The Montreal Nationals broke the 100-point barrier this week thanks to a record setting performance by Jason Lavallee.

In the final week before the Global Poker League heads to Las Vegas for the ‘Summer Series’, there were teams moving in both Conferences with the Montreal Nationals becoming the first team to hit triple digits in points thanks to an outstanding performance from Jason Lavallee.

EURASIA CONFERENCE

The London Royals continued their march in the Eurasia Conference, picking up 18 points thanks to Liv Boeree’s win in the first Six Max match and Igor Kurganov’s second place in the second. This was Boeree’s third Six Max win, the most of any player in the GPL.

It was an interesting set of Eurasia Heads Up matches, with first place playing second, third place playing fourth and fifth place playing sixth. The Royals were further boosted by Sam Trickett’s 2-1 win over Moscow Wolverines Vladimir Troyanovskiy, a result which moved them above the Wolverines in the Conference. At the end of Week 6 the Royals were 14 points behind the Wolverines, but have since outscored Moscow 29-10 to lead the conference by five points.

There was also movement for the Hong Kong Stars thanks to two strong performances from Raiden Kan who finished second and third in the two Six Max matches, and is now the only player to have never finished outside of the top three in any match. Those results propelled the Stars past the Paris Aviators in the standings. It wasn’t all bad for the Paris team though. Mike Leah’s victory in the Six Max was wiped out as Randy Lew swept Bertrand Grospellier in the heads-up match.

At the bottom of the Eurasia conference things continue to look bleak for the Rome Emperors, who fell even further behind to the Berlin Bears owing in part to Sorel Mizzi’s win over Timothy Adams on Wednesday. The Emperors are now nine points behind the Bears, and a seemingly insurmountable 23 points behind the Paris Aviators in fourth.

AMERICAS CONFERENCE

There was no change at the top of the Americas Conference, as the Montreal Nationals became the first team to break the 100 point barrier. Martin Jacobson finished first and third in his two Six Max matches. He now has two wins along with a second place and a third place finish in his four Six Max matches

It was a good week for the LA Sunset. They moved up to second place in the Americas Conference thanks to a first and third place from Fedor Holz in the Six Max, and Olivier Busquet’s Heads Up win over New York Rounders ‘Tom Marchese. Holz (42 points) and Busquet (41 points) have been the two standout performers in the GPL so far, with the pair of them combinind for over 90% of their team’s points.

https://twitter.com/olivierbusquet/status/735980865197641728?lang=en-gb

The Sao Paulo Mets enjoyed a solid week, with Joao Bauer winning all 12 of his team’s points to move within five points of third place heading into the Summer Series.

Meanwhile, at the bottom of the conference the Las Vegas Moneymakers and the San Francisco Rush had disappointing weeks. The Moneymakers could only manage two points this week from Jonathan Little’s fourth place finish in on Six Match, as Anthony Zinno was swept by Lavallee in the Heads Up round. In doing so, Lavallee set two records; he became the second player after Randy Lew to win two sweeps and is now unbeaten in Heads Up matches since the second game of his Week 4 match against Scott Ball, winning seven straight games.

WEEK 8 MVP

It was a tough choice for this week’s MVP but in the end it has to go to Jason Lavallee. Martin Jacobson gets an honorable mention for his consistent Six Max form, but Lavallee not only secured a sweep (his second in a row), but pushed the Montreal Nationals past the100 point barrier.

COMING UP

The Six Max online portion of events now take a back seat to the Summer Series which starts June 6. Play will be live from the GPL’s new Las Vegas studio where teams will play inter-conference matches for this first time. These Heads Up matches will see the likes of Olivier Busquet and Randy Lew (the current best heads-up players in their conference) do battle over a month of competition.