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LAPT9 Chile: Main Event gets underway! Day 1A live updates

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12pm: Shuffle up and deal - vamos!
Level 1 - Blinds 50/100

We're officially off and running here in Chile. The players start with 20,000 chips, and we'll be playing 10 one-hour levels today. --JS

11:30am: Who will set the bar in Viña del Mar?

Buenos días! We're here in the beautiful 'Garden City' of Viña del Mar in Chile for the Latin American Poker Tour Season 9's second stop. In a half hour's time, we'll be kicking off the festival with Day 1A of the $1,500 NL Hold'em Main Event with unlimited re-entries.

Viña del Mar has been a regular stop on the tour since Season 2 back in 2008, when Argentina's Fabián Ortiz took down the inaugural event. Last year it was Chile's own Oscar Alache who won the $131,962 first place prize and his second LAPT title, having also notched a win in Peru in Season 7. To scoop the trophy in Chile last year, Alache defeated a tough final table that also included two-time LAPT champ Jose Barbero.

So, the question is: will he try and go back-to-back, overtaking both Ortiz and Barbero to become the first player with three LAPT titles? We'll have to wait and see!

We're expecting an exciting day of play to get this Main Event going, and if other LAPT stops are anything to go by then that's exactly what we're going to get. We'll be back shortly when the players start to arrive and the cards are (almost) in the air - don't go anywhere. --JS


Want to qualify for the LAPT? Click here to get a PokerStars account and start today

PokerStars Blog Reporting Team at LAPT9 Chile: Will O'Connor and Jack Stanton. Photos by Carlos Monti. Follow the PokerStars Blog on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog



The perfect weekend ahead?

Sometimes all the elements that make for a great poker weekend collide creating a weekends you want to dive into fully clothed. Whether it's something to play, something to inspire, or something to read, we seem to have it all.

For one thing there are the usual assortment of weekend Majors, and the satellites that will get you into them at a discount. That culminates with the Sunday Million where someone will walk away with the biggest payday of the weekend.

But size isn't everything (despite what you hear on TV). Other prizes might not match the million for magnitude, but they'll still put a smile on your face, starting with the conclusion of Team Pro Online week.


Team Pro Online week

If you've been reading the Blog this week you'll already know about this, but let me get you up to speed.

Foremost was the Beat Them or Back Them element, whereby you had to beat the Online Pros heads-up to win a package to the EPT Grand Final, or Back Them to do the same thing. Then there's the $200,000 Bounty Freeroll, the Zoom Pools, and an opportunity to actually join Team Pro Online. If this last part appeals to you in particular, I can highly recommend the post by Katerina Malasidou this week who talked of her own application and the changes that has brought to her life.


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Liliya 'Liay5' Novikova wrote yesterdayabout her experiences at EPT Prague (good experiences). Meanwhile Malasidou's husband Andre Coimbra wrote about his latest challenge, to turn $10 into $1,000. It's not the first time Coimbra has attempted this kind of thing. Last time he tried to turn $1,000 into $100,000. He failed miserably, reaching only $70,000. A shortfall perhaps, but if that's considered a failure I'm not sure Coimbra will ever want to be right again.

That takes care of the playing side of things. What to watch while all this is taking place?

Well that's where Twitch makes an inevitable appearance. Various members of Team Online will be broadcasting their progress through the weekend, the schedule for which you can find here.

While that's all taking place online, two festivals get started in the real world


LAPT Chile

The Latin American Poker Tour pulls into Chile this week. As always the LAPT knows how to put on a show, and a poker tournament, which our team of Jack Stanton and Will O'Connor will be on hand to report on starting later today in Viña del Mar.


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The LAPT homepage has all the details, while coverage begins on the blog later today.


Rozvadov

Those of us who have never been to Rozvadov hear it's a deceptive place. It's essentially a small town in the Czech countryside with an enormous casino in the middle of it. But while there might not be much to do outside, inside there's one of the best poker venues in the region. That's what we told our reporter Nick Wright as we packed him onto a plane yesterday to cover the Eureka Rozvadov festival, which starts today.


