In the early goings on the heads-up matches there is a lot of play, and Andrea Dato and Oleksandr Gnatenko just ended up on the river already.
We picked up the action on the flop that showed when Dato bet 1,000 from the big blind. Gnatenko called from the button and the turn was the . Both players checked and the river was the .
Dato checked again and Gnatenko quickly bet 3,500. Dato, who looked rather sleepy and rubbed his eyes for a bit, had time almost run out on him before he opted to lay his hand down.
Every player gets two timebanks for the heads-up stage of the Global Poker Master. After these three matches, every players gets back to two timebanks for the 6-max stage of the tournament.
Team Russia's Anatoly Filatov and Team Ukraine's Igor Yaroshevsky haven't arrived yet. Team Italy's Giuliano Bendinelli and Team France's Paul Tedeschi have no opponent at this point.
The tournament director just announced that the dealers will deal one hand every two minutes when a players hasn't shown up yet. Like this, Bendinelli and Tedeschi get the blinds and antes every two hours.
During the quarter-finals the following six teams will face off against each other in three heads-up battles per match up. For instance if Ole Schemion beats Andrew Chen, but both Marc-Andre Ladouceur and Jonathan Duhamel beat Marvin Rettenmaier and George Danzer the final score of the match-up between Germany and Canada will be 34,000-17,000 in favor of Canada.
We are down to seven nations in the Global Poker Masters World cup and here's what at stake right now. Team United States won the playoff round late last night and gets a 50,000-chip bonus heading into the semifinals.
The teams who are facing off in the quarter finals will battle for 17,000 points per match, and can win a total of 51,000 points in case they win all three heads-up battles. For instance if George Danzer (Team Germany) beats his opponent, Jonathan Duhamel (Team Canada), he will win 17,000 chips for his team.
Because of this scoring system the pressure is on Team Ukraine and Team France, as they are separated by just 2,000 points on the current ranking. The team in seventh, and last, place at the end of the quarter finals will be eliminated, as just six teams, including Team United States, will move onto the semifinals.
After a hectic but exciting playoff day yesterday, today it's time to play down to a champion. Team United States guaranteed themselves a place in the semis, and so skip the quarter-finals stage where the format is heads up. Team United Kingdom won't return today, they performed the poorest in the playoffs yesterday, and won't return.
The Quarter-Finals (12:00 p.m. - 3 p.m.)
With Team United Kingdom already eliminated yesterday, and Team United States leapfrogging directly into the semi-finals, we are now left with the 6 remaining teams in the quarter-finals all playing each other in a series of “Best out of 3” Heads-Up matches to determine which 5 teams will move onto the semi-finals and which team will be eliminated.
Team Germany
(2nd
vs.
7th)
Team Canada
Team Italy
(3rd
vs.
6th)
Team Ukraine
Team Russia
(4th
vs.
5th)
Team France
Each Heads-Up match will be played by a different player of each competing team. This means each competing country will need to deliberate and decide which 3 of its teammates will represent them during Heads-Up play. At this stage, we don't know who will play for each country.
After a total of 9 Heads-Up matches, quarter-final points are tallied and combined with playoffs points to determine the semi-final chip count. The team with the lowest amount of point after the Playoffs & Quarter-finals is eliminated from the competition.
The Semi-Finals (3:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.)
After the Heads-Up quarter-finals are done, it's time for stage 3 of the Global Poker Masters. The Semi-Finals will start around 3:30 p.m. and play out as a 6-max sit-n-go’s, with 1 player each representing their nation & play down to a champion.
The remaining 6 Nations each select a player to represent their team in the semi-finals. Play begins as normal deep stacked 6-Max action with each team’s starting stack dictated by how many points (chips) they were able to win as a team during the Playoffs & Quarterfinals.
The semi-finals will last for 4 hours of play – or until action gets down to Heads-Up play.
TBD: Teams may be able to “tag” one another in and out of play during the Semifinals.
The Finals (9:30 - midnight)
Once semifinal play gets down to heads-up action play pauses and all 10 remaining players split off into 5 heads-up matches simultaneously, each using their teams’ stack as it was at the conclusion of the semifinals.
All remaining players participate concurrently, playing Heads-Up against opposing Team members w/ each side using their Teams’ end-of 6-Max Semifinal chip stacks to play.
The GPM Finals play out until one of the 2 remaining Teams’ players have won 3 out of 5 concurrent Heads-Up matches - this team is crowned Champion of the 2015 Global Poker Masters.
Again, there's a live stream available the entire day via Twitch.tv. Of course PokerNews.com will be on sight to give you all the updates you can ask for. Play starts in about an hour time from now.
when Dato bet 1,000 from the big blind. Gnatenko called from the button and the turn was the 
. Both players checked and the river was the 
.
