Mustapha-Kanit

February 2016: The Global Poker League (GPL) held its inaugural draft in California recently, commencing the first ever international poker league of its kind. It is the brainchild of Alex Dreyfus, CEO of Mediarex Sports, who wanted to “sportify poker” and create an entirely new, global image of the game.

Unlike the usual poker games where individual players battle it out, the GPL will have 12 teams that will compete with each other in a whole format. The teams will have players from all over the world facing each other in a never-before-seen cube stadium. The GPL will have three ‘arenas’ – online, in studio and live. Each of these will have different variations of No Limit Hold’em and a player clock for quick play.

Mustapha Kanit was the first player to get picked in this snake draft by team Rome Emperors. He has won over $5.5 million in live poker earnings and over $4 million in online poker. This Italian-origin guy is currently one of the most popular players in the poker circuit.

Mike McDonald was the second to be picked, by the Montreal Nationals. McDonald has won over $13 million in live poker earnings, and is cited to be one of the best young poker players in the world.

The New York Rounders picked Jason Mercier, the third pick of the draft. Mercier has over $16 million in online poker winnings, and is considered to be one of the best all-round players in the world. He has also won 3 WSOP bracelets.

Anthony Zinno was picked fourth, by the Las Vegas Moneymakers. He is the second poker player to ever win two WSOP main events back-to-back. Plus, he is also considered as the best dressed player owing to the sophisticated suits that he wears to all main poker tournaments.

Here’s a look at the final teams –

Rome Emperors — Max Pescatori

PickPlayer
1Mustapha Kanit
2Dario Sammartino
3Timothy Adams
4Walter Treccarichi

 

Montreal Nationals — Marc-Andre Ladouceur

PickPlayer
1Mike McDonald
2Martin Jacobson
3Pascal LeFrancois
4Xuan Liu

 

 

 

New York Rounders — Bryn Kenney

PickPlayer
1Jason Mercier
2Tom Marchese
3Kevin MacPhee
4Jason Wheeler

 

San Francisco Rush — Faraz Jaka

PickPlayer
1Phil Galfond
2Tony Gregg
3Kitty Kuo
4Anton Wigg

 

Las Vegas Moneymakers — Chris Moneymaker

PickPlayer
1Anthony Zinno
2Jonathan Duhamel
3Jake Cody
4Jonathan Little

 

Sao Paulo Metropolitans — Andre Akkari

PickPlayer
1Darren Elias
2Byron Kaverman
3Thiago Nishijima
4Joao Pires Simao

 

London Royals — Liv Boeree

PickPlayer
1Igor Kurganov
2Vanessa Selbst
3Chris Moorman
4Justin Bonomo

 

Moscow Wolverines — Anatoly Filatov

PickPlayer
1Dzmitry Urbanovich
2Vladimir Troyanovskiy
3Andrey Pateychuk
4Sergey Lebedev

 

LA Sunset — Maria Ho

PickPlayer
1Fedor Holz
2Olivier Busquet
3Eugene Katchalov
4Chance Kornuth

 

Berlin Bears — Philipp Gruissem

PickPlayer
1Brian Rast
2Sorel Mizzi
3Dominik Nitsche
4Jeff Gross

 

Paris Aviators — Fabrice Soulier

PickPlayer
1Bertrand Grospellier
2Davidi Kitai
3George Danzer
4Mike Leah

 

Hong Kong Stars — Celina Lin

PickPlayer
1Weiyi Zhang
2Raiden Kan
3Dong Guo
4Bryan Huang