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But like many places that are far from anywhere, the reception is typically warm, as the thousands of players who have already given this theory a try will back us up on. We have full coverage of the Main Event in Rozvadov starting today.


MPC

Lastly, and certainly not least(ly), the Macau Poker Cup 24 concludes today. You might have seen our coverage this week on the Blog which our reporter Brad Kain wraps up tonight. It's final table time, so check out the finalists then jump into the MPC:24 coverage.


EPT Not Live

In between all of the above there's another episode of the #EPTNotLive podcast to enjoy. Not only will James Hartigan and Joe Stapleton bring the irreverence, but there's also details of a freeroll being staged on Thursday March 10 which could earn you a ticket to the 10th Anniversary Sunday Million later this month, as well as signed "KidPoker" poster.

That's our bit. Here's the official version:

"It's a triple-header, as James and Joe bring Matt Broughton ("The Other Commentator") into the booth. Although, in the run-up to this week's recording, Stapes went missing, and Matt was on stand-by to play the role of Uncle Daddy! Luckily, Hartigan' s journalistic skills saved the day. After kicking things off with a few post-Dublin anecdotes - including James's near-death experience and an update on Matt's mouth - Joe recalls the glamour and glitz of the American Poker Awards and talks about his work as a "seat filler" during the ceremony. There are details of the forthcoming #EPTLive Home Game, including the all-important Club ID and Invitation Code. Plus, find out if Teun van Dijk from The Netherlands is a Muggle or a Wizard in a Harry Potter-themed edition of 'Superfan vs Stapes'. And the show concludes with the boys' (delayed) review of 'Deadpool'. #EPTNotLive"

Tune in using your preferred link below:

http://www.soundcloud.com/eptnotlive
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/ept-not-live/id970248920?mt=2
http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ept-not-live


That's about everything you'll need going into the weekend, except a PokerStars account, which you can get here. In the meantime best of luck at the tables, both real and online, and as always you can send us your thoughts and comments on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog.


Stephen Bartley is a staff writer for the PokerStars Blog.



MPC24: Final table live updates

Final table time!

We're just moments away from the MPC24 Red Dragon final table!

Nine players will take their seats at 3pm in the quest for HK$2,360,000 first place prize and the illustrious Red Dragon trophy.

The chip leader to start the day will be Liang Xu. He had a great Day 3 and returns this afternoon with 3,375,000. Another one to watch is the UK's Tom Alner. The only man outside of Asia to previously win a Red Dragon title, Alner has a chance today at becoming a two-time champion.

You can see how the whole table stacks up below. Stay with us here on the PokerStars Blog as we play down to a new champion!

MPC24 Red Dragon Final Table Draw
Seat 1 - Takashi Ogura (Japan) - 2,710,000
Seat 2 - Liang Xu (China) - 3,375,000
Seat 3 - Fan Xie (China) - 1,110,000
Seat 4 - Ying Lin Chua (Malaysia) - 2,665,000
Seat 5 - Chengbei Lei (China) 1,700,000
Seat 6 - Yang Zhang (China) - 1,375,000
Seat 7 - Tom Alner (United Kingdom) - 1,030,000
Seat 8 - Yongqiang Huang (China) - 520,000
Seat 9 - Wayne Zhang (China) - 1,610,000

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All photos by Kenneth Lim Photography courtesy of PokerStars LIVE Macau



I had no other choice...

PokerStars festivals are, by far, my favorite. They're enjoyable in a lot of ways; you can visit a new country, meet old friends and make new ones, or just simply have a good time. For some players these are the biggest reasons. like to concentrate on the tournaments and try my very best to maximise my playing ability.

I recently went to Prague EPT, and my first tournament of the series was the €1,100 Eureka Main Event. I felt I played well and in general was satisfied with my game, but I managed to bust out during last three hands of the day. The elimination was hard to take, because I had a built a big stack. I found myself on the wrong end of a cold deck.

