Australian Penthouse

As captain of 888poker Team Australia at Macau’s Battle of the Nations, James Potter faced a tough fight to take the title…

Representing one’s country is unquestionably a huge honour. Earlier this year—out of the blue—I got ‘the call’. The Asian Poker Tour asked me to captain the Australian team at the Battle of the Nations in Macau. I was incredibly excited.

First, I set about finding a suitable team of five players; I wanted a good balance of proud Aussies that would take it seriously. Coming up with a list of candidates wasn’t difficult, the problem was whittling it down to a final five.

I began by lining up Aussie Millions Main Event Champion, Stuart Scott. An obvious choice—he’s one of our country’s biggest poker stars. I also approached Andrew Scott, one of the world’s best blackjack players and a recent convert to poker. I needed a calm head, and I knew he wouldn’t be rattled by the pressure.

Next on my list was Dennis Huntley. Not only was this bloke playing poker when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, but he’s as Aussie as a meat pie and sauce, so he was a no-brainer. A couple of young guns rounded out the team: Ben Savage—a former racing driver who’s been burning the felt instead of the bitumen in recent years—got the nod; as did Adelaide’s Jonathan ‘Monster Dong’ Karamalakis, a player who is fast becoming known internationally.

The team provided a good mix of talent and experience and, most importantly, we all shared the ambition to have a fair-dinkum dip.

Now we needed a sponsor, so I approached 888poker, which I reckon is one of the best Internet poker sites in the world. 888poker already has Australian legends such as Shane Warne and Jeff Fenech on the books, so I thought they’d jump at the idea. As expected, the company was interested in the concept, and following sign-on, 888poker Team Australia was ready to roll.

Macau, a small island off the coast of Hong Kong, is a place that you should put on your gambling agenda. As a Special Administrative Region of China, the island turns over more gaming revenue than Las Vegas and Atlantic City combined, so when it comes to gambling and partying, Macau is the only place to be. The good folks at the Asian Poker Tour realise that players are sick to death of the shit food, bad service and average tournaments that are becoming the norm in the States, so they make sure that their players get the best of everything in exotic locations that people might actually want to visit.

The Battle of the Nations is a brand-new event for the APT. Although tournament poker is traditionally an individual pursuit, if the rules are tweaked slightly, it makes for an exciting team-based event. Getting it right can be tricky, however, but thankfully all APT comps are run by Matt Savage, the undisputed champion of tournament direction. With Matt in charge, it wasn’t difficult to attract some of the world’s brightest poker stars, including Johnny Chan, Nam Le and JC Tran.

The American and Korean teams were very strong, but the humble Aussies were generally considered the next biggest threat. I’m not the most sentimental bloke in the world, but this was the chance of a lifetime, and I have to say that my normal, icy poker exterior was almost replaced by childlike excitement as we finally sat down to play.

Unfortunately, there was no happy ending to the dream, as the Koreans grabbed the title. We finished somewhere in the middle after really struggling to find the hands we needed. Gutted, 888poker Team Australia headed to the bar, vowing that future redemption was a mere formality. The Aussie team will be back, and we will be striving to bring the trophy down-under.

Log onto www.asianpt.com to discover how you too could be there.

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