Global Poker League Draft List Announced: 203 Players, More Than $550M in Earnings

February 12, 2016 Giovanni Angioni

With Draft Day of the first-ever Global Poker League (GPL) season just around the corner, Mediarex Entertainment has just released the official list of draftable players. The list consists of 203 players that the 12 franchise managers will be able to select from to get on their teams, and it's headed by Byron Kaverman, the 2015 GPI Player of the Year.

"The turnout for players signing up for the GPL Draft was much more than we expected, and I see that as a sign of hope," Mediarex CEO Alex Dreyfus told PokerNews. "When players unite, they can make a real impact on the growth of poker. We're happy to try and provide a foundation to make that happen."

33 Countries, More Than $500 Million in Combined Winnings Represented

Each GPL franchise will include five players, three of which will be drafted during GPL Draft Day from those who opted in to be draft eligible from the top 1,000 GPI-ranked players. The other two players left will be selected as "wild cards."

In order to be draft eligible, players in the top 1,000 of the GPI needed to confirm their availability to join the league. While a handful of big names decided the GPL and The Cube were not in their immediate future, as you can see by the gaps in the list, an impressive number of pros and legends of the game checked the "yes" box to give themselves the chance to be part of a project that aims to bring poker to a new level.

With combined live tournament winnings for an astonishing $562,834,964, the 203 players in the list hail from a total of 33 countries. While the delegation from the United States accounts for nearly half of the total field, the list of draft-eligible players includes names from every corner of the world, including Brazil, China, Canada, Russia, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

Who Are the 203 Players?

While the list does not include the names of poker superstars Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth — as they will be busy hosting the GPL's Draft Day alongside Kara Scott — we can see that an impressive number of top players decided to opt in.

One that is on the list and is likely to end up in one of the 12 teams is Antonio Esfandiari. Sitting second on US all-time money list with live tournament earnings for more than $26 million, Esfandiari is not only a terrific player, but is also one that sure knows how to attract attention and engage the public — two things the league and league franchises will without a doubt need in the inaugural season.

Among the others that may be picked to join the 2016 GPL are big time players such as Jeff Madsen, Jonathan Duhamel, Jason Mercier, Brian Rast, Vanessa Selbst, and Kevin MacPhee.

While Esfandiari is the list's biggest winner in live tournament poker, Chris Moorman leads the troop in terms of online cashes, as according to PocketFives he's been able to put together online winnings for nearly $13 million. Also on the list are other great names of the game as Italy's Mustapha Kanit, winner of the first-ever Global Poker Masters with team Italy, Germany's Dominik Nitsche, Belgium's Davidi Kitai, and 2014 WSOP Main Event champion Martin Jacobson.

Here's the full list of the 203 draft-eligible players:

