Updated on 22 Feb 26 by
Peter Fryers
Poker Expert

Global Poker League line-up announced

We round-up some of the stories you may have missed, including GPL line up details, Maggie Smith goes all-in and O'Dwyer's winning run continues.

Global Poker League Teams

Drawing players and cities from nine countries across four continents, the ambitious and possibly revolutionary Global Poker League launches later this year but, until now, excited fans were in the dark about team managers.

Chris Moneymaker we already knew about but on Wednesday the full list of managers taking charge of the twelve competing teams was announced. 

The first draft is due to take place on February 25 with team managers, all appointed by the GPL, picking their teams on a live Twitch stream that features commentary from Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and ESPN's Kara Scott.

Team managers are as follows:

Team Manager Team Manager
Berlin Bears Philipp Gruissem Moscow Wolverines Anatoly Filatov
Hong Kong Stars Celina Lin New York Rounders Bryn Kenney
LA Sunset Maria Ho Paris Aviators Fabrice Soulier
Las Vegas Moneymakers Chris Moneymaker Rome Emperors Max Pescatori
London Royals Liv Boeree Sao Paulo Metropolitans Andre Akkari
Montreal Nationals Marc-Andre Ladouceur San Francisco Rush Faraz Jaka

No Stopping O'Dwyer

Steve O'Dwyer

Over in the Bahamas, Steve O'Dwyer added yet another high roller tourney win to his growing list of accomplishments.

By taking the $50,000 Single-Day no-limit High Roller title at the PCA, the Irish American has won his fourth tournament with a $50k buy-in, as well as making the final table a further seven times, since November 2014.

Only a week ago O’Dwyer came fourth in the WPT Triton Super Cali Cup in the Philippines for $953,700. This week however he fought off 80 entries to win the $945,495 prize.

Maggie Smith loves to grind

Maggie Smith Poker
Grinder: Maggie Smith

Surprising poker player of the week goes to 81 year old dame Maggie Smith. A fellow cast member of Downton Abbey has revealed that Smith is a huge fan of seven-card stud on set and regularly wins.

A slightly less surprising film star/poker fan is US actor and dirty rotten scoundrel Steve Martin who waited until Wednesday to brag about a Hold'em hand he once held "several years ago"

Share this with your friends

Poker Expert