The 2016 Global Poker League Draft List Is Out!

With the Draft Day of the first-ever Global Poker League just around the corner, Mediarex Entertainment finally released the official list of the 203 players that the 12 team managers will fight to get on their teams.

"The turnout for players signing up for the GPL Draft was much more than we expected — 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."

Taking place at the SLS Hotel in Beverley Hills on Feb. 25, 2016, the GPL Draft Day will be live streamed on Twitch.tv and is already set 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.

33 Countries, More than $500 Million in Combined Winnings

Each GPL team will include five players, three of which will be drafted during GPL Draft Day from the top 1,000 GPI-ranked players. The other two players left will be selected as "Wild Cards."

In order to be included in the list, during the past weeks all the top 1,000 GPI-ranked players have been invited to confirm their availability to join the GPL. While a handful of big names decided the GPL and The Cube are not in their nearest future (Read: Steve O'Dwyer), an impressive number of pros and legends of the game answered with a sound "Yes" to the possibility to be part of a project that aims to bring poker to a whole 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 draftable 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 Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth — as they will be busy hosting the Draft Day together with Kara Scott — we can see that an impressive number of top players decided to join Dreyfus' adventure.

One that is on the list and is likely to end up in one of the twelve teams is undoubtedly Antonio Esfandiari. Sitting on the second spot of U.S. 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.

Among the others that may be picked to join the 2016 GPL there are stars like 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 $13 million. Also in 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 participants

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