The Global Poker Index (GPI) announced this week a partial player roster for the upcoming inaugural Global Poker Masters event. The competition, which the GPI has nicknamed poker’s World Cup, is scheduled for March 21st and March 22nd at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Malta festival. This scheduling was carefully planned, as most of the participants are European, thus making travel easier, and all players will still be able to enter Day 1B of the EPT Malta Main Event once the Masters is over.
The Global Poker Masters is the brainchild of GPI Chief Executive Officer, Alexandre Dreyfus. Not a typical poker tournament, it will pit players from eight different countries against each other, all seeking to earn points for their home nation. As you might guess, the country with the most points at the end is the winner.
“GPI’s [goal] is to Sportify the game of poker and the presentation of this innovative event will go a long way towards accomplishing that goal,” Dreyfus said in a news release. “There is no buy-in for the event, we want to create an international competition where players are playing for pride, country and for the love of the game in hopes to showcase the game’s best. Through the GPI, it will create a solid platform for poker to be promoted through new distribution channels and mainstream partners.”
The exact format has yet to be announced, but here are the basics. On Day 1, players from each country will compete in a series of single table Sit-and-Go tournaments against each other and will earn points based on order of finish (I assume it is order of finish, as that only makes sense). The last place team after the first day is eliminated.
Day 2 will feature heads-up matches between players from opposing countries. Again, points will be earned and the last place team will be knocked out. The day will conclude with a six-handed final table for all the marbles.
The eight countries that qualified for the Global Poker Masters were selected based on the number of players they had ranked in the GPI300 as of the end of 2014. The United States was the runaway leader with 140 players in the GPI300, followed by the UK, Germany, Canada, Russia, France, Italy, and the Ukraine. The Ukraine was actually tied with Argentina and Denmark, but won a tiebreaker determined by the total GPI300 points earned by the top five players from each country.
Each country will have five team members. Four have already been determined: the 2014 National Player of the Year and the country’s next three top ranked players. The fifth player is the “wildcard,” whose qualification criteria has yet to be announced.
Here are the team rosters so far, minus the wildcard:
United States: Dan Smith, Bryn Kenney (replacing National POY Daniel Colman), Pratyush Buddiga, Jacob Schindler
UK: Stephen Chidwick, Jack Salter, Simon Deadman, Oliver Price (POY)
Germany: Ole Schemion (POY), Marvin Rettenmeier, Martin Finger, George Danzer
Canada: Ami Barer (POY), Sorel Mizzi, Mike McDonald, Andrew Chen
Russia: Anatoly Filatov (POY), Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Ivan Soshnikov, Vitaly Lunkin
France: Erwann Pecheux (POY), Benjamin Pollak, Sylvain Loosli, Fabrice Soulier
Italy: Dario Sammartino, Mustapha Kanit (POY), Andrea Dato, Giuliano Bendinelli
Ukraine: Eugene Katchalov, Oleksandr Gnatenko, Artem Metalidi, Oleksii Khoroshenin
In the event that a player is unable to attend, the next highest ranked player for that country will be invited. As you can see, Daniel Colman already declined.
The Global Poker Masters will be live streamed online with no delay.
