The Global Poker League saw its presence elevated throughout sports media this past week after several high-profile team members secured significant wins; founder Alex Dreyfus announces April launch date, and USA Today unveils their poker platform.
I doubt think any player currently sponsored by an online poker room will have the need to win poker tournaments engraved into their roles and responsibility statements.
It’s nice. A big win indeed provides some additional coverage for their employers, but it’s not the end of the world. There are so many more platforms for the large online poker rooms to get their message out there. I think things are going to be very different for the players involved in the Global Poker League (GPL).
This week, we have seen GPL team members, and their managers, achieve outstanding results on the felt. Suddenly, each player is mentioned as a star of their associated team, and that team gets a mention in the poker press and beyond.
Take Jason Wheeler as an example. I love Jason and regularly go to him for a source to colour my articles. He is a top player, but in my opinion, his $323,236 victory in the $1,675 World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Main Event in Bally’s Las Vegas, wouldn’t have received as much coverage had he not been a member of the New York Rounders.
Wheeler wasn’t the only member of the New York Rounders to create waves this week. His boss Bryn Kenney, already confirmed as one of the wildcard entries, picked up $422,400 after winning one of the $25,000 High Roller’s at Aria, and teammate Tom Marchese also picked up a win in one of those events for $369,410.
Igor Kurganov of the London Royals also secured a win this week. The Raising for Effective Giving (REG) co-founder won the $99,899 first prize for topping the field in the $3,250 WSOPC High Roller in Bally’s. Mustapha Kanit, the first person, picked in the GPL Draft when the Rome Emperors signed him, won the PokerStars Sunday Supersonic for $47,999.89.
Until the GPL grows into the behemoth that it can be, the players will have to step up and step up they are.
The Action Begins on April 5
The stars will get to shine even brighter when the action begins on April 5. Alex Dreyfus announced the news via Twitter. The first round will play out online. I reached out to Dreyfus to get some more information, but he was tight-lipped about this one.
The Global Poker League @GPL will start April 5th its first series of online matches. Stay tuned for full schedule. pic.twitter.com/qEPcWq7ycG
— Alexandre Dreyfus (@alex_dreyfus) March 9, 2016
USA Today Roll Out Poker Column; SportingNews Also Lending Column Space
It’s not often that a mugshot of Bryn Kenney gets to share computer screen space with Maria Sharapova, but that’s what’s happening today as sportingnews.com features Kenney’s New York Rounders on the sports web page.
It wasn’t the only mainstream sports site to cover poker. USA Today has finally launched their poker column, and I have to say it looks pretty impressive. Jennifer Newell, Steve Ruddock and Kevin Taylor doing their very best to shove the world of poker underneath the noses of NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB fans.
