The International Federation of Match Poker’s (IFMP) Nations Cup Final will continue despite Coronavirus pandemic. However, To ensure the safety of the players the tournament will be held Virtually.

The decision to hold it virtually was decided by IFMP to protect the players. Most of the participating nations are still facing coronavirus lockdown and would not be available to travel and it would go against maintaining social distancing guidelines. 

The Nations Cup Finale will take place on Saturday, May 30th and Sunday, May 31st.

14 nations will compete live on a digital host platform that will be handled by IFMP. Each participating player will remain safe in his/her own home while competing,  each member of every team with their teammates, captain, manager, analysts, etc during breaks in play, in a virtual live competitive environment.

The global nature of the event means that while some will experience early morning play, others will be participating during their evening/night time.

As a result, it conforms to the GAISF definition of a sport as ‘not relying on any element of luck specifically integrated into the sport.’ IFMP has successfully developed the Match Poker technology including innovative use of smartphones in game-play and administration, making Match Poker a true 21st century mind sport and an eSport. For the Nations Cup players will be producing personal video introductions to help with the event production, and will also use their mobile phones or tablets to access the gameplay software.

Patrick Nally

President of IFMP 

“All International Sports Federations are facing enormous challenges due to the pandemic but we are fortunate that, with our gameplay software, we are able to play a ‘live’ event but in individual home locations. Match Poker is a sport based entirely on skill and it’s the combination of a team’s effort that will ultimately produce the winner”.

 

“The social relationships developed through the hosting of our Match Poker events are important to us and we are looking forward to getting back to live events as soon as practical, but we will continue to support our international competition schedule in this manner until such times as our ‘sporting family’ can be reunited”.

ABOUT MATCH POKER

Match Poker is a team sport where the luck element in conventional poker via the “random draw of cards” has been removed. Far from being another poker ‘variation’ to sit alongside Texas Hold’em, Omaha and Stud, etc. it is in fact a revolutionary approach for how any of these variations can be structured into meaningful and sporting competition through a more skill-based format.

Match Poker was devised by the International Federation of Match Poker to reduce the element of luck inherent in traditional forms of poker, ensuring that it is a contest based on players’ skill and conforms to the accepted definition of a sport.

• Match Poker is a team sport incorporating regular Texas Hold’em, albeit typically with a pot-limit preflop and no-limit post-flop structure.

• Teams are split onto different tables with one player from each team in each of the different seat positions.

• All players start each hand with an equal number of chips and receive their cards on a digital device.

• The same cards are dealt at all tables (hole cards and community cards). This means that every player in seat 1 (each from a different team) has identical cards. The same is true every other seat. This allows the best players and the best teams to be identified.

• Each team’s combined chips are compared after every hand and points allocated accordingly. Players reset their stacks and the next hand begins.

• After a pre-determined number of hands the team with the most points wins. All action is recorded electronically enabling real-time automated scoring, animated replay and detailed analysis.