"Sportifying" Poker: Global poker league

[rfgqqabc]

Can we get HSP back?

[AlexMartin]

Can we get HSP back?

yes!

and the annie duke/cloutier comment is so bangon

[AlunB]

I'm about the biggest naysayer of this you will find, but to be honest I think it's got a chance. I think it's totally wrong for poker and massively at odds with where online poker is trying to go but at least he's trying to do something innovative with the game. Not many others are.

That said this will be ALL about the execution. And there are so many really difficult hurdles they need to overcome to make it work. I just can't see it happening. Maybe if he focused more on cash games than SNGs or made it more online and more like esports with those teams.

Meh. Good luck to him though.

[TightEnd]

The inaugural Global Poker Masters, deemed poker’s World Cup, will take place on March 21 and 22 during the EPT Malta Festival. The two-day event will feature most of the game’s best players with national pride on the line. It will not conflict with the EPT Malta Main Event as participants will be able to play Day 1B of the Main once the GPM competition will be completed. Eight countries will participate in the Global Poker Masters with each team consisting of five players.

Although the event format has yet to be officially announced, Day 1 will feature a mixed tournament format where participants will compete against players from each other country in a series of single table tournaments. Players will accumulate points for their countries throughout the day. The team with the least amount of points following Day 1 play will be eliminated from the competition.

Day 2 will begin with players continuing to battle for points in heads-up matches. The bottom team will once again be eliminated leading to a six-nation final table for worldwide bragging rights.

“GPI’s is to Sportify the game of poker and the presentation of this innovative event will go a long way towards accomplishing that goal” revealed Global Poker Index Chief Executive Officer Alexandre Dreyfus. “There is no buy-in for the event, we want to create an international competition where players are playing for pride, country and for the love of the game in hopes to showcase the game’s best. Through the GPI, it will create a solid platform for poker to be promoted through new distribution channels and mainstream partners.”

Dreyfus continues: “With the GPI’s association with Swiss watchmaker Roger Dubuis, who will reward GPI Players of the Year in three regions with unique timepieces worth over $50,000, we hope to continue attracting major sponsors in hopes of creating a true “World Cup of Poker” in the coming years.”
QUALIFYING NATIONS

The eight qualifying nations were determined by calculating the number of players ranked in the GPI300 for each country as of December 31, 2014.

While Team USA was the overwhelming #1 nation, a three-way tie between Argentina, Denmark and the Ukraine required a tie-breaker to determine the final team that would be included in the field. In order to break the tie, we calculated the total number of GPI300 points accumulated by the Top 5 players in each country. Lead by Eugene Katchalov, the Ukraine won the tie-breaker and will be part of the eight-nation field:

#1 Team USA: 140 players in GPI300 (46.67%)
#2 Team UK: 25 players in GPI300 (8.33%)
#3 Team Germany: 18 players in GPI300 (6%)
#4 Team Canada: 17 players in GPI300 (5.67%)
#5 Team Russia: 16 players in GPI300 (5.33%)
#6 Team France: 7 players in GPI300 (2.33%)
#7 Team Italy: 6 players in GPI300 (2%)
#8 Team Ukraine: 5 players in GPI300 (1.67%)
NATIONAL TEAM ROSTERS

A total of 40 players will qualify for the Global Poker Masters. Each nation will be represented by five players: the 2014 National Player of the Year, the nation’s Top 3 ranked players on the GPI World Poker Rankings and a wildcard. Criteria for each team’s wildcard will be announced shortly.

