Global Poker League Draft List Announced: 203 Players, More Than $550M in Earnings
With Draft Day of the first-ever Global Poker League (GPL) season just around the corner, Mediarex Entertainment has just released the official list of draftable players. The list consists of 203 players that the 12 franchise managers will be able to select from to get on their teams, and it's headed by Byron Kaverman, the 2015 GPI Player of the Year.
"The turnout for players signing up for the GPL Draft was much more than we expected, and I see that as a sign of hope," Mediarex CEO Alex Dreyfus told PokerNews. "When players unite, they can make a real impact on the growth of poker. We're happy to try and provide a foundation to make that happen."
33 Countries, More Than $500 Million in Combined Winnings Represented
Each GPL franchise will include five players, three of which will be drafted during GPL Draft Day from those who opted in to be draft eligible from the top 1,000 GPI-ranked players. The other two players left will be selected as "wild cards."
In order to be draft eligible, players in the top 1,000 of the GPI needed to confirm their availability to join the league. While a handful of big names decided the GPL and The Cube were not in their immediate future, as you can see by the gaps in the list, an impressive number of pros and legends of the game checked the "yes" box to give themselves the chance to be part of a project that aims to bring poker to a new level.
With combined live tournament winnings for an astonishing $562,834,964, the 203 players in the list hail from a total of 33 countries. While the delegation from the United States accounts for nearly half of the total field, the list of draft-eligible players includes names from every corner of the world, including Brazil, China, Canada, Russia, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
Who Are the 203 Players?
While the list does not include the names of poker superstars Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth — as they will be busy hosting the GPL's Draft Day alongside Kara Scott — we can see that an impressive number of top players decided to opt in.
One that is on the list and is likely to end up in one of the 12 teams is Antonio Esfandiari. Sitting second on US all-time money list with live tournament earnings for more than $26 million, Esfandiari is not only a terrific player, but is also one that sure knows how to attract attention and engage the public — two things the league and league franchises will without a doubt need in the inaugural season.
Among the others that may be picked to join the 2016 GPL are big time players such as Jeff Madsen, Jonathan Duhamel, Jason Mercier, Brian Rast, Vanessa Selbst, and Kevin MacPhee.
While Esfandiari is the list's biggest winner in live tournament poker, Chris Moorman leads the troop in terms of online cashes, as according to PocketFives he's been able to put together online winnings for nearly $13 million. Also on the list are other great names of the game as Italy's Mustapha Kanit, winner of the first-ever Global Poker Masters with team Italy, Germany's Dominik Nitsche, Belgium's Davidi Kitai, and 2014 WSOP Main Event champion Martin Jacobson.
Here's the full list of the 203 draft-eligible players:
| Player | Nationality | GPI Rank | Live Earnings | Online Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Byron Kaverman | USA | 1 | $6,757,855 | -- |
| Anthony Zinno | USA | 3 | $5,337,383 | -- |
