The Moscow Wolverines emerged as a contender and Tom Marchese and Olivier Busquet played one of the best heads-up matches ever streamed on Twitch during Week 4 of the Global Poker League.

There were plenty of players making their GPL debuts this week too with Jeff Gross, Anatoly Filatov, Todd Brunson and numerous others tagging in for the first time.

Filatov, Alexandre Luneau, Olivier Busquet and Anton Wigg all picked up victories in the 6-Max matches.

Meanwhile the heads-up matches were very compelling this week with Gross vs. Brunson, Busquet vs. Tom Marchese and Thiago Nishijima vs. Jonathan Jaffe.

Vanessa Selbst and Filatov also proved to be very dynamic in their heads-up series.

1) Anatoly Filatov

Anatoly Filatov couldn’t have done much better on Week 4 of the GPL.

The Moscow Wolverines Team Manager picked up a second and an outright win in the 6-Max portion and then went on to beat Vanessa Selbst 2-1 to pick up 18 points.

To put things in perspective Filatov won 18 out of a potential 23 points. Insane.

That 18 points was enough to push the Moscow Wolverines to the top of the GPL standings with 54.

Even better Filatov was one of the most entertaining figures to play in the GPL yet so the viewers won as well.

We can’t wait to see who Filatov faces off against next.

Just an awesome week for Filatov and the Wolverines.

2) Jeff Gross

Right up there with Anatoly Filatov this week is the Berlin Bears’ Jeff Gross.

Gross debuted on the GPL with a second and third-place finish in the 6-max portion followed by a straight-up sweep of Todd Brunson in the heads-up matches.

In total Gross locked up 17 points, just shy of Filatov’s impressive haul.

Gross is also another one of those guys that just plays the game at a very high level and explains it very well.

As an interesting aside Gross played from a hotel lobby that was occasionally swarmed with random strangers but he maintained his focus through the match.

After watching players like Gross, Olivier Busquet and Tom Marchese it seems incredible that all this content is 100% free.

3) Vanessa Selbst

Vanessa Selbst didn’t win her heads-up match this week but we found her to be one of the most interesting players to watch.

Selbst ended up losing 2-1 to Filatov but in all three matches she had the early lead. Filatov was able to mount comebacks in two of the matches thanks to a combination of luck and skill.

Perhaps more than any other player Selbst has no fear of making unconventional players and it makes her absolutely fascinating to watch.

Selbst is also very good at verbalizing her actions, making her matches highly educational.

Keep your eyes open for more Selbst heads-up matches because you’ll learn a ton.

Must-Watch Match of the Week

It’s fitting that Olivier Busquet took part in an MMA match against JC Alvarado last week because his heads-up battle against Tom Marchese this week had the feel of a heavyweight title fight.

Simply put: This was two of poker’s best minds going blow-for-blow.

Enjoy:

Honorable Mentions:

Amateur poker player Scott Ball (of Twitch.tv fame) was in deep against online stud Jason Lavallee but actually managed to squeak out one victory in their heads-up match. Olivier Busquet recorded another very strong week with 15 points for the LA Sunset. Nice comeback by Thiago Nishijima against Jonathan Jaffe.

Misclicks:

Todd Brunson going down 0-3 didn’t help the floundering Rome Emperors. Same goes for Walter Treccarichi who only picked up one point in two 6-Max games. Will Max Pescatori turn to MTT beast Mustapha Kanit next week? The San Francisco Rush have a great team on paper but haven’t really been able to get rolling and are currently last in the Americas conference.

Random Stats

• Total number of hands played: 4328
• Number of different players so far: 66
• Player with most hands: Olivier Busquet (LA Sunset) – 576 (11 matches)
• Player with least hands: still Kevin MacPhee (New York Rounders) – 13 (2 matches, finished 6th in his two 6-max tourneys last week)
• Most effective Player: George Danzer (Paris Aviators) 9 points in 57 hands (by far the best points to hands ratio)
• Most points in one week: Anatoly (Moscow Wolverines) Filatov – 18 in week 4 (maximum points possible in one week is 23)
• Biggest Boss (purely by look): Todd Brunson

GPL Standings

Here’s a look at the updated GPL standings after Week 4:

Eurasia
1. Moscow Wolverines – 53 points
2. Paris Aviators – 51 points
3. Hong Kong Stars – 46 points
4. Berlin Bears – 39 points
5. London Royals – 35 points
6. Rome Emperors – 28 points

Americas
1. Montreal Nationals – 47 points
2. New York Rounders – 46 points
3. LA Sunset – 43 points
4. LV Moneymakers – 40 points
5. Sao Paulo Mets – 39 points
6. San Francisco Rush – 37 points

