Four teams are vying for the final spot in the Global Poker League's first-ever Championship Final. The teams are competing for a $100,000 Grand Prize, but as several teams stated yesterday, the GPL is also about having fun and enjoying poker with your teammates.
Moscow Wolverine's manager Anatoly Filatov seems to embody the fun aspect of the GPL and he can play poker too. Filatov scored 62 of the Wolverine's 171 points during the regular season. He also spent a good portion of the day yesterday in the broadcast booth for the Americas Conference playoffs. Filatov is joined by Andrey Pateychuk, Igor Yaroshevsky, and alternate Dzmitry Urbanovich.
The Wolverines will take on the London Royals, led by Liv Boeree. Boeree was also pretty active this season, winning four of the eight six-max sit-and-gos she played in. Since the playoff format is heads up, Boeree has selected Justin Bonomo and Igor Kurganov to join her as the three enter the cube, looking to take down the first seeded Wolverines. Both Bonomo and Kurganov scored 30 points for the Royals in heads up matches throughout the season.
The Royals have a tough task, going up against the top seed. The San Francisco Rush had the same task yesterday and couldn't eliminate the Montreal Nationals, despite going up 2-0. The Nationals overcame the deficit to beat the Rush in seven games and followed that up with a win over the LA Sunset in six games.
The other match pits the Hong Kong Stars against the Berlin Bears. The Stars entered the season as the consensus pick to finish dead last in the Eurasia division, but they enter the playoffs in second place. Perhaps the Stars best weapon will be Randy "Nanonoko" Lew who scored all 69 of his regular season points in heads up matches. However, the LA Sunset were in a similar spot with Olivier Busquet dominating their regular season heads up point total. Busquet accounted for almost half of the Sunset's total heads up points but was unable to carry his team through the top seeded Montreal Nationals. We will see if Lew has better luck. His team manager, Celina Lin is in a similar spot to Boeree. She also scored her only points in the six-max regular season format, electing to play zero heads up matches during the season. Perhaps it will turn into a smart move with none of the teams able to see footage of Lin or Boeree's heads up playstyle.
The Stars will take on the Berlin Bears. The Bears lineup includes Brian Rast, Bill Perkins, Sorel Mizzi, and Daniel "Jungleman" Cates. Cates comes in as an alternate and can be swapped in at the start of any new round of play. Mizzi and Cates each scored 24 points in heads up play during the regular season. Meanwhile, Rast (9) and Perkins (3) accounted for only 12. Again, it could insert a random element into today's play, since many of the players will not have seen either Perkins or Rast in heads up play. The Bears managed to finish third in the Eurasia division.
Neither the Bears nor the Royals would have made the playoffs had they been in the Americas division, but that won't stop them from making their mark on the first-ever GPL Playoffs. The Royals are bringing a strong lineup, especially for the heads up format and if yesterday's matches are any indication, the speed of play could easily affect the outcome of the matches.
The Montreal Nationals are the team awaiting the winner of the Eurasia Conference tomorrow, but first, the teams have to make their way through two best-of-seven matches for a chance to play the for the Championship and the $100,000 prize.
against the 
of Pateychuk. Pateychuk raised to 2,800 preflop and Kurganov three-bet to 9,580. Pateychuk four-bet, making it 23,980 before Kurganov shoved all in and Pateychuk snap called.
. Bonomo three-bet shoved with 
and Yaroshevsky called to eliminate Bonomo in the fastest match of the GPL Playoffs.
against the 
of Filatov. The flop came 
hit the turn, Filatov bet and Boeree shoved all in. Filatov snap called with a straight and ended game #1, giving the Moscow Wolverines a 1-0 lead.
