Global Poker League India Season 1 Grand Finale Airs This Saturday on Colors Infinity
MUMBAI, India, April 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --
India's first long-run poker league - Global Poker League (GPL) India Season 1 is inching towards its conclusion. Coming up this Saturday, is the MAIN event. The end of the rainbow. The climax, i.e, the Semi-Finals followed by the Grand Finale.
Brought to India by Mediarex-owned GPL in partnership with PokerStars India, the one of a kind league is being broadcasted on Colors Infinity every Saturday (7-8PM) since March 9.
Thanks to PokerStars India - EACH player of the champion team will get their hands on the coveted PSPC Platinum Pass which is their ticket to represent India in the PokerStars Players Championship in the Bahamas. It doesn't hurt that they'll be travelling and staying in the lap of luxury the whole way!
But, before the thrilling action of the Semi-Finals and the Finals, let's take a quick look back at the Season 1 journey so far.
GPL India Bootcamp
It all began last year when 7,500 online qualifiers fought over a period of 6-weeks on PokerStars India for a spot as one of the final 60 online qualifiers for the GPL India Bootcamp.
The Bootcamp was a harrowing process and tested the nerves of the qualifiers in front of a Judges panel, before it came to testing their skills on the felt where they faced one another in a winner-take-all format. After the extensive selection process, 12 of those 60 online qualifiers made their way into the 6 GPL India teams.
The Bootcamp was followed by the Draft Day ceremony where for the first time each teams' pro picks, team jerseys - and the final line ups were revealed.
GPL India Teams
Team Chennai Sharks, managed by Vikram Kumar was joined by Ashish Munot and Gaurav Gala as wildcard pros while Mithun Mahesh and Suyog H sealed their spots from the Bootcamp.
Team Delhi Diehards captained by First Ladies award winner Muskan Sethi handpicked Arsh Grover and Niharika Bindra as her wildcard pros. They were joined by Ajitesh Bhargava (interview round winner) and Albetrose Alex (SNG poker round winner)
Team Pune Alphas managed by elite poker coach Abhishek Rathod who chose Nitin Jain and Kanishka Upreti as his wildcards. The three were joined by interview round winner Vishal Bajaj and SNG match winner Vikas Dhull.
Team Bengaluru Hackers manager Vidwath Shetty brought in Abhisek Panda and Rahul Melwani as his pros. Shiv Bhargava won the Interview round while the SNG match was won by Arun Sriram.
Team Kolkata Creators, managed by PokerStars' first Indian Pro Aditya Agarwal welcomed Jayjit Ray and Rishab Jain as the wildcard pros. The interview round was won by seasoned online player Gokul Raj and the SNG match was taken down by Jai Saha.
Team Mumbai Jetsetters is managed by high stakes specialist Kavin Shah who roped in Vivek Singh and Ramandeep Gujral as his wildcard pros. Saurabh Sindhwani won the Interview round while Aneesh Gopinathan won the SNG poker match.
GPL India Regular Season
Like any other sport, GPL India's season was broken down into regular season play, followed by a playoffs and finals event.
It was time to get the cards in the air and kick off the Regular Season.
The first match was the manager's brawl where Team Bengaluru Hackers represented by Vidwath Shetty and Chennai Sharks captained by Vikram Kumar collected the most points.
Meanwhile, Team Pune Alphas finished 6th scoring 0 points and Kolkata creators manager Aditya suffered a brutal bad beat when his Ace King lost to Vikram's Ace King and placed 5th.
Next up was the qualifier's showdown and the PokerStars India qualifiers truly played like champions. Pune Alphas was the first team to get eliminated here as well.
It was then time for the Battle of the Pros and here is where Delhi Diehards' wildcard - Arsh, won his match, breathing second life into his team at the exact right moment.
With Pune Alphas out of contention, now there were two races going on. The race to the first place and the race to the fourth place. While Delhi Diehards and Kolkata Creators were battling for the fourth spot, Mumbai Jetsetters and Chennai Sharks both wanted to seal the first spot. The reason - the team who finishes first gets a huge chip advantage in the playoffs.
It could not get more intense with the Kolkata Creators badly needing to win the next match - the Manager's Finale but it wasn't meant to be and they settled for a 5th place finish.
Pune and Kolkata are done - and we have the 4 teams that are advancing to the Semi-Finals.
1. Mumbai Jetsetters
2. Chennai Sharks
3. Bengaluru Hackers
4. Delhi Diehards
What's Coming Up?
Alright, so the regular season is over and we have the 4 qualifying teams remaining - what next? The answer is the playoffs and it's coming up this Saturday.
The twists don't end here though as the better the teams performed in the regular season, the more chips they'll have to play with during Playoffs. This is where GPL India's format flips, and the pressure goes up even further. In a full-on team vs. team knockout mode, the top ranked team after regular season i.e Mumbai Jetsetters will be playing the 4th ranked team - Delhi Diehards in a best-of-3 heads-up match. Mumbai will start with a stack of 50,000 against Delhi's starting stack of 35,000. The regular season's 2nd and 3rd ranked teams i.e Chennai and Bengaluru will do the same with the stacks of 45,000 vs 40,000.
The final 2 teams are then going to battle it out heads up in a best-of-five match. Managers choose who competes, and there's no handicaps. There's only 1 rule - each player from the team MUST play before any player is repeated!
About GPL
The Global Player League is a competitive gaming, poker and esports league with 30 teams all over the world. The GPL began life as the Global Poker League, promoting poker as a skilled game and sport. In 2017, it was transformed into the Global Player League, with a new focus on sportifying a multitude of new and emerging titles within the competitive gaming ecosystem today. The Global Player League is a trading name of Mediarex Group, a global sports and entertainment organisation, founded in Malta in 2012. Global Poker Index, Global Poker League, Global Player League, 'We Sportify Poker', and 'The Cube', are registered trademarks of Mediarex Group in the U.S. and other territories.
For further information:
Emma Diskin
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+356-7965-0033
PR & Communications Director
Media Contact:
Arpit Jain
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+91-7737315747
GPL India Events Co-ordinator
GPL India
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