The first season of the Global Poker League is just a day away from starting, and the teams are ready to go to battle and win it for their conference. This is no ordinary league, as the best of the players were drafted to each team in hopes that they would be able to beat their opponents in different tournament settings; group stage, heads-up matches, and finally the knockout rounds.
The Players, Teams, and Conferences
There are many names that you should recognize, especially the managers. These are big time poker pro’s that have made their own picks during the Draft, believing that their team is the best. There are two conferences, Eurasia and Americas, with players from all over the world being drafted.
|
Eurasia Conference |
|
| Team | Players |
| Rome Emperors | Max Pescatori (Manager)
Mustapha Kanit Dario Sammartino Timothy Adams Walter Treccarichi |
| London Royals | Liv Boeree (Manager)
Igor Kurganov Vanessa Selbst Chris Moorman Justin Bonomo |
| Moscow Wolverines | Anatoly Filatov (Manager)
Dzmitry Urbanovich Vladimir Troyanovskiy Andrey Pateychuk Sergey Lebedev |
| Berlin Bears | Philipp Gruissem (Manager)
Brian Rast Sorel Mizzi Dominik Nitsche Jeff Gross |
| Paris Aviators | Fabrice Soulier (Manager)
Bertrand Grospellier Davidi Kitai George Danzer Mike Leah |
| Hong Kong Stars | Celina Lin (Manager)
WeiYi Zhang Raiden Kan Dong Guo Bryan Huang |
|
Americas Conference |
|
| Team | Players |
| Montreal Nationals | Marc-Andre Ladouceur (Manager)
Mike McDonald Martin Jacobson Pascal Lafrancois Xuan Liu |
| New York Rounders | Bryn Kenney (Manager)
Jason Mercier Tom Marchese Kevin MacPhee Jason Wheeler |
| San Francisco Rush | Faraz Jaka (Manager)
Phil Galfond Anthony Gregg Kitty Kuo Anton Wigg |
| Las Vegas Moneymakers | Chris Moneymaker (Manager)
Anthony Zinno Jonathan Duhamel Jake Cody Jonathan Little |
| Sao Paulo Metropolitans | Andre Akkari (Manager)
Darren Elias Byron Kaverman Thiago Nishijima Joao Pires Simao |
| Los Angeles Sunset | Mario Ho (Manager)
Fedor Holz Olivier Busquet Eugene Katchalov Chance Kornuth |
Year-Long Playing Schedule
The first season of the GPL will start on April 5 and go on until November 22, where the final four teams will face off in the semi-final knockout stage, leaving only two teams to meet in the Grand Finals. The first week’s schedule is as follows, but you can see the entire schedule here:
| Date | Time | Event |
| April 5 | 12:00 PM EST. | Eurasia 6-Max |
| April 5 | 1:40 PM EST. | Eurasia 6-Max |
| April 5 | 3:30 PM EST. | Americas 6-Max |
| April 5 | 5:10 PM EST. | Americas 6-Max |
| April 6 | 12:00 PM EST. | Hong Kong Stars player vs. Moscow Wolverines player |
| April 6 | 2:30 PM EST. | Berlin Bears player vs. Paris Aviators player |
| April 6 | 5:00 PM EST. | Rome Emperors player vs. London Royals player |
| April 7 | 1:00 PM EST. | Los Angeles Sunset player vs. Sao Paulo Metropolitans player |
| April 7 | 3:30 PM EST. | Montreal Nationals player vs. San Francisco Rush player |
| April 7 | 6:00 PM EST. | New York Rounders player vs. Las Vegas Moneymakers player |
You can check out the heads-up match battles following their twitter. It will all be televised through Poker Central, so you can catch all of the live action there.