Here is a look at each country’s first four qualifiers:

TEAM USA  USA flag

Dan Smith (GPI#2)
Daniel Colman (GPI#5, National Player of the Year)
Pratyush Buddiga (GPI#6)
Jacob Schindler (GPI#7)

TEAM UNITED KINGDOM  UK flag

Stephen Chidwick (GPI#11)
Jack Salter (GPI#29)
Simon Deadman (GPI#34)
Oliver Price (GPI#36, National Player of the Year)

TEAM GERMANY  GER flag

Ole Schemion (GPI#1, National Player of the Year)
Marvin Rettenmaier (GPI#25)
Martin Finger (GPI#46)
George Danzer (GPI#48)

TEAM CANADA  CAN flag

Ami Barer (GPI#4, National Player of the Year)
Sorel Mizzi (GPI#13)
Mike McDonald (GPI#16)
Andrew Chen (GPI#21)

TEAM RUSSIA  RUS flag

Anatoly Filatov (GPI#32, National Player of the Year)
Vladimir Troyanovskiy (GPI#55)
Ivan Soshnikov (GPI#63)
Vitaly Lunkin (GPI#77)

TEAM FRANCE  FRA flag

Erwann Pecheux (GPI#59, National Player of the Year)
Benjamin Pollak (GPI#61)
Sylvain Loosli (GPI#155)
Fabrice Soulier (GPI#174)

TEAM ITALY  ITA flag

Dario Sammartino (GPI#17)
Mustapha Kanit (GPI#41, National Player of the Year)
Andrea Dato (GPI#54)
Giuliano Bendinelli (GPI#170)

TEAM UKRAINE  UKR flag

Eugene Katchalov (GPI#53, National Player of the Year)
Oleksandr Gnatenko (GPI#207)
Artem Metalidi (GPI#218)
Oleksii Khoroshenin (GPI#283)

http://www.globalpokerindex.com/list-of-initial-players-countries-qualified-for-global-poker-masters-2015-revealed/

[Woodsey]

Team poker is such a load of nomsense.

[AndrewT]

A poker World Cup with no Scandinavians? #notsureifserious

[TightEnd]

what do you think about this now it is about to launch?

http://www.globalpokerleague.com/

lots of innovative stuff

a draft

"The full Global Poker League consists of 12 franchise teams from all around the world. Connected to cities with teams expected to hail from New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Toronto, Sao Paolo, London, Paris, Prague, Barcelona, Moscow and Hong Kong. Teams will be decided announced between November 1st, 2015 & January 20th, 2016."

eg gameplay

"to make the game more engaging & help break Poker’s status quo GPI will highlight a number of new additions to live and online play:

• Live heads up and 6 player matches with time limitations via 30 to 45 minute “action clocks” counting down during each player’s turn (think: the same dynamic as chess clocks during speed chess).

• Players playing standing up rather than seated live in the studio and in The Cube™ to give viewers a new perspective on players emotions, expressions and competitive fight.

• Hybrid digital/ live competition on tables with digital cards and real RFID enabled chips to quicken live play by 4 times compared to conventional live poker gameplay.

• Online matches held on a proprietary poker platform built from the ground up to offer the most inclusive, engaging fan experience and allow room for constant improvement. "

pique any interest or not?

[DMorgan]

If it does everything that it says it can do and the online streaming platform is slick it'll get tons of interest I reckon

[AndrewT]

It sounds good, but at this stage it's all a bit too reminiscent of this:



...and we all remember how that turned out.

Also, the head guy is currently doing a sterling bit of PR work on Twitter by saying that all players have to stand up whilst playing, even when the question of wheelchair users was raised - sorry Ironside, you can't play.

[AndrewT]

This does all sound very ambitious - have they hired Wembley Stadium yet?

Ah, I've made the same comment before.

[DMorgan]

Also, the head guy is currently doing a sterling bit of PR work on Twitter by saying that all players have to stand up whilst playing, even when the question of wheelchair users was raised - sorry Ironside, you can't play.

I haven't read the Twitter talk but isn't it fair enough to use a 'we'll cross that bridge when/if we come to it' approach? Only 1000 people are eligible to play and of those only 60 will actually participate.

[rfgqqabc]

I was thinking about the action clock idea for online mtts. It might be too much of a change at this point though.