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Home / Uncategorized / Japan’s Masa Kagawa defeats Gus Hansen to win PokerStars Blog #PokerCup

France may have won the World Cup, and Serbia may have won Wimbledon through their superstar Novak Djokovic, but the biggest tournament of them all was still in contention up until a few minutes ago: the PokerStars Blog #PokerCup.

After weeks of intense Twitter polling, pitting 32 poker players and their home nations against each other, we now have a winner:

Japan’s Masa Kagawa is your #PokerCup champion, defeating Denmark’s Gus Hansen in the final with 52% of the Twitter vote.

Masa Kagawa and Japan win #PokerCup

Let’s take a look at Kagawa’s road to victory.

Kagawa found himself in a group with Farid Jattin (Colombia), Muhyedine Fares (Senegal), and Dzimitry Urbanovich (Poland). In his first match, Kagawa took down Jattin with 62% of the vote.

He then defeated Fares with 66% of the vote, securing his place in the last 16, before taking down Urbanovich for good measure with 62% of the vote. Both Kagawa and Urbanovich advanced to the next round.

Into the knockout stages, Kagawa was drawn a tough match against Belgium’s Davidi Kitai. He’d advance to the quarter finals after winning 55% of the vote.

Into the quarter finals, Kagawa found himself facing England’s Stephen Chidwick. After 24 hours of voting, Kagawa had taken it down with 60% of the vote.

As we moved into the semi-finals, just four players remained: Kagawa, Fedor Holz (Germany), Igor Kurganov (Russia), and Gus Hansen (Denmark). Japan had stiff competition.

That didn’t stop Kagawa from eliminating Holz though in an epic match. Kagawa took it down with just 51% of the vote – the equivalent of a last-minute extra-time winner.

Meanwhile, Hansen defeated Kurganov with 59% of the vote, meaning our final was set.

Congratulations to Masa Kagawa and everyone in Japan who voted! There’s no actual prize, of course, except to simply reinforce the pride of a nation.

The Japan Open Poker Tour, sponsored by PokerStars.net, will be running across Japan throughout 2018.


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Kagawa vs Hansen

All the results from the 2018 PokerStars Blog #PokerCup:

THE RESULTS – The Final

Masa Kagawa (Japan) vs Gus Hansen (Denmark) – Kagawa wins

THE RESULTS – Semi Finals

Igor Kurganov (Russia) vs Gus Hansen (Denmark) – Hansen wins

Fedor Holz (Germany) vs Masa Kagawa (Japan) – Kagawa wins

THE RESULTS – Quarter Finals

Igor Kurganov (Russia) vs Carlos Mortensen (Spain) – Kurganov wins

Betrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier (France) vs Gus Hansen (Denmark) – Hansen wins

Viktor Blom (Sweden) vs Fedor Holz (Germany) – Holz wins

Stephen Chidwick (England) vs Masa Kagawa (Japan) – Kagawa wins

THE RESULTS – Final 16 Phase

Igor Kurganov (Russia) vs Joao Barbosa
 (Portugal) – Kurganov wins

Fabrizio Cataldi (Uruguay) vs Carlos Mortensen (Spain) – Mortensen wins

Betrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier (France) vs Goran Mandic (Croatia) – ElkY wins

Maria Lampropulos (Argentina) vs Gus Hansen (Denmark) – Hansen wins

Andre Akkari (Brazil) vs Viktor Blom (Sweden) – Blom wins

Stefan Huber (Switzerland) vs Fedor Holz (Germany) – Holz wins

Stephen Chidwick (England) vs Dzmitry Urbanovich (Poland) – Chidwick wins

Masa Kagawa (Japan) vs Davidi Kitai (Belgium) – Kagawa wins


THE RESULTS – Group Stages

GROUP A

POSITION TEAM PLAYED POINTS
1 RUSSIA 3 9
2 URUGUAY 3 6
3 EGYPT 3 3
4 SAUDI ARABIA 3 0

GROUP B

POSITION TEAM PLAYED POINTS
1 SPAIN 3 9
2 PORTUGAL 3 6
3 IRAN 3 3
4 MOROCCO 3 0

GROUP C

POSITION TEAM PLAYED POINTS
1 FRANCE 3 9
2 DENMARK 3 6
3 AUSTRALIA 3 3
4 PERU 3 0

GROUP D

POSITION TEAM PLAYED POINTS
1 ARGENTINA 3 6
2 CROATIA 3 6
3 ICELAND 3 3
4 NIGERIA 3 0

GROUP E

POSITION TEAM PLAYED POINTS
1 BRAZIL 3 9
2 SWITZERLAND 3 6
3 SERBIA 3 3
4 COSTA RICA 3 0

GROUP F

POSITION TEAM PLAYED POINTS
1 GERMANY 3 7
2 SWEDEN 3 6
3 MEXICO 3 3
4 SOUTH KOREA 3 1

GROUP G

POSITION TEAM PLAYED POINTS
1 ENGLAND 3 9
2 BELGIUM 3 6
3 PANAMA 3 3
4 TUNISIA 3 0

GROUP H

POSITION TEAM PLAYED POINTS
1 JAPAN 3 9
2 POLAND 3 6
3 COLUMBIA 3 3
4 SENEGAL 3 0

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