The next day I played the €2,200 High Roller, making it into Day 2 and managing to cash, I busted in 72nd due to some bad luck. I had originally decided to play in the evening Turbo €300, but then I saw a €1,100 deep stack which had a much more agreeable tournament structure.


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I really wanted to win this one. I felt extremely focused and was silently repeating, "I have to win it!" as a mantra. I planned each action with the maximum amount of attention, trying not to make any mistakes. What bet-sizing to use? How to play best against each particular player? Step by step, I was moving ahead in the tournament. As the number of players decreased, I was able to maintain a good stack.

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Closer to the bubble, I was able to put pressure on my opponents. An aggressive style works well when emotions are bubbling up and everyone is doing their best to get into the money. When there were three tables left, I was among the chip leaders. At that moment I had an extremely tough table with what looked to be only professionals left in the tournament. I met a fellow countryman who appeared to be an experienced MTT player, and he ended up taking sixth place. As I speak only a little English, it was great to meet players and dealers from Russia and have conversations with them in Russian during the breaks. Being able to do this regularly is really precious to me.

Surprisingly, the final table felt very comfortable, and I felt confident in my abilities. I was able to play a lot of hands and always had a big stack. When we got down to the final three players the tournament seemed like a turbo and luck started to become a major factor. I proposed a deal to my opponents but one of them consistently refused. I knocked him out soon after.

I was left head-up versus a player from Hong Kong. I had met him earlier and we had spoken a little. I offered him a deal but he also declined. After that I had no other choice but to win, and I managed to do so! My happiness was bottomless. I was full of emotion and had a real feeling of triumph. It's just one of the reasons why I like poker so much.

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Ahead I have more hard work planned to improve my game and hopefully some more victories under the PokerStars flag.


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Liliya "Liay5" Novikova is a member of Team Online Pro

Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/liay5/profile
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Liay5
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/liay5



MPC24: Final table player profiles

Seat 1: Takashi Ogura, 33 (Tokyo, Japan) - 2,710,000

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Japan's Takashi Ogura starts our Red Dragon final table second in chips. The 33 year-old says he's played poker for six years and got his start in cash games. When he's not running deep in tournaments he can usually be found playing HK$300-HK$600 at the Wynn in Macau.

Ogura's best result to date is a 64th place finish in the WSOP Main Event for which he scored $106,056. He says his poker hero is the Texas Dolly Doyle Brunson and outside of poker, Ogura enjoys playing Mahjong.

Seat 2: Liang Xu, 28 (Shanghai, China) - 3,375,000

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China's Liang Xu had a spectacular Day 3 and will begin the final table as the chip leader. He's been playing poker for four years and learnt the game playing with friends including Team PokerStars Pro Yaxi Zhu. Xu won the ACOP Platinum Series XI back in October for HK$169,300 and has already guaranteed himself a bigger payday here this week.

Xu says he's enjoyed playing in Macau this week and loves to try and take down every pot. He also told us he has his eye on the prize and really wants to be the Red Dragon champion. When he's not at the poker table Xu enjoys cycling and travel.

Seat 3: Fan Xie, 26 (Beijing, China) - 1,110,000

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26 year-old business owner Fan Xie taught herself how to play poker and has been at it for six years now. This is her first-ever live tournament cash - what a way to begin a tournament poker career, with a Red Dragon final table!

Xie says that her poker hero is Tom Dwan and the most important thing to bring her to this final table was her drive to win the prestigious trophy. Aside from poker, Xie's second favourite game is Mahjong.

Seat 4: Ying Lin Chua, (Johor Bahru, Malaysia) - 2,665,000

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Ying Lin Chua is a conference manager from Malaysia who's been playing the game for a decade now. Chua got his start playing online and taking part in home games, and these days plays stakes of HK$50/100.

Chua has already had a stellar start to 2016, winning the WPTN Philippines for US$86,130. His poker heroes include Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson while his heroes outside of poker are his parents. Chua says he's enjoyed the competitive nature of the tournament this week, but also networking and learning with fellow poker lovers. When he's not playing poker, Chua can be found playing arcade games and having fun with friends and family.

