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The World Series of Poker Europe played host to the 2011 Caesars Cup yesterday, a special event that pitted Team Europe (led by Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier) against Team America (lead by Phil Hellmuth). Since Team Europe won the event in 2009, Team America was hungry for redemption this year, and redemption is exactly what they found.

For Team America, Phil Hellmuth initially chose a team based solely on experience and WSOP bracelet wins, grabbing Johnny Chan, Huck Seed, Doyle Brunson and Daniel Negreanu. After Seed and Brunson announced that they wouldn’t be making the trip to Cannes, Hellmuth significantly lowered the average age of his team by adding Ben Lamb and Jason Mercier, two of the most successful poker players of the modern era.

Grospellier’s team was incredibly strong as well, featuring cutting-edge heads-up experts Gus Hansen, Jake Cody, Maxim Lykov and Tony G. It could be argued that any of these ten players would be capable of winning the WSOP Main Event, given their collective resumes.

The event utilized a best-of-three format, with the first match pitting Lamb and Mercier against Cody and Tony G. Teammates took turns on each street, using the same hand and stack. Team America ultimately won the match with 10-8 suited over Q-9 offsuit, bringing the score to 1-0.

The second match had Hellmuth and Negreanu facing off against Lykov and Hansen, with players alternating hands, but still sharing a stack. Hellmuth paid dearly to see the flop in one hand, but ultimately folded before the turn to give a significant lead to Lykov. Hansen dominated Negreanu, eventually winning an all-in coin-flip with ace-high and evening the score at 1-1.

If you’ve seen Rounders, you know that Johnny Chan is a heads-up poker legend. He lived up to his reputation in Round 3, a match that pitted Chan directly against Grospellier. He secured the victory with trip-4s after trading pots during the earlier stages of the match.

With the score at 2-1, Hellmuth decided to pit himself against Lykov in what would be the final match of the Caesars Cup. Hellmuth scored a pair of queens on the final hand, winning the event and ensuring that the third installment of the series would take place in Las Vegas.