| Kevin MacPhee | USA | 5 | $5,424,937 | $7,118,382 |
| Jason Mercier | USA | 6 | $16,356,296 | $2,001,750 |
| Fedor Holz | GER | 9 | $7,549,491 | -- |
| Davidi Kitai | BEL | 10 | $6,757,706 | $448,657 |
| Dominik Nitsche | GER | 13 | $5,164,231 | $3,398,488 |
| Dzmitry Urbanovich | POL | 16 | $4,190,393 | -- |
| Mike McDonald | CAN | 18 | $12,949,811 | $2,940,067 |
| Jonathan Duhamel | CAN | 21 | $17,592,802 | -- |
| Thomas Marchese | USA | 24 | $12,404,012 | -- |
| Benjamin Pollak | FRA | 25 | $2,613,573 | $327,067 |
| Mustapha Kanit | ITA | 31 | $5,497,875 | $4,203,118 |
| Sam Greenwood | CAN | 33 | $2,798,230 | $3,653,541 |
| Igor Yaroshevskyy | UKR | 34 | $1,695,666 | -- |
| Darren Elias | USA | 35 | $3,505,319 | $3,646,815 |
| Jason Wheeler | USA | 36 | $2,298,881 | -- |
| Brian Rast | USA | 38 | $16,313,290 | -- |
| Dario Sammartino | ITA | 39 | $3,251,024 | -- |
| Niall Farrell | SCO | 41 | $1,939,694 | $2,456,781 |
| Vladimir Troyanovskiy | RUS | 42 | $4,199,228 | -- |
| Scott Clements | USA | 44 | $6,975,297 | $3,717,126 |
| Ankush Mandavia | USA | 45 | $2,316,280 | $2,773,923 |
| Mike Leah | CAN | 48 | $5,040,388 | $2,762,255 |
| Jared Jaffee | USA | 49 | $2,730,423 | -- |
| Ismael Bojang | AUT | 51 | $1,870,754 | -- |
| Hans Winzeler | USA | 53 | $2,009,527 | -- |
| [Removed:17] | NZL | 57 | $1,580,140 | $829,705 |
| Shannon Shorr | USA | 59 | $6,052,301 | -- |
| Michael Wang | USA | 66 | $1,433,921 | $1,001,503 |
| Andrew Chen | CAN | 67 | $4,652,583 | $1,993,787 |
| Mohsin Charania | USA | 71 | $4,724,869 | -- |
| Jeremy Ausmus | USA | 75 | $4,788,806 | -- |
| Sylvain Loosli | FRA | 76 | $4,857,533 | -- |
| Samuel Chartier | CAN | 77 | $2,455,530 | -- |
| Jeff Madsen | USA | 80 | $5,147,837 | -- |
| Brian Yoon | USA | 81 | $2,788,075 | -- |
| Scott Davies | USA | 86 | $1,536,893 | -- |
| Nipun Java | IND | 87 | $1,654,477 | -- |
| Justin Bonomo | USA | 88 | $9,690,053 | -- |
| Vladimir Dobrovolskiy | RUS | 90 | $803,830 | -- |
| Christian Harder | USA | 99 | $3,616,452 | $3,239,083 |
| Kiryl Radzivonau | BLR | 103 | $1,534,334 | $868,103 |
| Jonathan Little | USA | 106 | $6,257,741 | $1,053,162 |
| Sorel Mizzi | CAN | 110 | $11,148,823 | -- |
| Govert Metaal | NED | 115 | $2,117,699 | -- |
| Andrey Pateychuk | RUS | 116 | $2,873,717 | -- |
| Ben Yu | USA | 121 | $1,582,932 | $42,575 |
| Matthew Glantz | USA | 133 | $6,021,692 | -- |
| Igor Kurganov | RUS | 137 | $10,218,893 | -- |
| Jussi Nevanlinna | FIN | 140 | $1,843,978 | -- |
| Ricardo Alvarado | USA | 143 | $434,651 | -- |
| Oliver Price | ENG | 145 | $1,465,232 | -- |
| Upeshka De Silva | USA | 149 | $1,010,803 | -- |
| Aaron Mermelstein | USA | 150 | $1,326,382 | -- |
| Dylan Wilkerson | USA | 151 | $1,791,157 | -- |
| Sam Stein | USA | 153 | $4,601,497 | $1,611,926 |
| Jake Schwartz | USA | 154 | $985,822 | -- |
| Erwann Pecheux | FRA | 155 | $1,169,511 | -- |
| Allen Kessler | USA | 163 | $3,229,616 | -- |
| Aleksandr Gofman | RUS | 169 | $873,576 | -- |
| Justin Young | USA | 172 | $3,651,893 | -- |
| Max Silver | USA | 175 | $2,358,622 | -- |
| Alex Rocha | USA | 186 | $763,079 | -- |
| Jose Carlos Garcia | POL | 189 | $1,183,077 | $1,973,897 |
| Bertrand Grospellier | FRA | 192 | $10,922,427 | -- |
| Jeffrey Gross | USA | 193 | $2,450,671 | $522,393 |
| David Baker | USA | 197 | $3,767,257 | -- |
| Christopher DeMaci | USA | 198 | $2,026,257 | -- |
| Justin Liberto | USA | 204 | $1,833,347 | $147,690 |
| George Danzer | GER | 205 | $2,249,980 | -- |