Seat 5: Chengbei Li, 34 (Shanghai, China) - 1,700,000

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Chengbei Li is a private banker from Shanghai and has only been playing poker for a year now. He got his start watching tutorial videos on YouTube and playing at his local poker club. His regular games these days include US$120 tournaments.

Li has no recorded results on Hendon Mob but says he has played some tournaments in China. He told us his hero is Eason Chan and this week he's really enjoyed the experience he's had playing the Red Dragon. During his time at the table, he attributes this deep run to balance, patience and his observational abilities.

Seat 6: Yang Zhang, 33 (Dalian, China) - 1,375,000

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Yang Zhang hails from China and has been playing poker for two years. An investor by occupation, Zhang got his start in poker playing right here at PokerStars LIVE Macau. He tells us his best results so far are a first place finish in the Beijing Cup and a second place in the Beijing Millions.

Zhang is looking forward to taking home the Red Dragon trophy and says the most pivotal point of his tournament so far was his play on Day 2. Aside from poker, Zhang also likes to gamble on table games at the casino.

Seat 7: Tom Alner, 30 (Bristol, England) - 1,030,000

MPC24 Day 3 tom alner.jpg

Tom Alner is a professional poker player from the United Kingdom and says he's been playing the game for too long now. His greatest result so far came in a PokerStars WCOOP event where he told us he pocketed $375,000. A previous Red Dragon champion, Alner will be going for a second victory here this week.

He attributes his success this week to running good on top of his patience, discipline and poker skills. Away from the poker tables Alner likes to keep fit, play football, travel and spend time with his friends.

Seat 8: Yongqiang Huang, 34 (Shanghai, China) - 520,000

mpc24 Yongqiang Huang.jpg

Yongqiang Huang comes into the final table as our short stack this week. He says he's been playing poker for three years and learnt the game by watching videos. Huang tells us his favourite thing this week has been bad beating his tablemates.

Huang has enjoyed learning a lot during his time playing the Red Dragon this week and has previously battled it out in tournaments across China. Outside of the poker world, Huang's hero is his father.

Seat 9: Wayne Wei Yi Zhang, 21 (Chengdu, China)

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Chinese young gun Wayne Wei Yi Zhang has been playing poker for two years now, and learnt the game in a Michigan poker room. His greatest tournament result to date was a fifth place finish in the Macau Poker Cup High Roller and he was recently selected for the Hong Kong Stars team in the Global Poker League.

Zhang says the thing he's most enjoyed during the tournament this week is the competition and the most crucial moment in his deep run was having his pocket kings hold during a three-way all in. Outside of poker Zhang enjoys playing Hearthstone, and he tells us that his hero is his mother.



MPC24: China's Liang Xu leading into final table

We finally made it!

After a week of exciting poker action here at PokerStars LIVE Macau the Red Dragon final table is here at last.

When things kicked off at 3pm we had 55 players and weren't sure how long the day would last. Approximately eight hours later and that Day 3 field has been whittled down to a lucky nine.

Leading our final nine is none other than China's Liang Xu. He had a steady climb throughout proceedings and received a nice boost to his stack when he won a flip holding pocket eights against Kelly Liu's ace-queen to send her home only a couple players short of an appearance tomorrow.

MPC24 final table chip leader liang xu.jpg

Leading the charge - Liang Xu

Xu is no stranger to winning a tournament in Macau having shipped the ACOP Platinum Series XI back in October for HK$169,300. With HK$190,000 going to ninth place here for this Red Dragon event Xu has already guaranteed himself the biggest cash of his career and will be chasing the HK$2,360,000 first-place prize.

Perhaps the story of the tournament, however, is that of 'Baby' Tom Alner. The only player outside of Asia to ever win the Red Dragon, Alner has again made the final table of this prestigious event. He returns tomorrow as one of our short stacks but that hasn't dampened his spirits.

"It's awesome. I'm so hyped to get through such a huge field" Alner said about his chance at a two-time victory.

MPC24 Day 3 tom alner.jpg

Will Tom Alner become Red Dragon champion again?