Player Nationality GPI Rank Live Earnings Online Earnings Byron Kaverman USA 1 $6,757,855 -- Anthony Zinno USA 3 $5,337,383 -- Kevin MacPhee USA 5 $5,424,937 $7,118,382 Jason Mercier USA 6 $16,356,296 $2,001,750 Fedor Holz GER 9 $7,549,491 -- Davidi Kitai BEL 10 $6,757,706 $448,657 Dominik Nitsche GER 13 $5,164,231 $3,398,488 Dzmitry Urbanovich POL 16 $4,190,393 -- Mike McDonald CAN 18 $12,949,811 $2,940,067 Jonathan Duhamel CAN 21 $17,592,802 -- Thomas Marchese USA 24 $12,404,012 -- Benjamin Pollak FRA 25 $2,613,573 $327,067 Mustapha Kanit ITA 31 $5,497,875 $4,203,118 Sam Greenwood CAN 33 $2,798,230 $3,653,541 Igor Yaroshevskyy UKR 34 $1,695,666 -- Darren Elias USA 35 $3,505,319 $3,646,815 Jason Wheeler USA 36 $2,298,881 -- Brian Rast USA 38 $16,313,290 -- Dario Sammartino ITA 39 $3,251,024 -- Niall Farrell SCO 41 $1,939,694 $2,456,781 Vladimir Troyanovskiy RUS 42 $4,199,228 -- Scott Clements USA 44 $6,975,297 $3,717,126 Ankush Mandavia USA 45 $2,316,280 $2,773,923 Mike Leah CAN 48 $5,040,388 $2,762,255 Jared Jaffee USA 49 $2,730,423 -- Ismael Bojang AUT 51 $1,870,754 -- Hans Winzeler USA 53 $2,009,527 -- [Removed:17] NZL 57 $1,580,140 $829,705 Shannon Shorr USA 59 $6,052,301 -- Michael Wang USA 66 $1,433,921 $1,001,503 Andrew Chen CAN 67 $4,652,583 $1,993,787 Mohsin Charania USA 71 $4,724,869 -- Jeremy Ausmus USA 75 $4,788,806 -- Sylvain Loosli FRA 76 $4,857,533 -- Samuel Chartier CAN 77 $2,455,530 -- Jeff Madsen USA 80 $5,147,837 -- Brian Yoon USA 81 $2,788,075 -- Scott Davies USA 86 $1,536,893 -- Nipun Java IND 87 $1,654,477 -- Justin Bonomo USA 88 $9,690,053 -- Vladimir Dobrovolskiy RUS 90 $803,830 -- Christian Harder USA 99 $3,616,452 $3,239,083 Kiryl Radzivonau BLR 103 $1,534,334 $868,103 Jonathan Little USA 106 $6,257,741 $1,053,162 Sorel Mizzi CAN 110 $11,148,823 -- Govert Metaal NED 115 $2,117,699 -- Andrey Pateychuk RUS 116 $2,873,717 -- Ben Yu USA 121 $1,582,932 $42,575 Matthew Glantz USA 133 $6,021,692 -- Igor Kurganov RUS 137 $10,218,893 -- Jussi Nevanlinna FIN 140 $1,843,978 -- Ricardo Alvarado USA 143 $434,651 -- Oliver Price ENG 145 $1,465,232 -- Upeshka De Silva USA 149 $1,010,803 -- Aaron Mermelstein USA 150 $1,326,382 -- Dylan Wilkerson USA 151 $1,791,157 -- Sam Stein USA 153 $4,601,497 $1,611,926 Jake Schwartz USA 154 $985,822 -- Erwann Pecheux FRA 155 $1,169,511 -- Allen Kessler USA 163 $3,229,616 -- Aleksandr Gofman RUS 169 $873,576 -- Justin Young USA 172 $3,651,893 -- Max Silver USA 175 $2,358,622 -- Alex Rocha USA 186 $763,079 -- Jose Carlos Garcia POL 189 $1,183,077 $1,973,897 Bertrand Grospellier FRA 192 $10,922,427 -- Jeffrey Gross USA 193 $2,450,671 $522,393 David Baker USA 197 $3,767,257 -- Christopher DeMaci USA 198 $2,026,257 -- Justin Liberto USA 204 $1,833,347 $147,690 George Danzer GER 205 $2,249,980 -- Rep Porter USA 206 $2,900,670 -- Dani Stern USA 210 $2,733,207 $1,763,804 David Vamplew SCO 215 $3,599,940 $1,970,537 Justin Oliver USA 216 $911,087 -- Raiden Kan HKG 220 $866,303 -- Javier Zarco ESP 223 $1,204,811 -- Chance Kornuth USA 228 $3,241,176 $1,762,732 Noah Bronstein USA 230 $526,940 -- Timothy Reilly USA 232 $821,795 $1,171,445 Christopher Tryba USA 235 $1,655,716 -- Iliodoros Kamatakis GRE 239 $623,682 -- Walter Treccarichi ITA 249 $819,052 -- Thomas Butzhammer GER 250 $1,124,432 -- Tobias Peters NED 256 $851,826 -- Chris Hunichen USA 264 $1,201,785 $8,136,397 Iaron Lightbourne ENG 266 $1,208,280 -- Benjamin Keeline USA 268 $562,337 -- Leo Wolpert USA 272 $1,631,600 $992,529 Martin Jacobson SWE 273 $15,045,724 -- Matthew Salsberg CAN 277 $1,948,129 -- Joseph Ebanks USA 278 $3,107,576 -- John Holley USA 279 $1,391,384 -- Scott Baumstein USA 281 $1,477,398 -- David Paredes USA 309 $2,270,126 -- Felix Bleiker SWI 291 $545,508 -- Michael Laake USA 293 $704,645 -- Diogo Cardoso POR 294 $532,175 -- Joseph Couden USA 295 $1,090,210 -- Jordan Cristos USA 297 $613,355 $1,064,411 David Tuthill ENG 300 $1,448,234 -- Seth Berger USA 301 $1,005,125 -- Jonathan Karamalikis AUS 304 $2,567,014 $5,812,977 Isaac Baron USA 305 $5,364,815 -- Anton Wigg SWE 306 $1,995,352 $6,178,797 Kitty