Team Ukraine would be a complete dark horse if they were to come out on top. If they were to win, it would be our best estimation that it would be on the heels of great performances from Oleksii Khoroshenin and Igor Yaroshevsky. Although Eugene Katchalov has a higher country ranking and may be a better all-around poker player, Khoroshenin and Yaroshevsky are two top no-limit hold'em tournament players right now.
Khoroshenin is strong, aggressive, and relentless, and Yaroshevsky brings much of the same to the table. Yaroshevsky is also coming off a big result at the recent World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic, so his confidence will likely be high.
Alexander Dovzhenko is an older grinder, but we're not so sure his style will adapt well to the format of the GPM and against younger, aggressive players. Oleksandr Gnatenko is a fairly unknown younger player, but don't let his $532,554 in live earnings fool you too much. He also brings over $800,000 in online tournament earnings to play.
Team Russia looks very tough on paper. They've got a solid mix of players that have plenty of accolades to back up their play. Match their experience with on-the-felt toughness, and Russia seems poised to really contend for the first GPM title.
Confidence always plays a big part in a poker player's game. Vladimir Troyanovskiy can be considered the team's leader, and he's coming off some nice results from the European Poker Tour Deauville festival. First, he won the FPS High Roller for €141,000, and then he cashed in the EPT Deauville Main Event and the €10,300 High Roller. Ivan Soshnikov is coming off a deep run in the World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic, so he will likely be in form as well.
The other three could be the achilles heel for Russia, as Alex Bilokur, Anatoly Filatov, and Vitaly Lunkin have been blanking as of late. Even so, these three players know how to buckle down and take every event they play very seriously — especially Bilokur and Lunkin. It's rare that these two play an event without giving it their all, and we can expect much more of that on Saturday at the GPM.
Like France, Italy is often referred to as a lesser-skilled country by poker circles, but this team also packs a lot of power. Where Team France may be very strong in four out of five spots, Italy is strong across the board, and we'd consider them one of the favorites to win the first GPM.
Let's start with Mustapha Kanit, the country's top ranked player. This kid can play. He packs a great combination of natural talent and aggression that should give many of the other players trouble.
The same could be said for the other players on the team — Dario Sammartino, Andrea Dato, Giuliano Bendinelli, and Rocco Palumbo. They're Italy's best talents and will likely play a high-risk, high-reward style of play.
Bendinelli should be the least known player of the pack, but he's a player we would deem on the verge of a big breakout. He recently stated that he's gunning to take down European Poker Tour Player of the Year.
"To be completely honest with you, the pleasure to say 'I won the EPT POY title in Season 11' would be much, much bigger than the one that comes from saying 'I won the EPT Main Event in Deauville,'" Bendinelli stated. "In the end, that's only a single event."
You know what would look good next to the EPT Player of the Year award? The first-ever GPM trophy.
It's often a running joke in poker circles that French players lack skill. Then you look at this team of players, and you can't help but question what people are talking about — Erwann Pecheux, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Paul Tedeschi, and Sylvain Loosli? What's there to joke about?
Maybe we'll give you Patrick Bruel, as the French singer, actor, and poker player as may a tad out of his league in this event, but even Bruel has shown he can lock horns with the best and perform. He holds a World Series of Poker gold bracelet and nearly won a second a few years later after he scored his first.
Team France is without a doubt headlined by Grospellier, who boasts nearly $11 million in live tournament earnings and is regularly talked about as one of the game's best, but it's Pecheux who currently holds the team's highest Global Poker Index country rank at No. 2. Rounding out the team is Tedeschi and Loosli, both very respected players with strong backgrounds in online poker. Tedeschi hasn't exactly broken out yet on the live scene, but Loosli certainly has thanks to reaching the WSOP Main Event final table in 2013 and finishing fourth.
Overall, this French team is underrated, and it wouldn't be a total surprise if they finished in the top three.
Similar to Team Canada, Team Germany is filled with young and talented players. The team is led by arguably the most talented tournament poker player alive right now, Ole Schemion. This kid just seems to win everything under the sun, and it only seems fitting that he would lead the charge that will bring GPM gold to his home country.
Then you've got Marvin Rettenmaier and Philipp Gruissem, again two highly-talented poker players. George Danzer is also very skilled, but his strength lies with his ability to play mixed games. No-limit hold'em really isn't Danzer's forte, but what Danzer may lack in pure talent in the game he'll make up for with on-the-felt toughness and a willingness to never want to give up. Last year, when Danzer was fighting with Brandon Shack-Harris for World Series of Poker Player of the Year honors, he fought very hard in all no-limit hold'em events he played, and we expect much more of the same from him at the GPM.
You might be wondering who Christopher Frank is. Well, he's the team's unknown commodity, but the kid can play. Like Schemion, he's super young and highly talented, and will bring to the table a résumé that includes a European Poker Tour London final table and a World Poker Tour National title. With Frank likely being an unknown player to the rest of the field, we like him to really surprise people and help bolster Germany's tough roster of players.
All five players on Team Canada are big names and top talents in poker. You might think this would bode well for the team, but heading into the GPM only Sorel Mizzi has been in any sort of form as of late.
Ami Barer and Andrew Chen both recorded their last live tournament cash in the Aussie Millions Main Event at the end of January, and Jonathan Duhamel's last big result was a win in a side event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure that same month. Duhamel did cash in the World Poker Tour Fallsview event in the middle of February, but he seems to have taken a step back from the world of high-stakes poker tournaments in recent months. With so many of the competitors regularly involved in the world of high-stakes tournament poker, this could put Duhamel at a disadvantage.
Marc-Andre Ladouceur's last live tournament result was back in November of last year, as he's mainly been sticking to his virtual guns as a member of Team PokerStars Pro Online.
The question we can't help but ask in regards to Team Canada is, do they care about this event? With so much poker action going on in Malta involving plenty of big buy-in events and a happening party scene on the island, it wouldn't surprise us if Canada took this event a bit less seriously than the others and was eliminated after the first day.
