June 01 2012, Mickey Doft

Each week, the Global Poker Index releases a list of the top 300 tournament poker players in the world using a formula that takes a player’s results over six half-year periods. For a look at the entire list of 300, visit the official GPI website.

The Top 10 as of May 28, 2012

The new face in the top 10 this week is Marvin Rettenmaier. He took down the $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship Event at the WPT World Championship for a cool $1,196,858 to lock himself into the No. 7 spot this week. Meanwhile, Steve O’Dwyer finished fifth for $192,176 to crack the top three.

Welcome to the GPI

Tom McCormick returned to the GPI this week with the best ranking of the four new players. His 14th-place finish in the aforementioned WPT World Championship gave him a much-needed boost in his Period 1 results. Brent Hanks also cracked the GPI and come next week, he’s going to see quite a rise. We’ll touch on that later.

New Additions

Falling from the GPI this week were Andrey Danilyuk, Giuseppe Pantaleo, Lucien Cohen, and Thorsten Schafer.

Ups and Downs

The biggest rise of the week belonged to Nick Schulman who finished in fourth place in the WPT World Championship, good for $256,325.

Biggest Gains

On the other end of the spectrum is Konstantin Puchkov. His fourth-place finished in a High Roller event at APPT Macau last November aged into Period 2. Randy Lew, winner of the Main Event there, also saw his GPI stock fall as a result.

Biggest Drops

What’s In Store?

Expect a busy and exciting few weeks in the GPI as the 2012 World Series of Poker kicked off earlier in the week. Brent Hanks earned a victory on Wednesday and will comfortably remove himself from the GPI bubble. Vanessa Selbst (No. 16) finished fourth in the event Hanks won, so expect her to push back into the top 10. Daniel Negreanu (No. 17) is at a final table Friday and will also see his GPI stock rise come next week.

To 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.

Follow Mickey Doft on

Comments

No comments yet. Be the first to post one!

June 01 2012, Brett Collson

On Friday, online gaming leaders PokerStars, bwin.party and 888 were among several companies awarded operating licenses in Spain ahead of the country’s new regulated market.

The new space, set to launch June 5, will permit licensed operators to offer legal online gambling under a “dot-es” domain. The country is following the lead of European nations like Italy, Denmark and France by introducing a new set of standards for the industry.

Under the new market regulations, the online poker player pool will initially be segregated, but changes could be implemented as early as next year to allow players to compete internationally.

“We are happy to confirm that PokerStars was today granted a license to operate in Spain and we plan to launch www.PokerStars.es on June 5,”said PokerStars spokesman Eric Hollreiser. “For now, Spanish players can continue to compete on www.PokerStars.com as normal and don’t need to take any action.

“As always, PokerStars is committed to providing players with a superior customer service, software and security. You can rest assured that your funds in this transition are totally safe and available. We will provide more details on the transition next week.”

In order to receive a license, many companies were forced to settle up back taxes with the Spanish tax authority due to a pair two laws that previously were not applied to offshore online gaming. Bwin.party agreed last week to pay up to “33.6 million to the cash-strapped nation. The company will now be permitted to offer online sports betting, poker, bingo, blackjack and roulette in Spain when the new market is launched.

“Our aim is to secure market-leading positions in all five products through leveraging the inherent strength of our two prime brands, PartyPoker and bwin, which has attained high consumer awareness through its sponsorship of Real Madrid, and also through a new, localized brand called Binguez,” said Jim Ryan and Norbert Teufelberger, co-CEOs of bwin.party. “Our launch in Spain will also be a key merger integration milestone for bwin.party as all of the three sites’ products will be hosted on a new, technologically advanced and fully integrated gaming platform that will enhance the consumer’s gaming experience.”

888 also settled the back tax issue with the Spanish Tax Ministry, making a one-off cash payment of “7.4 million plus surcharges and interest of around “1.3 million. The company will offer poker, online sports betting, bingo, casino games in Spain.

Others receiving licenses on Friday were Ladbrokes, Codere, Cirsa, Jaxx, bet365 and Sportingbet. The Spanish Gambling Commission has not provided a list of licensed operators, but the aforementioned companies have confirmed that their application was accepted. More than 60 operators submitted applications before the Dec. 14, 2011 deadline.

PokerNews will have more information on this story as it develops. Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

Follow Brett Collson on