Carrying over their strong play from Day 1 of the event, Team Italy stunned the crowd in attendance in Malta in taking down the inaugural Global Poker Masters championship.
With Team USA on the sidelines holding a bye to the semi-finals and Team United Kingdom sitting on the rail following their less-than stellar showing in finishing eighth, the six other teams squared off in a series of heads-up quarterfinal matches. The teams lined up as such for these very intriguing matchups:
Team Germany vs. Team Canada
Ole Schemion vs. Andrew Chen
Marvin Rettenmaier vs. Marc-Andre Ladouceur
George Danzer vs. Jonathan Duhamel
Team Italy vs. Team Ukraine
Giuliano Bendinelli vs. Igor Yaroshevsky
Andrea Dato vs. Oleksandr Gnatenko
Dario Sammartino vs. Eugene Katchalov
Team Russia vs. Team France
Ivan Soshnikob vs. Bertrand Grospellier
Vladimir Troyanovskiy vs. Sylvain Loosli
Anatoly Filatov vs. Paul Tedeschi
As the three lower seeded squads, Canada, France and Ukraine had their work cut out for them if they were to drive deep in the Global Poker Masters. After both Duhamel and Chen were knocked out of their matches, it was left to Ladouceur to carry the water for Team Canada and hope that Team France couldn’t mount a charge. Ladouceur defeated Rettenmaier to hold up his end and, after the trio of French players couldn’t put together one win between them, Team France was eliminated in seventh place and the semi-finals of the Global Poker Masters were set.
After enjoying their bye, Team USA (118K) now returned to the fray with a slim 7000 chip lead over Team Russia (111K). Team Germany was still heavily in the mix with 101K in chips, while Team Ukraine (84K), Team Italy (79K) and Team Canada (60K) took up the other seats at the table. Under the rules of the semi-finals, each team would seat one player at the table and, at the completion of a level, have the option to replace the player with another team member. The match would continue until there were two countries remaining.
Team Russia came out of the gate fast, taking only nine hands to snag the lead away from Team USA. That didn’t set well with Team USA as, only a couple of hands later, Isaac Haxton bluffed Yaroshevsky off of a pair of Kings on the river to retake the lead. A few hands later, Team USA would complete the knockout of Team Ukraine when, after Ukraine swapped in Gnatenko and the USA put in Dan Smith, Gnatenko’s flopped set of sevens were caught by a rivered set of Kings from Smith.
Team USA kept the momentum going in eliminating the next team. Smith was again responsible for the knockout when, holding pocket sevens, Ami Barer pushed Big Slick that failed to come home. In sending Team Canada out in fifth place, Team USA now held half of the chips in play and looked to be running away with the tournament.
Just as quickly as they ascended, the fall would come for Team USA. After Team Italy eliminated Team Germany in back-to-back hands, Team USA, Team Russia and Team Italy were sitting nearly even in chips. In what would prove to be a stunning occurrence, two of those teams would clash in what would be a deciding hand.
After seeing Italy’s Sammartino raise, the USA’s Smith would three-bet the action and Sammartino fired back with a four-bet. Smith now took a time out but, because his playing partner (Haxton) had left the playing floor, he had no one to consult with on the decision (a unique rule in the Global Poker Masters format). With the clock ticking, Smith moved all in and Sammartino called, showing pocket Aces over Smith’s pocket sevens. An uneventful board would give the hand to Team Italy and, only five hands later, Team USA would be eliminated in third place.
Now holding a massive lead, Team Italy made short work of Team Russia. Needing to win three of the five heads-up matches that ran concurrently, Team Italy captured the Global Poker Masters after Mustapha Kanit defeated Troyanovskiy for the complete sweep, 3-0.
1. Team Italy
2. Team Russia
3. Team USA
4. Team Germany
5. Team Canada
6. Team Ukraine
7.Team France
8. Team UK (eliminated on Day 1)
Congratulations to Team Italy for capturing the first-ever Global Poker Masters championship! Congratulations must also be extended to the Global Poker Index, its leader Alexandre Dreyfus and the team compiled by the GPI for putting on what proved to be an outstanding tournament.
