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Just like his counterpart Phil Hellmuth had to do last week, Team Europe Captain Bertrand “ElkY” Grosspellier was forced to tweak his Caesars Cup lineup after one of his selections, Dario Minieri, withdrew from the event. Grosspellier’s replacement for Minieri will be the polarizing Tony G, who may very well have been chosen simply to torment Team America Captain Phil Hellmuth, who just happens to be one of Tony G’s favorite foils.

This will be the second running of the Caesars Cup pitting America against Europe in a series of poker matches; the first having taken place in 2009 when Team Europe, led by Annette Obrestad dispatched the Daniel Negreanu led Team America. This time around it will be Phil Hellmuth leading the Team America squad that now consists of Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan, Jason Mercier, and Ben Lamb, against the European squad of Tony G, Gus Hansen, Max Lykov, Jake Cody, as well as team captain ElkY.

No reason was given for Minieri’s withdrawal from the tournament, and as usual Tony G had something to say regarding his addition to Team Europe:

“I had packed the bike and was ready to leave Cannes today when Elky called to say he wanted me in his European Team for Wednesday’s Caesar’s Cup tussle with America… I couldn’t say no, it is an honor — I really cannot wait. It is true that I am the captain but on this occasion Elky is as well.”

The Caesars Cup format pits two teams of five players each –hand-selected by the captains—in a series of heads-up and team poker matches, a la the Rider Cup in golf. The matches will take place on October 19 during the World Series of Poker Europe tournament series.