| Rep Porter | USA | 206 | $2,900,670 | -- |
| Dani Stern | USA | 210 | $2,733,207 | $1,763,804 |
| David Vamplew | SCO | 215 | $3,599,940 | $1,970,537 |
| Justin Oliver | USA | 216 | $911,087 | -- |
| Raiden Kan | HKG | 220 | $866,303 | -- |
| Javier Zarco | ESP | 223 | $1,204,811 | -- |
| Chance Kornuth | USA | 228 | $3,241,176 | $1,762,732 |
| Noah Bronstein | USA | 230 | $526,940 | -- |
| Timothy Reilly | USA | 232 | $821,795 | $1,171,445 |
| Christopher Tryba | USA | 235 | $1,655,716 | -- |
| Iliodoros Kamatakis | GRE | 239 | $623,682 | -- |
| Walter Treccarichi | ITA | 249 | $819,052 | -- |
| Thomas Butzhammer | GER | 250 | $1,124,432 | -- |
| Tobias Peters | NED | 256 | $851,826 | -- |
| Chris Hunichen | USA | 264 | $1,201,785 | $8,136,397 |
| Iaron Lightbourne | ENG | 266 | $1,208,280 | -- |
| Benjamin Keeline | USA | 268 | $562,337 | -- |
| Leo Wolpert | USA | 272 | $1,631,600 | $992,529 |
| Martin Jacobson | SWE | 273 | $15,045,724 | -- |
| Matthew Salsberg | CAN | 277 | $1,948,129 | -- |
| Joseph Ebanks | USA | 278 | $3,107,576 | -- |
| John Holley | USA | 279 | $1,391,384 | -- |
| Scott Baumstein | USA | 281 | $1,477,398 | -- |
| David Paredes | USA | 309 | $2,270,126 | -- |
| Felix Bleiker | SWI | 291 | $545,508 | -- |
| Michael Laake | USA | 293 | $704,645 | -- |
| Diogo Cardoso | POR | 294 | $532,175 | -- |
| Joseph Couden | USA | 295 | $1,090,210 | -- |
| Jordan Cristos | USA | 297 | $613,355 | $1,064,411 |
| David Tuthill | ENG | 300 | $1,448,234 | -- |
| Seth Berger | USA | 301 | $1,005,125 | -- |
| Jonathan Karamalikis | AUS | 304 | $2,567,014 | $5,812,977 |
| Isaac Baron | USA | 305 | $5,364,815 | -- |
| Anton Wigg | SWE | 306 | $1,995,352 | $6,178,797 |
| Kitty Kuo | TAI | 308 | $1,091,426 | -- |
| Noah Schwartz | USA | 316 | $5,264,152 | $780,358 |
| Eugene Katchalov | UKR | 317 | $8,669,109 | -- |
| Yung Hwang | USA | 319 | $1,731,468 | -- |
| Vanessa Selbst | USA | 321 | $11,728,256 | -- |
| Ryan Van Sanford | USA | 323 | $840,175 | -- |
| Chad Eveslage | USA | 325 | $667,597 | $3,304,103 |
| Matthew Affleck | USA | 333 | $1,782,928 | -- |
| Manig Loeser | GER | 337 | $1,563,516 | -- |
| Darren Rabinowitz | USA | 340 | $1,164,160 | $87,935 |
| Kelly Minkin | USA | 342 | $779,519 | -- |
| Natasha Barbour | CAN | 347 | $688,855 | -- |
| Christopher Klodnicki | USA | 353 | $8,286,614 | -- |
| Rocco Palumbo | ITA | 354 | $1,693,398 | $3,373,454 |
| Timothy Adams | CAN | 355 | $2,546,978 | $1,403,178 |
| Iacopo Brandi | ITA | 356 | $337,148 | -- |
| Xuan Liu | CAN | 359 | $1,649,190 | -- |
| Mike Gorodinsky | USA | 361 | $2,616,750 | -- |
| Konstantin Puchkov | RUS | 362 | $2,364,898 | -- |
| Jake Cody | ENG | 363 | $4,132,822 | $697,494 |
| Dong Guo | CHN | 372 | $554,374 | -- |
| Daniel Weinman | USA | 373 | $1,211,132 | -- |
| Thiago Nishijima | BRA | 374 | $1,784,213 | -- |
| Bryan Paris | USA | 380 | $705,804 | -- |
| Nick Pupillo | USA | 381 | $635,441 | -- |
| Justin Schwartz | USA | 384 | $1,123,924 | $3,042 |
| Jason Les | USA | 403 | $1,029,967 | -- |
| Antonio Buonanno | ITA | 405 | $2,345,771 | -- |
| Adam Owen | UK | 408 | $305,147 | -- |
| Andrea Dato | ITA | 409 | $1,719,798 | -- |
| Samuel Panzica | USA | 411 | $731,845 | -- |
| Emil Patel | USA | 427 | $670,937 | -- |
| Pieter de Korver | NED | 432 | $4,075,231 | -- |
| Antonio Esfandiari | USA | 434 | $26,495,567 | -- |
| Alexander Ivarsson | SWE | 438 | $391,513 | -- |
| Ben Winsor | ENG | 450 | $622,568 | -- |