Kuo TAI 308 $1,091,426 -- Noah Schwartz USA 316 $5,264,152 $780,358 Eugene Katchalov UKR 317 $8,669,109 -- Yung Hwang USA 319 $1,731,468 -- Vanessa Selbst USA 321 $11,728,256 -- Ryan Van Sanford USA 323 $840,175 -- Chad Eveslage USA 325 $667,597 $3,304,103 Matthew Affleck USA 333 $1,782,928 -- Manig Loeser GER 337 $1,563,516 -- Darren Rabinowitz USA 340 $1,164,160 $87,935 Kelly Minkin USA 342 $779,519 -- Natasha Barbour CAN 347 $688,855 -- Christopher Klodnicki USA 353 $8,286,614 -- Rocco Palumbo ITA 354 $1,693,398 $3,373,454 Timothy Adams CAN 355 $2,546,978 $1,403,178 Iacopo Brandi ITA 356 $337,148 -- Xuan Liu CAN 359 $1,649,190 -- Mike Gorodinsky USA 361 $2,616,750 -- Konstantin Puchkov RUS 362 $2,364,898 -- Jake Cody ENG 363 $4,132,822 $697,494 Dong Guo CHN 372 $554,374 -- Daniel Weinman USA 373 $1,211,132 -- Thiago Nishijima BRA 374 $1,784,213 -- Bryan Paris USA 380 $705,804 -- Nick Pupillo USA 381 $635,441 -- Justin Schwartz USA 384 $1,123,924 $3,042 Jason Les USA 403 $1,029,967 -- Antonio Buonanno ITA 405 $2,345,771 -- Adam Owen UK 408 $305,147 -- Andrea Dato ITA 409 $1,719,798 -- Samuel Panzica USA 411 $731,845 -- Emil Patel USA 427 $670,937 -- Pieter de Korver NED 432 $4,075,231 -- Antonio Esfandiari USA 434 $26,495,567 -- Alexander Ivarsson SWE 438 $391,513 -- Ben Winsor ENG 450 $622,568 -- Jesse Sylvia USA 451 $5,987,767 -- Nikolay Fal RUS 468 $224,411 $635,168 Li-Ta Hsu TPE 471 $313,665 -- Esther Taylor-Brady USA 481 $556,610 -- Diwei Bryan Huang SIN 486 $854,703 $335,550 Alexandru Masek USA 492 $1,306,752 -- Joao Pires Simao BRA 493 $508,033 -- James Rann ENG 494 $550,886 $221,883 Ray Henson USA 517 $2,019,553 -- Anthony Gregg USA 522 $10,476,457 -- Jared Griener USA 533 $383,117 -- Maxx Coleman USA 534 $1,201,594 -- Daniel Strelitz USA 538 $1,038,680 $1,412,310 Jonas Lauck GER 540 $1,137,266 $733,646 Valentin Vornicu ROM 558 $482,454 $178,360 Shawn Buchanan CAN 566 $5,902,874 -- Dara O'Kearney IRL 571 $747,503 $1,884,206 Nicolau Villa-Lobos BRA 573 $1,160,434 -- Jason Mo USA 589 $1,806,754 -- Phil Galfond USA 594 $2,339,619 -- Oleksandr Gnatenko URK 600 $574,052 $868,763 Felipe "Mojave" Ramos BRA 606 $969,051 $701,286 Sergey Lebedev RUS 612 $1,087,222 -- Kou Vang USA 616 $892,601 $82,883 Terry Fan TAI 624 $715,496 -- Jerry Wong USA 641 $1,299,996 -- Olov Jansson SWE 645 $153,367 -- Keith Lehr USA 649 $2,736,773 -- Cate Hall USA 651 $420,675 -- Kenneth Aldridge USA 656 $1,280,877 $30,538 Fabrizio Gonzalez Cataldi ARG 660 $1,175,430 -- Dmitry Vitkind RUS 672 $1,290,923 $628,228 Jason Helder USA 703 $1,717,441 -- James Collopy USA 713 $1,251,342 -- David Nowling USA 720 $184,692 -- Matthew Schultz USA 733 $406,720 $584 Gianluca Escobar ITA 747 $243,329 $923,354 Aaron Overton USA 748 $678,478 -- William Foxen USA 757 $183,920 $552,446 Brian Benhamou FRA 762 $616,564 -- Jonathan Roy CAN 765 $2,087,523 -- Peter Eichhardt SWE 769 $820,570 -- Carlos Chadha USA 785 $471,832 -- Chris Moorman ENG 793 $4,107,768 $12,963,272 Guillaume Diaz FRA 795 $372,351 -- Weiyi Zhang CHN 823 $253,446 -- Andrey Kotelnikov RUS 834 $200,126 -- Phong 'Turbo' Nguyen USA 836 $980,570 -- Romain Lewis FRA 847 $216,455 -- William Reynolds USA 871 $1,808,446 $1,698,059 Muhamet Perati ALB 875 $416,232 -- Clyde Tjauw For NED 885 $517,335 -- Fatima Moreira de Melo NED 891 $440,228 -- Gregory Marcus USA 906 $329,253 -- Mark Radoja CAN 908 $1,906,952 -- Dylan Hortin USA 915 $651,514 -- Phillip Mcallister ENG 944 $540,467 $2,052,592 Joe Tehan USA 955 $4,287,302 -- Guy Taylor ENG 961 $136,769 $337,208 Luis Ferreira BRA 972 $456,789 -- Petr Jelinek CZE 987 $343,023 --

*GPI rank as of Dec. 31, 2015.

**Online earnings according to PocketFives.com.

Taking place at the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills on Feb. 25, 2016, GPL Draft Day will be live streamed on Twitch.tv and is already setting up to be an exciting event, especially now that we how know many icons of the game decided to make themselves available to play in the GPL and join Mediarex's disruptive initiative.

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