The initial draft pool for Global Poker League has been announced with 203 players and a staggering $550 million in combined live tournament earnings.
Antonio Esfandiari, Jason Mercier, Fedor Holz, Xuan Liu, Phil Galfond and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier are just a sampling of the well-known players that will be available for teams to draft.
The 203-player pool is responsible for over 60 WSOP bracelets wins, 30 WPT titles and over $100m in online earnings.
GPL Draft Set for February 25th
Jason Mercier
The inaugural GPL draft is set to take place Feb. 25 in LA with analysts Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Joe Stapleton and Eric Danis and Kara Scott as the host.
There are 12 teams taking part in the draft including Chris Moneymakers’ LV Moneymakers, Liv Boeree’s London Royals and Max Pescatori’s Rome Emperors.
Each team will get to select three players each from the draft pool. The drafting order will be selected randomly.
Interestingly in the week following the various team captains will be allowed to select one “Wildcard” player to represent their team. This player won’t necessarily come from the draft pool.
The very first GPL event is set to take place later this year as teams will compete in The Cube for first time.
Here's a look at all 203 players:
Player -- Country -- 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 --
David Yan 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 --
