After winning the Americas Conference title, the Montreal Nationals beat the Eurasia Conference-winning Berlin Bears in a very intense match yesterday, winning 6 to 5 in the best-of-11 final. Intriguing big river decisions resulted to the Montreal Nationals team winning the first Global Poker League (GPL) Playoffs Championship for $100,000.
Just as always in the GPL games which involve some of the industry's best tournament players, there were many interesting strategies to ponder upon as each matchup progressed. One intriguing hand from the eve of December 1 was during the 5th game involving Brian Rast (Berlin Bears) against Jason Lavallee (Montreal Nationals).
Match 3: Jason Lavallee tagged in for Marc-Andre Ladouceur and dominated the game against undefeated Brian Rast. But Rast couldn't find a good spot, ultimately shoving with K-8 but losing to the A-3 of Lavallee.
Match 5: Rast was up against Lavallee again and put a big hurt on Lavallee with pocket deuces. Another deuce on the flop beat the pocket jacks of Lavallee, and Rast won the match two hands later.
Match 8: Lavallee came on strong against Rast, and despite a Rast double-up, Lavallee was able to take A-T to battle against the 9-7 of a short-stacked Rast to win.
Match 11: The tie-breaker and final match of the GPL season started with Rast and Lafrancois, both taking their roles seriously. Rast only took 10 hands to build a nearly two-to-one chip lead, but Lefrancois took an opportunity to double with Q-J over 9-8 and jump into the chip lead. By the 25th hand, Rast had fewer than 20 big blinds. Ten hands later, Rast pushed with A-4 against the 9-8 suited of Lefrancois and doubled on a Q-Q-7-6-2 board. Rast took over the lead, but Lefrancois soon moved all-in with pocket fours, which dominated the Q-4 of Rast to put Lefrancois back in the lead.
On the 43rd hand of the match, Rast shipped all-in with T-8 on a board of Q-T-8-4-2, but Lefrancois snap-called with pocket queens. Lefrancois won and exited the Cube to celebrate with his teammates.
The Montreal Nationals are the first Global Poker League (GPL) Champions, and their grand prize is a whopping $100,000! They beat the Berlin Bears in 11 games, thereby claiming the inaugural GPL Championship title.
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Game
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Berlin Bears
|
|
Montreal Nationals
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|
1
|
Sorel Mizzi
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versus
|
Mike McDonald
|
|
2
|
Bill Perkins
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versus
|
Pascal Lafrancois
|
|
3
|
Brian Rast
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versus
|
Jason Lavallee
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|
4
|
Bill Perkins
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versus
|
Mike McDonald
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|
5
|
Brian Rast
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versus
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Jason Lavallee
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|
6
|
Sorel Mizzi
|
versus
|
Pascal Lafrancois
|
|
7
|
Bill Perkins
|
versus
|
Mike McDonald
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|
8
|
Brian Rast
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versus
|
Jason Lavallee
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|
9
|
Sorel Mizzi
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versus
|
Pascal Lafrancois
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|
10
|
Sorel Mizzi
|
versus
|
Mike McDonald
|
|
11
|
Brian Rast
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versus
|
Pascal Lafrancois
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|
|
5
|
|
6
|
source: https://www.pokernews.com/strategy/big-river-decisions-in-gpl-playoffs-as-montreal-takes-title-26501.htm
