GPI Launches its own World Cup With the Global Poker Masters

LAS VEGAS, June 6, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

The Global Poker Index (GPI) is set to launch the Global Poker Masters in 2015. This 'World Cup' for the Sport of Poker is the culmination of a year-long GPI Player of the Year points race between the world's top poker countries, as well as between the top players from each country.

The fight to quality for a place in the Global Poker Masters is a two-fold battle, with the top 9 highest ranked countries qualifying to compete, and the top 4 players from each qualifying country - based on GPI Player of the Year points accumulated over a 12 month period - winning the chance to take a seat and compete on behalf of their nation. This is a player-centric event, with no rake and a structure conducive for media and fans to follow live.

For GPI - having recently acquired the European Poker Awards and set to unveil the American Poker Awards come 2015 - launching the Global Poker Masters (GPM) represents the next logical step towards unifying the live poker community. This is neutral event, a chance for the best of the best in the live tournament scene to compete for national recognition and to crown the best overall country in poker year over year. GPM is designed to complement the world's premiere tournament series like the WSOP, WPT, and EPT, as well as thousands of other events around the world rather than compete with them.

The concept of a country-based poker championship isn't necessarily new, but it is something that's never been executed with adequate legitimacy or a structure based so purely on poker acumen and competition before until now. As Global Poker Index CEO Alex Dreyfus explains, "Despite Live Poker consistantly growing in popularity during the past decade (roughly 15% year over year), we believe we're on the eve of a second poker boom thanks to the impending regulation and re-emergence of online poker in the United States. To realize this boom though, Poker still needs innovations and greater traction, including new formats and exposure on a larger scale. It also needs to be promoted as a Sport. The time is right to launch the Global Poker Masters because it is capable of doing exactly that. It gives the best of the breed from the world's top poker nations a stage compete, and it's an intriguing performance-based format to support".

GPI has already surveyed the poker community and feedback has been universally encouraging. This is a competition the poker world is ready to endorse. GPI will continue communicating with players at it's WSOP booth in the next weeks to get even more input directly from the pros as well before finalized the Global Poker Masters' structure and other details surrounding the event.

Event Name: Global Poker Masters

Date & Venue to be held at: GPI is currently in the final stages of deciding the best place and time to run the GPM, with venue and date set to be announced this July.

Format : Multi-Round Sit 'N Go Invitational-Only Tournament with a $10K Buy-In (tba) and $100K Added-Money Prizepool.

Exposure: the Global Poker Masters will be Live-Streamed online with feature table play aired on TV (to be confirmed).

Rankings : Global Poker Index ranks 350,000 players, from 1,430 casinos in the world.

What would the line-up for the Global Poker Masters look like? By GPI points here's a snapshot of what the GPM field would look like today (http://www.globalpokerindex.com/masters/ and http://www.globalpokermasters.com)

More info: Alex Dreyfus, alex@zokay.com, T: +356-20-60-77-72

                                                                    Russia
                                    Canada          Germany
    United States   United Kingdom                                  Alex Bilokur
                                    Shyam           Ole Schemion
    Keven Stammen   Jack Salter     Srinivasan                      Alexander
                                                    Arture Koren    Denisov
    Scott Seiver    Tom Hall        Mike McDonald
                                                    Phillipp        Anatoly Filatov
    Vanessa Selbst  Simon Deadman   Amichi Barer    Gruissem
                                                                    Alex Kravchenko
    Mukul Pahuja    Oliver Price    Andrew Chen     Martin Finger
                    Italy
    France                          Australia       Netherlands
                    Mustapha Kanit
    Roger                           Tam Truong      Paul Berende
    Hairabedian     Andrea Dato
                                    Michael Kanaan  Marcel Luske
    Erwann Pecheux  Dario
                    Sammartino      Jeffrey         Tobias Peters
    Miroslav                        Rossiter
    Alilovic        Antonio                         Pieter
                    Buonanno        Rory Young      De-Korver
    Patrick Bruel

About the Global Poker Index 

The Global Poker Index and The Hendon Mob feature 350,000 live poker player profiles and 120,000 tournament results. GPI acquired THM in July 2013 under the guidance of parent company Zokay Entertainment. The two sites are heavily integrated and also feature poker news, casino listings and fantasy poker.

For more information, visit http://www.GlobalPokerIndex.com

Twitter: @GlobalPokerIndex

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http://www.GlobalPokerIndex.com