WTP Inaugural Event

Forty players from eight countries took the felt in this five-table double shootout team tournament. They did that at 1:30pm yesterday afternoon. 19 hours later, we finally have our winner -- Team China, a team consisting of David Chiu, Johnny Chan, Chau Giang, Winfred Yu, Rich Zhu, Derek Cheung and Maria Ho. They were the last team standing after a marathon kick-off even for World Team Poker.

Team China will take home $300,000 for the win and Team Brazil will get a consolation prize of $100,000.

That about does it for the PokerNews Live Reporting team from the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, Nevada. Be sure to follow along with all of the action being reported by our colleagues at APPT Macau, which will enter Day 2 action later today. And definitely join us next week, when PokerNews kicks off its wall-to-wall coverage of the 2010 World Series of Poker.

Until then, you can find us at the bar.

"Pot."

Nothing all that exciting.

"Re-pot."

Our ears perked up. All of the remaining Team China and Team Brazil players stood up and gathered around the table. If that didn't pot the chips all in the middle -- and with blinds of 10,000 and 20,000, it should have -- they were soon all in.

Brazil:
China:

Nobody could muster much energy after a flop of gave the Chinese two pair and the Brazilians a straight draw.

"Nine!" said Johnny Chan. The turn wasn't a nine, but it was a blank .

"Ok, that's a good card," said Maria Ho. The Chinese team mustered enough energy for a celebratory cheer when the river blanked . They had the Brazilians covered and, finally, the tournament was over.

David Chiu shook hands with the Brazilian teams, telling them how well they played and that he was sure Brazil would win the World Cup.

Ho turned and hugged Chau Giang. "Oh Chau!" she said. "At last we can go home and sleep now." Amen to that.

The last time one of my colleagues, Short-Stacked Shamus, found himself in this type of a situation -- covering a never-ending poker tournament -- he started writing heroic couplets and putting them on Twitter. I'm not nearly that witty or talented, so I've resorted to dirty limericks in the PokerNews group IM chat.

It's probably the only lick of conversation going on in the tournament room right now. But the timer bell just sounded, which in theory means the blinds should be moving up again to 10,000-20,000, and the game should be switching to pot-limit omaha. We think.

For what it's worth (at this point, we're not sure exactly what), Team China is relatively short-stacked again. David Chiu has substituted onto the table in place of Johnny Chan, who couldn't stifle a yawn after he got up from the table.

The rest of Team China has re-joined Maria Ho on the rail to sweat Johnny Chan while he plays a $200,000 heads-up sit-n-go. To a person, they look absolutely knackered.

The Brazilians are starting to fade a little bit as well. After 20 hours, it's really hard not to be fading at this point.

There was a break for a tape change. Some chips were colored up at the same time, perhaps in an attempt to move this thing along. Even most of Team China seems to have disappeared, though an exhausted Maria Ho is still here, trooping it out from the rail.

I'm not gonna lie. I dozed off there for a bit.

Looks like Team Brazil went to showdown with a turned pair of aces after flopping a wheel draw, and took down a moderate pot from Team China. The Brazilians are certainly the only ones with any energy left. They still have that cavaquinho -- the miniature guitar thing -- and are strumming a little riff every time Brazil wins a pot, then following it up with a single "BRAZIL!"

There hasn't been much sway to one side or the other, the Brazilian Team seems to have a slight lead but don't count out Johnny Chan and the Chinese Team.

Somewhat unbelievably, we're up to 6,000-12,000 no-limit hold'em. Keep in mind, there are only 400,000 total chips on the table.

We'll use it as an excuse to (once again) break out our "game changer" photo.

Since that last double-up, the teams have been trading small pots -- mainly contested pre-flop -- back and forth. We don't see that either team has opened much of an advantage over the other. This is now a contest of stamina and will more than anything else.