In this episode of Chats with Tats, poker pro Marc Ladouceur recounts his GPI Poker Masters experience with CalvinAyre.com’s Tatjana Pasalic.
If football has World Cup, poker has the Global Poker Index Poker Masters.
Early this year, 40 of the world’s best poker players gathered in Malta to play in a “World Cup-ish” competition—the first of its kind in the industry. Marc Ladouceur, who joined Team France, found the competition “really cool.”
“I come from a sports background. I think having a World Cup-ish competition is really cool,” Ladouceur told CalvinAyre.com. “I guess, representing your country—if you follow a bunch of sports like me—it means a lot to you. I thought it was great. I thought it went well.”
The poker pros who competed in the GPI Poker Masters played in the competition without any buy-in, which Ladouceur said wasn’t an inconvenience at all—despite what other people thought—since the players were already in Malta for the European Poker Tour.
“I think it was a day or two before the [EPT] main event… It wasn’t nearly as much of, I guess, an inconvenience as people would think. We’re actually there for the EPT anyway,” he noted.
The GPI Poker Masters was an event of many firsts for Ladouceur, including his first experience of team play in poker.
“That was my first experience of any team play whatsoever in poker, so it’s fun,” Ladouceur said. “I’d gladly play again if it was happening again.”