| Jesse Sylvia | USA | 451 | $5,987,767 | -- |
| Nikolay Fal | RUS | 468 | $224,411 | $635,168 |
| Li-Ta Hsu | TPE | 471 | $313,665 | -- |
| Esther Taylor-Brady | USA | 481 | $556,610 | -- |
| Diwei Bryan Huang | SIN | 486 | $854,703 | $335,550 |
| Alexandru Masek | USA | 492 | $1,306,752 | -- |
| Joao Pires Simao | BRA | 493 | $508,033 | -- |
| James Rann | ENG | 494 | $550,886 | $221,883 |
| Ray Henson | USA | 517 | $2,019,553 | -- |
| Anthony Gregg | USA | 522 | $10,476,457 | -- |
| Jared Griener | USA | 533 | $383,117 | -- |
| Maxx Coleman | USA | 534 | $1,201,594 | -- |
| Daniel Strelitz | USA | 538 | $1,038,680 | $1,412,310 |
| Jonas Lauck | GER | 540 | $1,137,266 | $733,646 |
| Valentin Vornicu | ROM | 558 | $482,454 | $178,360 |
| Shawn Buchanan | CAN | 566 | $5,902,874 | -- |
| Dara O'Kearney | IRL | 571 | $747,503 | $1,884,206 |
| Nicolau Villa-Lobos | BRA | 573 | $1,160,434 | -- |
| Jason Mo | USA | 589 | $1,806,754 | -- |
| Phil Galfond | USA | 594 | $2,339,619 | -- |
| Oleksandr Gnatenko | URK | 600 | $574,052 | $868,763 |
| Felipe "Mojave" Ramos | BRA | 606 | $969,051 | $701,286 |
| Sergey Lebedev | RUS | 612 | $1,087,222 | -- |
| Kou Vang | USA | 616 | $892,601 | $82,883 |
| Terry Fan | TAI | 624 | $715,496 | -- |
| Jerry Wong | USA | 641 | $1,299,996 | -- |
| Olov Jansson | SWE | 645 | $153,367 | -- |
| Keith Lehr | USA | 649 | $2,736,773 | -- |
| Cate Hall | USA | 651 | $420,675 | -- |
| Kenneth Aldridge | USA | 656 | $1,280,877 | $30,538 |
| Fabrizio Gonzalez Cataldi | ARG | 660 | $1,175,430 | -- |
| Dmitry Vitkind | RUS | 672 | $1,290,923 | $628,228 |
| Jason Helder | USA | 703 | $1,717,441 | -- |
| James Collopy | USA | 713 | $1,251,342 | -- |
| David Nowling | USA | 720 | $184,692 | -- |
| Matthew Schultz | USA | 733 | $406,720 | $584 |
| Gianluca Escobar | ITA | 747 | $243,329 | $923,354 |
| Aaron Overton | USA | 748 | $678,478 | -- |
| William Foxen | USA | 757 | $183,920 | $552,446 |
| Brian Benhamou | FRA | 762 | $616,564 | -- |
| Jonathan Roy | CAN | 765 | $2,087,523 | -- |
| Peter Eichhardt | SWE | 769 | $820,570 | -- |
| Carlos Chadha | USA | 785 | $471,832 | -- |
| Chris Moorman | ENG | 793 | $4,107,768 | $12,963,272 |
| Guillaume Diaz | FRA | 795 | $372,351 | -- |
| Weiyi Zhang | CHN | 823 | $253,446 | -- |
| Andrey Kotelnikov | RUS | 834 | $200,126 | -- |
| Phong 'Turbo' Nguyen | USA | 836 | $980,570 | -- |
| Romain Lewis | FRA | 847 | $216,455 | -- |
| William Reynolds | USA | 871 | $1,808,446 | $1,698,059 |
| Muhamet Perati | ALB | 875 | $416,232 | -- |
| Clyde Tjauw For | NED | 885 | $517,335 | -- |
| Fatima Moreira de Melo | NED | 891 | $440,228 | -- |
| Gregory Marcus | USA | 906 | $329,253 | -- |
| Mark Radoja | CAN | 908 | $1,906,952 | -- |
| Dylan Hortin | USA | 915 | $651,514 | -- |
| Phillip Mcallister | ENG | 944 | $540,467 | $2,052,592 |
| Joe Tehan | USA | 955 | $4,287,302 | -- |
| Guy Taylor | ENG | 961 | $136,769 | $337,208 |
| Luis Ferreira | BRA | 972 | $456,789 | -- |
| Petr Jelinek | CZE | 987 | $343,023 | -- |
*GPI rank as of Dec. 31, 2015.
**Online earnings according to PocketFives.com.
Taking place at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills on Feb. 25, 2016, GPL Draft Day will be live streamed on Twitch.tv and is already setting up to be an exciting event, especially now that we how know many icons of the game decided to make themselves available to play in the GPL and join Mediarex's disruptive initiative.
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