Unfortunately for Nan Tu it was a different story tonight. He left us in 10th place as the final table Bubble Boy. Tu first took a huge blow to his stack when he ran pocket sixes into the pocket kings of Fan Xie. Following that he peddled a short stack for a while before finding himself dominated and at risk against Takashi Ogura.

Tu held [ac][5c] and needed help against Ogura's [ad][qc]. He would never find it as the board ran out [6s][8s][ks][2d][8c] to see the players and railbirds in the tournament erupt in cheer and play come to a close for Day 3.

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Fan Xie celebrates with her rail as the final table bubble bursts

So that leaves nine left in the hunt for the prestigious Red Dragon title and the best-looking trophy in poker. Here's where our players are sitting and how they fare in the chip counts.

MPC24 Red Dragon Final Table Draw
Seat 1 - Takashi Ogura (Japan) - 2,710,000
Seat 2 - Liang Xu (China) - 3,375,000
Seat 3 - Fan Xie (China) - 1,110,000
Seat 4 - Ying Lin Chua (Malaysia) - 2,665,000
Seat 5 - Chengbei Lei (China) 1,700,000
Seat 6 - Yang Zhang (China) - 1,375,000
Seat 7 - Tom Alner (United Kingdom) - 1,030,000
Seat 8 - Yongqiang Huang (China) - 520,000
Seat 9 - Wayne Zhang (China) - 1,610,000

So that's a wrap until tomorrow. Play will recommence at 3pm local time and won't conclude until we have our champion. We hope you can join us for the exciting conclusion of this MPC24 Red Dragon!



MPC24: Day 3 live updates

MPC24 Red Dragon Day 3 gearing up

The penultimate day.

Where our remaining 55 players will fight down to a final table.

Once again Kamel Mokhammad will be the man to chase. After finishing as chip leader on Day 1b he did it again yesterday, bagging up 905,000 when play concluded.

We'll be back underway at 3:00pm and as the plan is to finish with our final table set, there's no predicted finishing time tonight.

As usual we'll be covering everything you need to know from right here in Macau. Keep your browser locked to the PokerStars Blog as we make our way towards a final table!

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All photos by Kenneth Lim Photography courtesy of PokerStars LIVE Macau



Draft dreams

Anthony Zinno stood against a wall at a posh Beverly Hills hotel. Dressed in a suit and blue tie, Zinno looked as if he'd plastered an irremovable smile from his face in lieu of shaving.

A semi-circle had formed around him, a man who had earned more than $5 million in the last eight years of playing live poker tournaments. The people he could reach out and touch had less than $10,000 in tournament earnings among them, and yet Zinno was the one who seemed humbled.

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Zinno receiving an American Poker Award

It's not been too many years since Zinno was like many of the people around him, people in the categories of Wanna-Be, Never-Had-Been, or Never-Could-Have-Been. He was the young man who watched TV poker, grinded when he could, and did his best to earn himself a Plan B degree if it all didn't work out.

Zinno was no dummy back then. He earned both chemical engineering and law diplomas. Nevertheless, he had his sights set in a far different arena. He looked to the people playing on TV and thought, "That's where I'd like to be."

So, on this night in Beverly Hills, Zinno stood against the wall with a half-moon of fans peppering him with questions, and he admitted he had once been a fan boy of a man named Moneymaker.

"I've looked up to Chris since I was a broke law student at the beginning of the poker boom," Zinno said.

Zinno played for years, grinding up big scores, and finally making it to 2015 when he won two WPT titles and a WSOP bracelet. He made it on his own, and that's what made this night all the more special.

Just a few hours earlier, Moneymaker had drafted Zinno in the first round of the nascent Global Poker League. Before long, Zinno and Moneymaker will be playing alongside each other on the Las Vegas Moneymakers with Jonathan Duhamel, Jake Cody, and Jonathan Little.

Ten years ago, Zinno looked up to Moneymaker and dreamed. Today, Zinno is Moneymaker's first round draft pick.

"I'll try to make him proud," Zinno said.

