Nationals Retake First in Americas, Wolverines Usurp Top Spot in Eurasia in GPL Week 4

There was some serious jumbling of the standings in the Global Poker League’s Week 4, as we are still early enough in the season that any hot or cold week by a team can result in major changes to the standings. The Montreal Nationals continued its weekly trading of the top spot with the New York Rounders, jumping back into the lead of the Americas Conference, while there is a surprising new leader of the Eurasia Conference: the Moscow Wolverines.

It was a rather interesting week in the Americas Conference, as the top three teams after Week 3 only achieved single-digit scores in Week 3, while the three bottom teams were the best performers. Because those bottom three were so far behind, though, Montreal and New York remained the top two. The Las Vegas Moneymakers, previously third, fell to fourth as the L.A. Sunset had the best week in the conference, earning 15 points.

Olivier Busquet did it all for the Sunset, nabbing a first and a fourth place finish in the Sit-and-Go rounds and then winning two of three matches against the Rounders’ Tom Marchese to obtain the 15 points for his team. Anton Wigg of the San Francisco Rush was the top Sit-and-Go performer of the week in the Americas Conference, finishing first and third for 10 total points. That still wasn’t quite enough to get his team out of the basement, though.

Here are the standings for the Americas Conference after Week 4:

Over in the Eurasia Conference, the story was all about Anatoly Filatov. Filatov, playing for the Moscow Wolverines, nearly swept the Sit-and-Go round, missing a dual-win by just one spot. He followed that up on Wednesday by winning two out of his three games against the London Royals’ Vanessa Selbst. All told, he scored 18 points all by his lonesome, a figure that equals the second-best weekly score for any team this season.

Prior to Week 4, Moscow was in third place, five points behind the first place Paris Aviators and two points behind the Hong Kong Stars, the only two teams that have occupied first place through the first three weeks. But Paris only scored 11 points and Hong Only garnered 9 points, so Moscow was able to leapfrog both to reach first place for the first time.

Also of note is the big move by the Berlin Bears. Berlin has languished in the cellar of the Eurasia conference because of poor showings in Weeks 1 and 3, but thanks to a second and third place Sit-and-Go finish by Jeff Gross plus a sweep by Gross in his heads-up matches against the Rome Emperors’ Todd Brunson, Berlin scored 17 points and jumped from last place to fourth.

The Week 4 standings for the Eurasia Conference are as follows:

Looking ahead to Week 5, which starts Tuesday, the match that stands out on the schedule takes place on Wednesday, as the first place Moscow Wolverines will face-off against the second place Paris Aviators in heads-up action.