As the European Poker Tour prepares for its inaugural Main Event tournament in Malta, professional poker’s biggest names are also in preparation for another reason. Beginning tomorrow, the Global Poker Index’s Global Poker Masters will also take to the stage.
Billed as poker’s version of football’s (soccer’s) World Cup, the Global Poker Masters is bringing together eight teams representing their countries. The players, chosen by using the Global Poker Index rankings for each nation, have for the most part embraced playing in the event (two exceptions: Daniel Colman, the #1 player in the United States, decided not to participate in the tournament; France’s Fabrice Soulier and Benjamin Pollak were pulled from their team by their sponsor, Betclic Everest, because they could not patch them up for the event). Even with some departures, the eight teams are very strong, leading to what could be an outstanding production.
With the most players ranked in the GPI 300 (the basis for the creation of the teams), Team USA has the highest ranked players representing their country. Team USA has put together Isaac Haxton, Olivier Busquet, Dan Smith, Bryn Kenney and Vanessa Selbst (the only female player on a Global Poker Masters roster) which should give them a serious shot at claiming the first-ever Global Poker Masters championship. The remainder of the teams have compiled their own formidable squads, however.
Of the remainder of the field, Teams Canada, Germany and France look to have the best chance to take down Team USA. Canada is headed by former World Champion Jonathan Duhamel and features Sorel Mizzi, Andrew Chen, Ami Barer and Marc-Andre Ladouceur. Germany should strike fear into some players with a lineup of 2014 World Series of Poker Player of the Year George Danzer, Europe’s #1 player in Ole Schemion, Marvin Rettenmaier, Philipp Gruissem and Christopher Frank taking to the felt. Even with its departures, France will rebound with Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, Patrick Bruel and Paul Tedeschi joining with Erwann Pecheux and former WSOP ‘November Niner’ Sylvain Loosli.
While not as well recognized as the four teams above, the remaining teams competing in the Global Poker Masters still bring the potential for pitfalls for the favorites. Team UK brings Sam Trickett, Oliver Price and Jack Salter to the battle, while Team Russia brings Vitaly Lunkin, Aleksey Bilokur and Vladimir Troyanovskiy to the festivities. Team Italy is represented by Dario Sammartino, Mustapha Kanit and Andrea Dato, while the #8 seed, Team Ukraine, has Eugene Katchalov and Oleksii Khoroshenin ready for the fight.
As with pretty much every activity in life nowadays, there is a betting line that has been laid down as to who will take the inaugural Global Poker Masters title. Even though they are the #3 seed in the tournament, Team Canada is considered the top choice in the tournament by Betfair, who has installed the players from the “Great White North” as a 5/4 prohibitive favorite. Team USA is in the second slot at 11/5, with Team Germany just behind them at 11/4. A good value bet might be Team UK, with their 13/2 odds, with Team Russia (7/1), Team Italy (9/1), Team France (little respect at 10/1) and Team Ukraine (12/1) rounding out the field.
Saturday’s play will feature every team in action over five rounds of playoffs, where players will earn points for their performance (all Global Poker Masters formats are No Limit Texas Hold’em). At the end of those playoffs, the points will be tabulated and the overall #1 team will advance immediately to the semifinal action on Sunday and the #8 team will be eliminated from the event. The six remaining teams will play off on Saturday in a seeded format (#2 versus #7, #3 versus #6 and #4 versus #5), with those winners moving to the semis on Sunday. The Sunday action will crown a champion. Two semi-final Sit and Gos will determine the two teams that go on to compete in a best 3-of-5 heads up match, with the team who first captures three heads up victories earning the Global Poker Masters championship.
The Global Poker Masters is set to be streamed live on Twitch beginning at 11:30AM tomorrow (6:30AM Eastern Daylight Time) with the first of two days of competition. It should prove to be an entertaining weekend of poker (and we’re not even counting in the EPT Malta Main Event, which begins on Sunday) and could mark a pivotal moment as GPI Chief Executive Officer Alexandre Dreyfus continues his efforts to ‘sportify’ poker.
