{"id":39202,"date":"2015-01-22T15:18:27","date_gmt":"2015-01-22T14:18:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/?p=39202"},"modified":"2019-10-31T12:25:35","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T12:25:35","slug":"five-things-may-know-cyprus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/five-things-may-know-cyprus.html","title":{"rendered":"Five things you may not know about Cyprus"},"content":{"rendered":"

The partypoker WPT National Cyprus\u00a0Main Event<\/strong>\u00a0takes place at the Noah’s Ark Deluxe Hotel & Casino<\/strong> on January 23 and it has the makings of another poker extravaganza.<\/p>\n

The main event, with its \u20ac2,000 buy-in, guarantees a \u20ac300,000 prize pool and is certain to attract, like moths to a flame, some of Europe\u2019s premium poker talent.<\/p>\n

Cyprus is a funny old country, one that is visited by more than two million tourists each and every year.<\/p>\n

Yet it\u2019s still a country most people don’t know much about. Hopefully, after reading these five things you may not know about Cyprus, you’ll be comfortable facing a Mastermind-like interrogation about the enigmatic nation.<\/p>\n

Cyprus is the birthplace of Aphrodite<\/h2>\n

The Greek goddess Aphrodite<\/strong> is said to have been born in Cyprus, in a placed called Paphos<\/strong>. For all of us stoic men that didn’t know, Aphrodite is the goddess of love, beauty, pleasure and procreation, which places her comfortably atop our favourite-goddess list.<\/p>\n

Cronus<\/strong> \u2013 son of Gaia<\/strong>, the great mother of all \u2013 cut off his father Uranus<\/strong>‘ genitals, or so legend has it, and threw them into the sea (and some people think they have dysfunctional families). Aphrodite then rose from the resulting sea foam (we’ll have a pint of whatever they were drinking when they came up with that).<\/p>\n

Other gods feared that Aphrodite’s beauty – and the fact she may or may not have got her kit off at the drop of a hat – would cause war among the gods so Zeus<\/strong> married her to Hephaestus<\/strong>, who, apparently, was the dour and humourless god of smiting.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s enough of Greek mythology for now.<\/p>\n

Ayia Napa \u2013 Never has a name been so wrong<\/h2>\n

In Greek, the word \u201cAyia\u201d means \u201choly\u201d and \u201cNapa\u201d means \u201cwooded valley\u201d so you\u2019d expect Ayia Napa<\/strong> to be a holy wooded valley, wouldn\u2019t you? And while there are many picturesque and beautifully historic sites in Ayia Napa, it is, unfortunately, best known for its bustling nightlife and drunken debauchery.<\/p>\n

With so many drunken revellers swarming the streets, it\u2019s more likely you’ll wake up with a horrific hangover than make a Royal Flush, so be good when you’re on a night out or learn to find a brilliant hangover cure.<\/p>\n

It has been invaded more times than you’ve had a Sunday roast<\/h2>\n

Cyprus is the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean and, thanks to its prime location, has long been a target of invaders.<\/p>\n

The Republic of Cyprus, as it\u2019s officially referred to, is located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel, north of Egypt and east of Greece, which has led to many countries vying for its strategically perfect position.<\/p>\n

Cyprus gained its independence on August 16, 1960, but in 1974 Turkish forces invaded and claimed a large section of northern Cyprus. This area was declared the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus<\/strong>, a state that only Turkey recognises. To this day, there is a UN buffer zone separating it from \u201cGreek Cyprus<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The British Army has two bases in Cyprus that covers 98 square miles. They are the home to about 3,500 military personnel. Don’t misbehave in Ayia Napa because these bad boys might be bored and looking for something to do.<\/p>\n

Cypriots love football, but their teams leave a lot to be desired<\/h2>\n

Cypriots are very passionate about football, but sadly they don’t have much to cheer about. The national football team, currently ranked 86th in the world (putting them alongside such footballing giants as Benin, Malawi, and Lithuania), has never qualified for a FIFA World Cup<\/strong> or a UEFA European Championship<\/strong> and has lost 150 of its 202 qualification matches \u2013 and we thought England\u2019s track record of late has been poor.<\/p>\n

Having reached the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals, APOEL FC<\/strong>, from Nicosia, are the nation’s most successful club team.<\/p>\n

Poker history was created in Cyprus<\/h2>\n

In May 2012, former partypoker Team Pro Marvin Rettenmaier<\/strong> won the WPT World Championship in Las Vegas and had to stuff almost $1,200,000 into his designer suitcase. Three short months later, the popular guitar-plucking German won the opening event of the new WPT season when he bested a crowd of 329 at the Merit Cyrstal Cove Hotel & Casino in Kyrenia, Northern Cyprus. In doing so, Rettenmaier became the first player in the WPT\u2019s long and illustrious history to win back-to-back WPT main events<\/a>, stamping his name into the history books.<\/p>\n

There’s also been another back-to-back win, of sorts, in Cyprus. In July 2014, Russia\u2019s Alexander Lakhov<\/strong> won the partypoker WPT National North Cyprus main event. He followed that up with another win at the partypoker WPT Martic Classic North Cyprus Main Event<\/a> in September 2014.<\/p>\n

If Lakhov\u2019s on your table in Cyprus this weekend, give him your stack as he’s likely to win it at some point anyway! It might save you the prolonged anguish.<\/p>\n

Have you been to Cyprus or is there anything you\u2019d like to add about the enigmatic island? We\u2019d love to hear your thoughts.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Keep up to date with the all things partypoker!<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Get all the latest partypoker updates from your favourite social media outlets. You can Follow us on Twitter<\/a><\/strong> and Like us on Facebook.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The partypoker WPT National Cyprus\u00a0Main Event\u00a0takes place at the Noah’s Ark Deluxe Hotel & Casino on January 23 and it has the makings of another poker extravaganza. The main event, with its \u20ac2,000 buy-in, guarantees a \u20ac300,000 prize pool and is certain to attract, like moths to a flame, some of Europe\u2019s premium poker talent.<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":39206,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2182,300],"tags":[366,365,363,367,369,364,370,368,84,332,74],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39202"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39202"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39205,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39202\/revisions\/39205"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39202"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.partypoker.com\/blog\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=39202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}