Over the past several days, more and more details have been revealed about the first-ever Global Poker League (GPL). Alexandre Dreyfus is the man behind the new endeavor that aims at sportifying the game of poker for its further growth and popularization.
The names of the twelve teams to take part in the league as well as their managers were announced earlier this week. Generally speaking, the GPL will be split in two separate conferences – EurAsia and Americas. Each conference will be composed of six teams from six different cities. The teams in the Americas Conference will be from Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Montreal, New York, San Francisco, and Sao Paolo. The EurAsia Conference will include teams from Berlin, Hong Kong, London, Moscow, Paris, and Rome.
And here are the twelve teams and their managers:
Americas Conference
Las Vegas MoneyMakers – Chris Moneymaker
Los Angeles Sunset – Maria Ho
Montreal Nationals – Marc-Andre Ladouceur
New York Rounders – Bryn Kenney
San Francisco Rush – Faraz Jaka
Sao Paulo Metropolitans – André Akkari
EurAsia Conference
Berlin Bears – Philipp Gruissem
Hong Kong Stars – Celina Lin
London Royals – Liv Boeree
Moscow Wolverines – Anatoly Filatov
Paris Aviators – Fabrice Soulier
Rome Emperors – Max Pescatori
Commenting on the choice of team managers, Mr. Dreyfus said that they have appointed people who will be “the soul, the spirit, the color” of each franchise. He further explained that all managers are players who are active not only at poker tables but also keen on supporting various initiatives outside the circuit.
The rest of the team members have not been determined yet. This is going to happen via a live draft scheduled to take place on February 25 at the SLS Hote in Beverley Hills. All twelve managers will have the chance to pick three poker professionals for their teams – one player per round. After the three rounds, a fifth player for each team will have to be selected. The “Wildcard” will, too, be determined by the managers.
The GPL Draft event will be hosted by poker presenter Kara Scott and will feature a panel of analysts, with poker pros Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth being the said analysts.
And it was announced on Friday that Poker Central, the world’s first and only 24/7 poker network, will be broadcasting live and recorded GPL matches. Those will air twice a week starting from April. Poker Central’s coverage of the GPL will also include pregame and postgame shows.
More details about the Global Poker League are expected to be announced in the weeks to come.
