiter, Qirijn Van der Peet (qualifier), one player still to be chosen

Ireland -- Padraig Parkinson (Captain), Donnacha O’Dea, Ciaran O’Leary, Liam Flood, Marty Smith, Darren O’Brien (qualifier)

Sweden -- Bo Sehlstedt (Captain), Anders Henriksson, Mats Rahmn, Johan Storakers, William Thorsson, Johan Ocklind (qualifier)