Global Poker League founder Alex Dreyfus announces a sixth player for each team during the Draft Order Selection Show, and Max Pescatori’s Rome Emperors are in the driver’s seat.
Remember when you were a kid. You were in the gym. You hated sports. The P.E teacher made you suffer the ignominy of standing with your back to the wall, knowing that you would get picked last for either team?
It’s started all over again.
Only this time we are adults.
The Global Poker League (GPL) Draft Order Selection Show aired live on the GPL’s Twitch stream at 7 pm (CET) Tuesday 16 February. The GPL team wrote the 12 franchise names onto pieces of paper, placed them into Kinder Eggs, and pulled them out one by one.
Everyone wanted to be picked first.
Nobody wanted to be picked last.
The person with the biggest smile on their face will be Max Pescatori. The multiple World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner, and team manager of the Rome Emperors, will get to choose any one of the 203 players who are available for the draft.
Is there a more obvious pick than Mustapha Kanit for the Rome Emperors. Not only was he a member of the Global Poker Masters (GPM) winning Italian team, but he has won close to $3.5m in the past nine months, including his recent success in the €25,000 European Poker Tour (EPT) High Roller in Dublin.
Dreyfus Springs a Surprise
Prior to the announcement of the draw, Dreyfus announced a change to the GPL format by adding a sixth team member, and changing the draft to a four round affair rather than the previously stated three round affair.
Team managers can select a fourth draft pick during the GPL Draft on Feb 25, or they can choose to keep their powder dry and instead announce three wild card selections.
But why the change?
I reached out to Dreyfus and this is what he had to say:
“We have been very lucky and honored by the amount of players that were keen to give a shot to GPL. It shows that there is a real appetite for that kind of initiative and they believe is trying to make it work. We realised that having as much quality players and not being able to make them play would be a waste. So we ask the managers, we and the best move was to add a player per team. It’s an unexpected investment for us, as we have to increase prize pool to keep same level of course, and more players to pay, but it worth it. ”
Here is the order of picks when the action commences live from the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Friday 25th February.
GPL Draft Round One & Three
1. Rome Emperors
2. Montreal Nationals
3. New York Rounders
4. San Francisco Rush
5. Las Vegas Moneymakers
6. Sao Paulo Metropolitans
7. London Royals
8. Moscow Wolverines
9. LA Sunset
10. Berlin Bears
11. Paris Aviators
12. Hong Kong Stars
GPL Draft Round Two & Four
1. Hong Kong Stars
2. Paris Aviators
3. Berlin Bears
4. LA Sunset
5. Moscow Wolverines
6. London Royals
7. Sao Paulo Metropolitans
8. Las Vegas Moneymakers
9. San Francisco Rush
10. New York Rounders
11. Montreal Nationals
12. Rome Emperors
