Action in the Global Poker League Resumes on Tuesday

After taking its summer break, the Global Poker League returns on Tuesday with four 6-Max matches and CEO Alex Dreyfus still feeling positive about its future.

The Global Poker League (GPL) the grand ambition to sportify poker is alive and kicking and on its way to being a triumphant success.

GPL CEO Alex Dreyfus admitted before the inaugural season started that the GPL would have to go through a steep learning curve in order to achieve its ambitions. He has now announced a series of changes for the second half of the season to make the competition more interesting and address some of the criticism the league received during the summer.

Change 1 – A New Mobile App

A new GPL mobile app was launched last week that Dreyfus hopes will engage more poker fans. The app is available for Android and iOS devices and should give out live stats while the games are being played while providing the opportunity for poker fans to watch replays of the action on demand. Dreyfus believes that the app will feed sufficient information to make the games more attractive to viewers.

Change 2 – New Presenters

Two news presenters will be hosting the GPL´s live shows when the second half of the season gets underway. In a change that was forced upon him due to Griffin Benger´s participation in the WSOP November Nine, Dreyfus has appointed the experienced Roland Boothby as the new anchorman. Boothby will be joined each week by an expert panellist – starting this week with Jonathan Little.

Change 3 – New Venue for Finale

The final change was forced due to a rescheduling of the games. Originally scheduled to be played during Twitchcon 2016 at the beginning of October, the GPL league playoffs and season finale will now be hosted in the GPL Arena in Las Vegas from Tuesday November 29 to Thursday December 1. Dreyfus says that the GPL will still have a presence at the Twitchcon event.

More Changes to be Announced for Season 2

In an interview with Calvin Ayre´s Lee Davy, Dreyfus said that there were plenty more changes planned for Season 2 of the GPL, but that he felt it would be too disruptive to the format of the competition to introduce them before the end of the current season.

Player staking, a Daily Fantasy Poker competition and team merchandise are on the drawing board for next year´s competition, along with a change in the nature of the TV presentation to focus a little more on the character of the players. The season is also likely to be reduced in length.

Meanwhile, Back on the Tables … …

With six weeks of competition to go in Season 1 – and with each team capable of scoring between 2 and 18 points each week – it is too early to tell who will feature in the conclusion to the inaugural season of the Global Poker League. Dreyfus believes that as the climax to the season draws closer, the pressure will begin to tell on players and fans, and the “narrative” (as he likes to call it) will become more gripping.

This week´s action see the usual two rounds of 6-Max Sit & Go games played on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the heads-up games in the Eurasia Conference see the Berlin Bears take on the Hong Kong Stars, the Rome Emperors play league leaders Moscow Wolverines, and the London Royals against the Paris Aviators.

On Thursday, bottom team in the Americas Conference – the Las Vegas Moneymakers – have a must-win heads-up against the Sao Paulo Mets, the New York Rounders take on table-topping Montreal Nationals, and the San Francisco Rush have a local derby against LA Sunset.

Here is the current standing of the teams taking part in the 2016 GPL: