40 poker players, ranging from pros such as Robert "Chipburner" Turner and successful online players to competitive amateurs, gathered in Brentwood, California to compete in the World Team Poker format on Saturday, March 27.

This event was a run-through for the official World Team Poker inaugural event on May 19 at the Golden Nugget, which will feature the biggest stars in poker representing their respective nations. However, while Saturday's event may have technically been a run-through, the energy and level of competition more closely resembled that of a major professional poker tournament.

The winning team was captained by Los Angeles Area poker player "Scotty" Wayne Shinsato, who also runs the home game meetup.com poker group "LA Rounders" (http://www.larounders.net meetup.com/the-rounders/). This tourney was a joint effort between World Team Poker and the LA Rounders, so Wayne succeeded both on the felt and by helping to organize such a successful event.

Team Captains substituted players throughout the event, hoping to best utilize the strengths and weaknesses of their roster, but even those not in the game were eager to watch the action and cheer on their teammates.

The mixed format of no limit hold em, pot limit Omaha, and limit hold em rewarded a diverse skill set and kept players on their toes. Not surprisingly, the final hand went down during the volatile PLO round, when "Scotty" Wayne made a full house to bust rival team captain Gideon Cross and his overpair of aces.

World Team Poker Executives Michael Christian, Brenda Prackup, Charity Perry, and Robert Turner also played key roles in the event.  Christian and Prackup organized and ran the tourney while Perry and Turner competed in the event.

With all the kinks worked out, and a successful and exhilarating run-through tourney in the books, everything seems ready for a virtuoso debut on May 19, as Hellmuth, Chan, Lisandro, Tony G, Men the Master, Elezra, Roberts and other stars battle each other in the original and exclusive World Team Poker format.