Player Performance Index

PLAYER	POINTS	GAMES	HANDS	PERFORM. INDEX*
Olivier Busquet (LA Sunset)	27	11	576	7.5
Randy Lew (Hong Kong Stars)	21	12	564	3
Anton Wigg (San Francisco Rush)	19	7	306	2.5
Anatoly Filatov (Moscow Wolverines)	18	5	246	7.5
Jeff Gross (Berlin Bears)	17	5	211	6.5
Pascal Lefrançois (Montreal Nationals)	15	6	239	6
Dominik Nitsche (Berlin Bears)	15	5	331	4.5
Vladimir Troyanovskiy (Moscow Wolverines)	14	5	285	3.5
Alexandre Luneau (Paris Aviators)	14	5	229	3.5
Anthony Zinno (Las Vegas Moneymakers)	13	5	269	2.5
Tyler Kenney (New York Rounders)	12	2	216	6
Felipe Mojave (Sao Paulo Mets)	12	2	216	6
Mike McDonald (Montreal Nationals)	12	4	213	0
Tom Marchese (New York Rounders)	12	8	399	-3
Jason Wheeler (New York Rounders)	10	2	142	4
Raiden Kan (Hong Kong Stars)	10	2	239	4
Andrey Pateychuk (Moscow Wolverines)	10	2	202	4
Davidi Kitai (Paris Aviators)	10	2	179	4
Daniel Cates (Berlin Bears)	10	10	472	-11
Jason Mercier (New York Rounders)	9	3	94	4.5
George Danzer (Paris Aviators)	9	3	57	4.5
Kitty Kuo (San Francisco Rush)	9	2	167	3
Liv Boeree (London Royals)	9	2	149	3
Bertrand Grospellier (Paris Aviators)	9	6	376	0
Jason Lavallee (Montreal Nationals)	9	5	279	-1.5
Xuan Liu (Montreal Nationals)	8	2	106	2
Mike Leah (Paris Aviators)	8	2	144	2
Scott Ball (Las Vegas Moneymakers)	8	4	272	0.5
Darren Elias (Sao Paulo Mets)	8	5	257	-2.5
Weiyi Zhang (Hong Kong Stars)	7	2	135	1
Max Pescatori (Rome Emperors)	7	2	194	1
Jonathan Little (Las Vegas Moneymakers)	7	4	144	-0.5
Justin Bonomo (London Royals)	7	5	207	-3.5
Walter Treccarichi (Rome Emperors)	7	4	259	-5
Faraz Jaka (San Francisco Rush)	6	3	115	1.5
Sam Trickett (London Royals)	6	3	130	1.5
Joao Pires Simao (Sao Paulo Mets)	6	2	152	0
Fedor Holz (LA Sunset)	6	3	160	-3
Thiago Nishijima (Sao Paulo Mets)	6	6	243	-3
Sergey Lebedev (Moscow Wolverines)	6	6	266	-3
Timothy Adams (Rome Emperors)	6	6	233	-3
Chance Kornuth (LA Sunset)	5	1	63	2
Jake Cody (Las Vegas Moneymakers)	5	2	135	-1
Dzmitry Urbanovich (Moscow Wolverines)	5	2	158	-1
Mustapha Kanit (Rome Emperors)	5	2	118	-1
Igor Kurganov (London Royals)	5	4	124	-2.5
Chris Moorman (London Royals)	5	3	203	-4
Jonathan Duhamel (Las Vegas Moneymakers)	4	2	89	-2
Byron Kaverman (Sao Paulo Mets)	4	2	113	-2
Eugene Katchalov (LA Sunset)	4	4	144	-3.5
Chris Moneymaker (Las Vegas Moneymakers)	3	3	125	-1.5
Martin Jacobson (Montreal Nationals)	3	3	39	-1.5
Bryn Kenney (New York Rounders)	3	3	82	-1.5
Jonathan Jaffe (San Francisco Rush)	3	3	86	-1.5
João Bauer (Sao Paulo Mets)	3	3	91	-1.5
Vanessa Selbst (London Royals)	3	3	74	-1.5
Dario Sammartino (Rome Emperors)	3	3	86	-1.5
Celina Lin (Hong Kong Stars)	3	2	107	-3
Bryan Huang (Hong Kong Stars)	2	1	62	-1
Maria Ho (LA Sunset)	1	1	36	-2
Fabrice Soulier (Paris Aviators)	1	2	117	-5
Dong Guo (Hong Kong Stars)	0	1	20	-3
Phil Galfond (San Francisco Rush)	0	3	94	-4.5
Todd Brunson (Rome Emperors)	0	3	82	-4.5
Kevin MacPhee (New York Rounders)	0	2	13	-6

*The performance index measures how a player performs compared to his expected value. For example: on average a player will win 3 points in a 6-max tourney. If (s)he finishes first, (s)he’ll earn 7 points, 4 above the expected value, meaning a performance index rating of +4 for this tourney. If a player finishes last, (s)he’ll get 0 points, which corresponds to a performance index of -3.