Team Thailand has done it!
The PPPoker World Championship – Teams Event – saw 10 teams enter the arena and after three days of heated battle, Team Thailand rose to the throne crushing Team Malaysia at the finals. Team Thailand was awarded the enormous PHP 7 Million (US$133,650) first prize and Teams Event trophy.
The Teams Event had a very juicy PHP 10 Million (US$192,000) guarantee to be split 70/30 only between the top two teams. This meant, Team Malaysia didn’t do too bad either for 2nd place. With each team forking out PHP 550,000 (US$10,000), they pocketed PHP 3 Million (US$57,000) for their efforts.
This is how it went down on the final day.
Road to victory
Today’s final match-up between Team Thailand and Team Malaysia saw all three games running simultaneously: 6 Max SNG, Double Heads Up, and Heads Up. With a nine-man team roster, every player was on the felt for their nation. The Heads Up match wrapped up in a blink with only one hand played. And what a sick cooler it was.
With blinds at 25-50, Kannapong Thannarattrakul raised to 150, Ying Lin Chua three-bet to 550, Thannarattrakul four-bet to 1500, Chua five-bet to 3500, Thannarattrakul six-bet to 7k, Chua jammed his 20k stack, snap called by Thannarattrakul. Chua 
, Thannarattrakul 
.
No bad beats arrived. Game over. Team Thailand 30 points.
Second game to complete was the Double Heads Up. That game also ended in speedy fashion with Team Malaysia fielded by Ian Lee and Paul Teoh defeating Team Thailand’s Pakinai Lisawad and Sittisak Phetroj. This awarded Team Malaysia 40 points, and the lead.
Final Round
The 6-Max SNG was very thrilling with both teams represented by three players at each of the two tables. They went pound for pound, matching up like bulls until it was down to two Malaysians and two Thais at each table. But it would not be Malaysia’s moment. They proceeded to lose one representative per table giving Thailand the boost they needed to grind and muscle. With the edge, Thailand went on to boot the odd man out to lock up the first-ever PPWC Teams Event title.
Team Thailand overcame the ten teams from nations: Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Australia, Norway, Brazil, USA, Chinese Taipei, and India. They ranked 3rd at the end of Day 1 eliminations, finished at the top of Day 2 eliminations, and the rest is written above.
Congratulations to Team Thailand! Incredible performance for a well-deserved victory.
Team Thailand wins the first-ever PPPoker Teams Event for PHP 7 Million (US$133,650)! Full story: https://t.co/oFu7Ov0Ynv#LiveCoverage pic.twitter.com/2LszsagpG5
— Somuchpoker (@Somuchpoker) February 17, 2019
Article by Tricia David
Tricia David
Tricia David has long experience as a recreational poker player and has been covering poker events since 2010 for numerous outfits in Asia. She spent one year working part time with Poker Portal Asia then became editor and lead writer for all event coverage of the Philippine Poker Tour (PPT). Under the PPT, she overlooked content for their website, and produced live updates on all their events. In addition, she served as the live and online events website content writer for the Asian Poker Tour. Currently, she does live events reporting in Asia for online news site Somuchpoker and is also one of their news contributors.
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