The GPL Draft Day brought plenty of excitement, the team managers put together some very impressive lineups filled with stars of the game. The 1/1 draft was Mustapha Kanit, followed by Mike ”Timex” McDonald and Jason Mercier.
The Global Poker League draft took place on February 25 at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills together with the American Poker Awards.
Max Pescatori, captain of the Rome Emperors team had the first pick in the draft, he was followed by Marc-Andre Ladouceur (Montreal Nationals), Bryn Kenney (New York Rounders), Faraz Jaka (San Francisco Rush), Chris Moneymaker (Las Vegas Moneymakers), Andre Akkari (Sao Paulo Metropolitans), Liv Boeree (London Royals), Anatoly Filatov (Moscow Wolverines), Maria Ho (Los Angeles Sunset), Philipp Gruissem (Berlin Bears), Fabrice Soulier (Paris Aviators) and Celina Lin (Hong Kong Stars).
Pescatori chose fellow Italian pro Mustapha ”lasagnammm” Kanit to kick off the draft. Kanit is one of the most accomplished players in the past few years, he has fantastic results both live and online.
Ladouceur was the next one to pick, he choose Mike ”Timex” McDonald and the picks continued as follows:
Kenney – Jason Mercier
Jaka – Phil Galfond
Moneymaker – Anthony Zinno
Akkari – Darren Elias
Boeree – Igor Kurganov
Filatov – Dzmitry Urbanovich
Ho – Fedor Holz
Gruissem – Brian Rast
Soulier – Bertrand ”ElkY” Grospellier
Lin – Weiyi Zhang
Second round
Lin – Raiden Kan
Soulier – Davidi Kitai
Gruissem – Sorel Mizzi
Ho – Olivier Busquet
Filatov – Vladimir Troyanovsky
Boeree – Vanessa Selbst
Akkari – Byron Kaverman
Moneymaker – Jonathan Duhamel
Jaka – Anthony Gregg
Kenney – Tom Marchese
Ladouceur – Martin Jacobson
Pescatori – Dario Sammartino
After two more rounds the following teams were assembled:
Rome Emperors: Mustapha Kanit, Dario Sammartino, Timothy Adams, Walter Treccarichi
Montreal Nationals: Mike "Timex" McDonald, Martin Jacobson, Pascal LeFrancois, Xuan Liu
New York Rounders: Jason Mercier, Tom Marchese, Kevin MacPhee, Jason Wheeler
San Francisco Rush: Phil Galfond, Anthony Gregg, Kitty Kuo, Anton Wigg
Las Vegas Moneymakers: Anthony Zinno, Jonathan Duhamel, Jake Cody, Jonathan Little
Sao Paulo Metropolitans: Darren Elias, Byron Kaverman, Thiago Nishijima, Joao Pires Simao
London Royals: Igor Kurganov, Vabessa Selbst, Chris Moorman, Justin Bonomo
Moscow Wolverines: Dzmitry Urbanovich, Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Andrey Pateychuk, Sergey Lebedev
Los Angeles Sunset: Fedor Holz, Olivier Busquet, Eugene Katchalov, Chance Kornuth
Berlin Bears: Brian Rast, Sorel Mizzi, Dominik Nitsche, Jeff Gross
Paris Aviators: Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Davidi Kitai, George Danzer, Mike Leah
Hong Kong Stars: Weiyi Zhang, Raiden Kan, Dong Guo, Bryan Huang
Most teams have a very accomplished and experienced lineup, the only exception is Hong Kong Stars, in this team all members have less than $1 million in live tournament winnings.
Team managers can choose two more wild card players to fill the spots on the team. Which team has the best chance to win the GPL? Tell us your opinion in the comments section.
