The Global Poker League (GPL)

is an audience-centric poker competition with a team based, zero buy-in structure and games played out online, in studio & live in the The Cube in Las Vegas. League action is livestreamed on Twitch and other OTT platforms globally (as well as via other distribution methods), with 1st season and post-season action playing out from April – December of 2016.

The Teams

GPL features an opening season of 12 teams spread across 2 conferences: GPL Americas & GPL Eurasia – with 6 teams competing in each conference.

Team Structure

Each GPL team consists of a 6 player roster. Players for each team are chosen/ added as follows:

1 – Team Manager: The team captain (listed above for each team) responsible for guiding    their roster.

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4 – Drafted Pros: Players ranked within GPI’s TOP 1,000 global rankings drafted to each team directly by the managers during the 3 round GPL Draft, held on Feb. 25th in Los Angeles.

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Up to 2 – Wildcards: This is each team’s X factor. A player managers can choose at their own discretion, regardless of whether they are poker legends, lowkey grinders, outside of the GPI Top 1,000 or outside the Poker world entirely. If Managers want to play for their own team – they can occupy one of their Wildcard slots themselves.

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6 Total Players per Team

Total Games per Team & Minimum Games per Player

GPL Teams each compete in 45 Regular Season matches during Season 1:

24: 6-Max Online Matches

15: Heads Up Matches

6: Summer Series Heads Up Matches

Every player on each GPL Team must play a minimum of 6 games throughout the Regular GPL Season.

Online 6-Max Structure

Game Clock: 13 minutes per player with no time bank per Sit-N-Go.

Hot Seat: If a player reaches 0 seconds on their game clock they are put into ‘Hot Seat’ mode – they will have 2 seconds to make each of their actions during any street/ betting round. If they do not act in their allotted 2 second timeframe – they automatically fold/ pass on their action.

Time re-distribution: When a player busts from 6-Max play – the remaining time left in their game clock is distributed evenly to all remaining players’ game clocks.

Game Type: NLHE

Starting Stack: 25,000 Chips

Small Blind Big Blind Ante Time
100 200 25 8 min.
150 300 30 8 min.
200 400 50 8 min.
300 600 75 8 min.
400 800 100 8 min.
600 1,200 150 8 min.
800 1,600 200 8 min.
1,000 2,000 250 8 min.
1,200 2,400 300 8 min.
1,500 3,000 400 8 min.
2,000 4,000 500 Until match end.

Online / Summer Series Heads-Up Structure

Game Clock: 18 minutes per player with no time bank.

Hot Seat: If a player reaches 0 seconds on their game clock they are put into ‘Hot Seat’ mode – they will have 2 seconds to make each of their actions during any street/ betting round. If they do not act in their allotted 2 second timeframe – they automatically fold/ pass on their action.

Game Type: NLHE

Starting Stack: 50,000 Chips

Small Blind Big Blind Ante Time
200 400 40 4 min.
300 600 60 4 min.
400 800 80 4 min.
500 1,000 100 4 min.
600 1,200 120 4 min.
800 1,600 160 4 min.
1,000 2,000 200 4 min.
1,200 2,400 240 4 min.
1,400 2,800 280 4 min.
1,600 3,200 320 4 min.
2,000 4,000 400 Until match end.

Regular Season Points Structure

Online 6-Max Matches –

Per match (2x matches per week – tuesday)

1st – 7 pts.

2nd – 5 pts.

3rd – 3 pts.

4th – 2 pts.

5th – 1 pts.

6th – 0 pts.

Online & Live (Studio) Heads Up Matches –

3 games per match (all 3 games played) –

3 pts. per game won

0 pts. per game lost

9 pts. total possible for a 3 – 0 win

Home vs. Away Teams (in HU and in 6-Max) – Rules:

Online 6-Max:

One team from each conference, each week, will be designated as the “Home” team for that week’s 6-Max matches. This is to create a more fun dynamic and allow teams to take a more strategic approach towards submitting players for their week.

The ‘Home Field’ Advantage: For each conference – first, the 5 ‘Away’ teams submit their player choices blind to the GPL (i.e. they will not know which players other managers chose to represent their teams), meanwhile the ‘Home’ team will be allowed to review this lineup, before submitting their own final team representative to compete in that week’s 6-Max matches.

Full list of home teams by week – each GPL team will spend 2 weeks total during the regular GPL season as the “Home” team for 6-max play – ‘Home’ teams by conference are listed below (order chosen randomly):

 

Reg. Season Week” GPL Americas – Home Team GPL Eurasia – Home Team
Week 1 LA Sunset MSK Wolverines
Week 2 LV Moneymakers BRN Bears
Week 3 SP Metropolitans LDN Royals
Week 4 NYC Rounders RME Emperors
Week 5 MTL Nationals HK Stars
Week 6 SF Rush PRS Aviators
Week 7 LA Sunset MSK Wolverines
Week 8 LV Moneymakers BRN Bears
Summer Series / WSOP
Week 9 SP Metropolitans LDN Royals
Week 10 NYC Rounders RME Emperors
Week 11 Montreal Nationals HK Stars
Week 12 SF Rush PRS Aviators

 

Heads-Up (both online and during the Summer Series):

On each Head-Up competition day (Wednesdays and Thursdays) all heads-up competitions will feature a “Home” team and an “Away” team. The teams which are home vs. away for any given HU match are marked on the GPL Season 1 schedule. For example – if the match is:

– Hong Kong @ Moscow –

The Away Team – is Hong Kong Stars

The Home Team – is Moscow Wolverines

The ‘Home Field’ Advantage: For each Heads-Up match – First the Away team submits their team representative, after which the Home team is allowed to review their opponent’s submission and choose the player they’d like to play against them.