August 11 2011, Mickey Doft

Each week, the Global Poker Index, releases a list of the top 300 tournament poker players in the world. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier has been holding strong to the top spot for the last few weeks, and the rankings for the week ending Aug. 8 are no different. New names have been added to the list, and some notables, like Jose “Nacho” Barbero, have dropped significantly in rank.

Here’s a look at this week’s GPI top 10. For a look at the entire list of 300, visit the official GPI website.

The Top 10 as of August 8, 2011

Top Ten Remains the Same

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier continues to sit atop the GPI with Erik Seidel, Jason Mercier, and Eugene Katchalov hot on his heels. The rest of the top ten remains the same, as well, with only Tom Marchese making a move in points, up 62 from last week. Next week, though, there is a good chance the top ten will change. At the time of writing this article, Seidel, Mercier and Katchalov are still battling among the 18 remaining players in the inaugural Epic Poker League event. With a big enough finish, all players have a chance to add to their Period 1 results (the heaviest part of the rankings weighing).

There was very little movement just outside the top ten, as well; however, McLean Karr did jump up two places, from 17th to 15th. He took down a 20-entrant High-Roller tournament in Macau to slightly increase his point total.

Welcome to the GPI

Seven new players cracked the GPI rankings this week, and deep tournament runs were a key reason why. What will a win at the Main Event of the European Poker Tour Tallinn do for you? Well, in Ronny Kaiser’s case, it resulted in a $395,740 payday and a ranking of #167 on the GPI. Sami Kelopuro took seventh in the same tournament, and coupled with two nice finishes at the WSOP, his Period 1 scores have helped boost him to 182nd place. Luca Pagano won the Main Event of the Italian Poker Tour San Remo to grab a spot on the GPI, as well.

Among those who fell off the GPI this week are Scott Clements, Micah Raskin, Tyler Smith, and Joao Barbosa.

New Additions

Ups and Downs

The biggest mover of the week was John O’Shea, who jumped 90 spots from 280th to 190th. Thanks to a 29th-place finish in the EPT Tallinn Main Event, O’Shea has three cashes in the last six months to help boost his numbers in Period 1. Jani Sointula had the next biggest gain and that also came as a result of his finish (fourth place) at the EPT Tallinn Main Event.

Biggest Gains

On the flip side, the biggest drop this week belongs to Jose “Nacho” Barbero. It hasn’t been a strong six months for Barbero. He now was only two cashes that qualify for Period 1 since a third cash has slipped to Period 2, the significant reason for his drop this week. Jeff Madsen also fell substantially this week. His biggest score since his amazing 2006 WSOP came in early February 2010 at the Borgata Winter Open in Atlantic City. He took first-place for more than $625,000, but that score now falls in Period 4, rather than Period 3, and isn’t weighted as heavily.

Biggest Drops

What’s In Store?

With the inaugural Epic Poker League event wrapping up on Friday, the rankings will almost certainly see some changes next week. Could this be Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier’s last week at the top? It very well might be. Who will take his place? It’s too early to tell, but there is no doubt that Erik Seidel, Jason Mercier, and Eugene Katchalov, are all very worthy of holding down the fort at the top.

As a reminder, for a look at the entire list of 300, visit the official GPI website. While you’re at it, follow the GPI on Twitter and its Facebook page.

To stay on top of the GPI and other happenings in the poker world, follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

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August 11 2011, Cory Dowd

Day 2 of the inaugural Epic Poker League Main Event is in the books. The tournament played its way down to the final 18 competitors on Wednesday night. While that officially takes the field into the money, more importantly perhaps, is that everyone remaining has locked up points towards the end-of-the-season freeroll where $1 million will be up for grabs.

Sam Trickett continues his fantastic 2011 and will enter Day 3 with 1.032 million in chips — good enough for the lead after almost a full 13 levels of play. At the end of the day, Trickett, along with the other 17 players, decided to take $17,340 from the second place payout and give it to the winner, so they are now fighting for an even $1,000,000 up top.

The tournament began with 63 players Wednesday, but eliminations started early and came often. Dwyte Pilgrim, Dan Shak, Vanessa Selbst, Sorel Mizzi, Phil Laak and Daniel Alaei were some of the casualties during Level 1. As play continued, the field lost Chad Brown, Shannon Shorr, Mike Sexton, John Racener and Justin Young. Antonio Esfandiari made a play early in the day against Chino Rheem when he overbet the pot on a flop by moving all-in for nearly 150,000, despite the pot having only reached about 30,000 to that point. Rheem called and Esfandiari’s held on against Rheem’s . He too, however, could not make it through Day 2.

After the dinner break, play got increasingly tense as the possibility of cashing in the very first EPL event became more and more real. Ben Lamb, Tom Marchese and Nam Le all got within a table of making the history books, but fell short. Brian Rast was busted by Jason Mercier near the end of the day as well, in a hand he won’t soon forget. Creating a pot of over 600,000, he moved all-in on a board of with , but was drawing dead against Mercier’s .

The most unfortunate player of the day was Matt Graham who found himself exit squarely on the bubble. He limped from the small blind before Rheem jammed from the big blind. Graham called off his final 142,500 with and found himself ahead and dominating against Rheem’s . On the turn, however, Rheem made the nut flush when the board ran out .

While Graham was understandably unhappy about his elimination, it brought a quiet smile to 18 faces around the room as they began bagging up their chips for Thursday. It should also be noted that of the eight players that owned temporary cards via entry from the Pro/Am, two still remain, Dan Fleyshman and Brandon Meyers. You can find out the entire list of players still remaining in the event and relive the action from Day 2 on our Live Reporting pages.

Top Five Chip Counts

The field for the Main Event was strong with the top talent from across the world showing up to test their skills against the best of the best. The action has been sharp, the pots lively and the entertainment vast. Day 3 will be sure to continue right along with those trends so be sure to check back here Thursday at 1200 PDT (2000 BST) when, as always, PokerNews will have as much action as you can take as we play our way down to the final table!

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