The Global Poker League is in a hiatus at this time, taking a break after finishing the first half of their inaugural season and their “Summer Series” during the run of the World Series of Poker. It’s certainly been an interesting run so far for GPL creator Alex Dreyfus’ pet program and it has seen its share of ups (getting “Breaking Bad” actor Aaron Paul on the L. A. Sunset and actually seeing him win an event in Las Vegas) and downs (early software glitches with the GPL poker client that were quickly fixed). There’s going to have to be more fixes made, however, if the GPL is going to succeed.
Dreyfus noted some of the problems the GPL has faced to this point and admitted the repairs were in the works. Such things as merchandising the league and its teams (something that still doesn’t exist) and putting more of an emphasis on the players are something that they should have done from the start. These types of things are paramount to getting people to care about your teams, your players and, by extension, the league; it’s your product, you have to be able to promote it and not just throw it out on the stage.
There is one perceived problem that Dreyfus is taking care of: the headquarters for the organization. Previously all activities for the GPL were performed in Malta, but Dreyfus realized during the Summer Series that the headquarters needed to be in Las Vegas. As such, the GPL will be making its move to the studios that were constructed for the Summer Series and will be broadcasting from there in the future.
But there are other things that the GPL are doing that could use some work.
One of the biggest issues for the GPL has been its format of play. When it came to the actual play of the GPL schedule, many casual poker fans thought that it would be the players themselves physically sitting around a table and battling it out live for the fans’ entertainment. When it came out that the players were actually going to be playing online (as the GPL has technically done for their entire existence – more on this in a moment), the sneers from many in the chat room on Twitch and other commentary arenas was plainly heard. It is also possible that many, upon seeing that it was online poker and not physically live poker, never came back to view the GPL again.
Even with the Summer Series, the opportunity to actually bring some live play together in “The Cube” was missed. In this writer’s opinion, “The Cube” wasn’t the thrilling, groundbreaking experiment for poker that was expected. It was a Plexiglas box with some neon lights on the edges, not the “Thunderdome” of poker that many might have been expecting. Add in after that the players continued to play online – standing in front of a little monitor that contained the GPL poker client – and much of the buzz that was built for “The Cube” fizzled.
The solution for this one, fortunately, is pretty easy. For the regular season contests, the internet and online poker is the best format to handle the GPL schedule. With teams representing areas from Asia to the Americas (and players sometimes living in those far flung areas), it is completely illogical to have live matches for those segments of the season. But be upfront about it and tell the audience that they’re going to be seeing online poker, not some grand table set up in a room with some of poker’s biggest names physically seated around it. Those that want to watch the proceedings will be there with bells on and those that aren’t interested will find something else to take their time.
For the Summer Series – and the postseason – if you’re going to bring players out live, bring them to a physical table and ditch the computers. You want an audience to get into something? They’re going to have to see something other than two people staring at each other for a couple hours on end. The frenzied crowds that you see at e-Sports events (what Dreyfus has often said the response would be to action in “The Cube”) aren’t going to be freaking out about…two people looking fiercely at each other with their hands clasped or stroking their chins.
Furthermore, while the inter-conference play idea was outstanding (the first time it had been seen on the GPL), the heads up inter-conference matches weren’t the way to go. The proper way to do the inter-conference battles was to go with the Sit and Gos, taking three teams from the GPL Americas and three from the GPL Eurasia sitting down to the felt and battling it out. Once a week the GPL could have done this during the Summer Series, along with the heads up matches, and drawn in the viewers to watch the players live action decisions. That would have provided some excitement, especially if Fedor Holz of the San Francisco Rush or Jason Mercier of the New York Rounders – two players who were taking the WSOP by storm while the Summer Series was going on – were involved in the Six Max sit and gos and maybe even a heads up match.
As it sits now, the GPL is in a bit of limbo. A look at the website shows that there isn’t anything scheduled as to the second half of the season other than the World Championship in November, whereas previously it was stated that action would resume in August and now has it coming back in September with no dates included. Such indecision at this point shouldn’t be going on, even if it is your inaugural season.
Through it all, Dreyfus has asked the poker community to allow for the GPL to work out its kinks and get through its errors before judging the final product. That time is ticking, however, and some of the delays are a bit concerning. When the second half of the GPL season is complete and a champion is crowned in November, that will be the time to make some final determinations, but there’s always room to look at where you can improve.
