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Phil Hellmuth: "How can Team Europe choose Tony G?"
The tension ahead of the 2011 Caesars Cup is rising in Cannes. Captain of Team America, Phil Hellmuth, today questioned Team Europe's draft of his arch-nemesis, Tony G.
The 2011 Caesars Cup will be making a return tomorrow at the WSOP Europe, following a one-year break last year.

The popular cup sees North America and Europe square off in a team match, led by two team captains who can freely choose which players to include in their teams.

This year, Team America will be led by 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, who has chosen to go with a handful of classic names for his 2011 team.

Players like Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson and Huck Seed were all on Hellmuth's original draft list, but following cancellations from Brunson and Seed, Hellmuth was forced to make rearrangements in the last minute.

Having done so, Team America now consists of Hellmuth, Jason Mercier, Ben Lamb, Johnny Chan and Daniel Negreanu, who will all gather tomorrow to face the European team, led by Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier.

Grospellier has chosen a mixture of old and young players in Gus Hansen, Maxim Lykov, Jake Cody and finally Tony G.

Especially the latter has however, and perhaps not surprisingly, caused Hellmuth to question Grospellier's abilities as a team captain.

"How does "Team Europe" choose Tony G for their team when they could choose David "Devilfish" Ulliot, Sam Trickett or Carlos Mortensen?" Hellmuth asks on his Twitter today.

The cup as such seems to line up yet another clash by poker's two favorite archenemies once the cards hit air tomorrow afternoon.

Team Europe will enter the battle as the defending champions, following the 2009 victory, in which the team, captained by Annette Obrestad, beat the Americans by 4-1.

The event is a non-bracelet event and will be recorded for TV, set to air later this year.
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By David Michael Barnwell
Poker.org News Editor
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Comments
2642
12233
7 months ago
Obviously Tony G. is there just to tilt the hell out of Phil Hellmuth.
And i think the new American team is much stronger thanks to those cancellations. Mercier and Lamb are very strong players.
This will be cool to watch, it will be aired?
Edited by Tzest0s 7 months ago
607
7 months ago
Surprised Sam trickett not selected despite his fine form but Tony G vs Hellmuth would be fireworks surely. who would wanna miss that now
2488
7 months ago
I couldn't agree more with Hellmuth. Why the hell would they pick Tony G other than the goal of pissing of Phil? Stupid choice, imo. On the other end, I love the pick of Ben Lamb, a player becoming elite. I would definitely have chosen John Juanda over Johnny Chan. I don't know if anyone else has seen Chan lately, especially in the WSOP and WSOP grudge match, but I wasn't impressed. Juanda is a better choice. But with that said, Hellmuth played Chan in the match, so maybe he sees something I don't.
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