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Zinno and Moneymaker

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There are a lot of dreams to go around. They come cheap but sometimes end up costing as much as nightmares. We collect them like baseball cards and file them in cool dark places so we can admire them later. For many people, that's all it ever amounts to. The binders of dream cards gather dust over the years, and we flip through them one last time before we die.

It takes a certain sort of person to turn those dreams into action. It takes a person unafraid to fail over and over again. It takes a person willing to not let one dream's failure turn into a poison for the rest.

Enter the Global Poker League, the brainchild of entrepreneur Alex Dreyfus. It's a wild concept by any measure, one that aims to turn poker into a sort of televised sport, one where people stand up while playing, one that's played in a cube, one that looks almost nothing like the poker we know today. For many people, it's been good for a laugh. Even Dreyfus laughs at himself when he thinks about it, not at all sure his new venture will be a success and not at all afraid of failing on a world stage.

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Dreyfus with Kara Scott during the GPL draft

The concept puts 12 franchises up against each other in a series of contests unlike any you will see on the traditional poker circuit. Though it's a concept that could fail as easily as it succeeds, it's drawn some powerhouses of poker to its ranks. The franchise manager roster includes Moneymaker, Team Online's Marc Andre Ladouceur, Team PokerStars Pros Liv Boeree, Andre Akkari, and Celina Lin, as well as Max Pescatori, Bryn Kenney, Faraz Jaka, Anatoly Filatov, Maria Ho, Philipp Gruissem, and Fabrice Soulier.

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Celina Lin alongside Kara Scott during the GPL draft

As you might expect, Team PokerStars Pro was heavily represented during the four draft rounds. Jason Mercier, Vanessa Selbst, ElkY, George Danzer, Eugene Katchalov, Bryan Huang, and Jake Cody all got draft nods. None of them know if the GPL will work out, but they're all willing to dream alongside Dreyfus.

Even after 13 years in the business, Moneymaker was ready to give the GPL a shot.

"I don't really put my name on much, because it's really hard to get behind a lot of projects. So many have failed. So many have seemed so poorly thought out," Moneymaker said. "This is one that when it was developed, right form the beginning, I loved it, and I wanted to support it."

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Commentary during the GPL draft

The GPL and dreamers in general perhaps had no greater ambassador on that day than Jason Mercier. Drafted in the first round by Bryn Kenney's New York Rounders, Mercier was ready to take his spot on the team.

Mercier is a man we normally see in relaxed clothing--usually some sort of sports jersey and comfortable workout shorts. On this day, Mercier wore a dress shirt and tie as he climbed up on the stage and said, "It's an honor to be the first pick of the New York Rounders."

Like Zinno, Mercier always had dreams. An avid basketball player and fan of all sports, Mercier has watched young men like himself get drafted to multimillion-dollar sports contracts his entire life. He couldn't help but want the same thing for himself.

"Growing up, I wanted to be a professional athlete, and I wanted to be drafted," he admitted.

Instead, Mercier's talents took him in a different direction. Now, he's one of poker's most successful players. He is, by any definition, a pro. Now, he's had his dream of being drafted turned into his reality.

"Being a professional poker player is a great honor and we need to be great ambassadors of the game," he said. "This is a great opportunity for all of us."

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Mercier with Kenney in the first round of the GPL draft

Dreams are funny things. They can make us fly. They can make us drown. They can put a man in another time and place wondering why a water buffalo would want a glass of champagne and why it's a monkey's job to serve uncork the bottle. Dreams aren't bound by the laws of physics or chronology. They are the kind of thing that could put a broke law student like Zinno and a wannabe pro athlete like Mercier on the same stage in the first round of a professional draft.

Who knows what will become of the GPL, its teams, and its players. By this time next year, the GPL may just be some ethereal memory, a gauzy piece of poker history that never really found its place. No one can say.

But know this: the GPL has a lot of dreamers like Zinno and Mercier in its ranks, and those are people who have discovered the magic of waking up to find their dreams have been real life all along.


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is the PokerStars Head of Blogging.