Nationals, Wolverines Open Some Space Heading to Final Week of GPL Season’s First Half

Week 7 of the Global Poker League has concluded and, with one more week before the teams take a slight pause before heading to Las Vegas for the “Summer Series” and the 2016 World Series of Poker, two teams have opened up some space from the rest of the competition in their conferences.

In the GPL Eurasia, the Moscow Wolverines were sitting comfortably atop the standings after a dominant Week 6 performance. Just as easily as it was established, however, that 14-point edge over the Paris Aviators disappeared over three days of play. It started with the less-than stellar play of Igor Yaroshevsky in the Six Max action on Tuesday, where Yaroshevsky could only pull in two points between the two matches. The situation didn’t get any better in their heads up match, where the Wolverines’ Andrey Pateychuk could only manage to pick up three points against the Hong Kong Stars’ Weiyi Zhang on Wednesday. By picking up only five points, the Wolverines opened the door for the rest of the GPL Eurasia to close in on them.

Taking most advantage of the Wolverines’ tough week was the London Royals. Tied with the Aviators in second place a week earlier, the Royals were able to chip out 11 points for the week, eight courtesy of Chris Moorman in the Six Max sit and gos and three more from Igor Kurganov after his loss to the Rome Emperors’ Dario Sammartino in their heads up fight. The 11 points the Royals picked up were one point more than Aviators earned over the week, putting the two teams right on the heels of the Wolverines with one week to go before the WSOP break.

After Week 7, here’s how the GPL Eurasia is lining up:

There’s a new sheriff in town when it comes to the GPL Americas after several weeks of dominance by the former leader. For some time, the New York Rounders have been able to withstand the assault of several of the other members of the conference and remained atop the mountain. Week 7, however, proved to be a bit of an undoing for the Rounders as they dropped from first place for the first time in the month of May.

Week 7 got off to a tough start when the brother of Rounders manager Bryn Kenney, Tyler, could only muster two points during the Six Max sit and go action on Tuesday afternoon. Kenney’s teammate Jason Wheeler picked up some slack when he was able to defeat the Las Vegas Moneymakers’ Jake Cody, 6-3, in their heads up match on Thursday, but some of the other squads in the GPL Americas pounced on the weak week for the Rounders overall. In fact, one team pounced so well they were able to take over first place.

The new leader in the GPL Americas is the Montreal Nationals, led by the outstanding performance of Mike McDonald in the Six Max on Tuesday. In the two sit and gos, ‘Timex’ earned a first and a second place performance for a total of 12 points (out of a possible 14). Although his teammate Pascal Lefrancois lost his heads up match to the San Francisco Rush’s Jonathan Jaffe 6-3, the 15 points the Nationals collected pushed them to the fore in the GPL Americas by a healthy margin.

With Week 7 now tallied, here’s how the GPL Americas looks:

Week 8 will be the final week of the first half of the inaugural GPL season, starting off with its usual quartet of Six Max sit and gos – two for the GPL Eurasia and GPL Americas. Wednesday’s heads up battles for the GPL Eurasia feature a battle between the Royals and the Wolverines that may very well be for the conference leadership, while Thursday’s heads up matches will feature the marquee pairing of the Sunset and the Rounders as they try to catch the Nationals. It will lead to the “Summer Series” that begins in Las Vegas on June 6, featuring live action between the 12 teams in the league.