December 01 2011, 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 November 28, 2011
| 2 | Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier | 2,534.45 | 0 |
| 3 | Jason Mercier | 2,398.58 | 0 |
| 4 | Eugene Katchalov | 2,378.13 | 0 |
| 5 | Shawn Buchanan | 2,219.40 | 0 |
| 6 | Sam Stein | 2,178.26 | 0 |
| 7 | Sam Trickett | 2,121.17 | 0 |
| 8 | Sorel Mizzi | 2,106.72 | 0 |
| 9 | Fabrice Soulier | 2,024.88 | 0 |
| 10 | Matt Waxman | 2,003.46 | 0 |
No shuffling of positions took place among the top 10, but there is something to keep an eye on. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier closed the gap between himself and Erik Seidel and now sits about 25 points out of the No. 1 spot on the GPI. In November 2010, Grospellier finished 56th in the European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event. That score fell from Period 2, where it wasn’t one of his top three results, to Period 3 where it is being counted, thus resulting in a bump in points for Grospellier.
Welcome to the GPI
For the second consecutive week, there were only four new addition to the GPI. Kenny Hallaert is making his debut on the GPI thanks to two side-event wins at EPT Loutraki.
New Additions
| Georges Yaazbeck | 1,196.52 | 193rd |
| Jan Bendik | 1,099.12 | 251st |
| Kenny Hallaert | 1,075.77 | 263rd |
| Chris McClung | 1,050.14 | 284th |
Those who fell from the GPI this week are Kevin Vandersmissen, Kyle Loman, Matt Jarvis, and Paul Berende.
Ups and Downs
The biggest rise of the week belonged to Rupert Elder. With a 13th-place finish in the EPT Loutraki Main Event, Elder added a third Period 1 result to be calculated by the GPI. Also rising nicely up the ranks this week were Darryll Fish and Micah Raskin, thanks to respective sixth-place and 15th-place finishes at the WPT Jacksonville Main Event.
Biggest Gains
| 75th | Kevin MacPhee | 1,524.53 | +43 |
| 112th | Dominik Nitsche | 1,406.64 | +66 |
| 117th | Rupert Elder | 1,382.16 | +107 |
| 142nd | Per Linde | 1,312.50 | +32 |
| 149th | Micah Raskin | 1,304.59 | +90 |
| 178th | Darryll Fish | 1,235.32 | +65 |
| 184th | Surrinder Sunar | 1,212.16 | +35 |
| 199th | Markus Ristola | 1,189.35 | +95 |
| 203rd | Sam Chartier | 1,181.27 | +31 |
| 207th | Mike Beasley | 1,178.78 | +33 |
| 260th | Jean-Philippe Rohr | 1,080.76 | +32 |
Lucien Cohen suffered the biggest drop this week. His eighth-place result in a “2,500 no-limit hold’em event at the France Poker Masters in May fell from Period 1 to Period 2.
Biggest Drops
| 39th | Bryn Kenney | 1,706.25 | -26 |
| 101st | Nick Schulman | 1,435.96 | -32 |
| 103rd | Konstantin Puchkov | 1,427.11 | -31 |
| 191st | Alex Kostritsyn | 1,197.91 | -29 |
| 196th | Andrey Danilyuk | 1,192.63 | -35 |
| 235th | Kimmo Matias Kurko | 1,135.68 | -30 |
| 242nd | Lucien Cohen | 1,118.82 | -74 |
| 253rd | Nicolas Levi | 1,097.77 | -68 |
| 259th | Cristiano Guerra | 1,081.20 | -65 |
| 264th | Eric Haik | 1,075.75 | -65 |
| 288th | Youcef Benzerfa | 1,044.57 | -47 |
| 300th | Nicolas Chouity | 1,021.92 | -42 |
What’s In Store?
Next week will mark the start of scores from the 2011 World Series of Poker falling into Period 2. Which players GPI scores will take a hit? Eugene Katchalov (No. 4), Sam Stein (No. 6), Matt Waxman (No. 10), Jake Cody (No. 17), and Allen Bari (No. 27) will all have six-figure scores from that first week of the WSOP drop into Period 2, so expect a bit of a shakeup toward the top of the GPI 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 Twitter – @mrdoft
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September 29 2011, 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 calculates a player’s best three results over six half-year periods. That first sentence is imperative to remember because, arguably, the best player in the game slipped from the GPI this week. We’ll get into that later. For a look at the entire list of 300, visit the official GPI website.
The Top 10 as of September 26, 2011
| 4 | Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier | 2,486.00 | 0 |
| 5 | Sorel Mizzi | 2,348.58 | 0 |
| 6 | Fabrice Soulier | 2,234.25 | 0 |
| 7 | Tom Marchese | 2,146.22 | 0 |
| 8 | Scott Seiver | 2,056.29 | 0 |
| 9 | Juha Helppi | 2,004.50 | +11 |
| 10 | Shawn Buchanan | 1,986.96 | 0 |
New to the top ten this week is Finnish pro Juha Helppi. With his 15th-place finish in the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event, Helppi boasts very solid Period 1 results. Helppi replaced Daniel Negreanu in the No. 9 spot, and with a loss of points this week, Negreanu slipped to No. 11. A fifth-place showing in the £10,000 High-Roller Heads-Up Tournament at the 2010 WSOPE had previously been a part of his Period 2 standings, but now falls into Period 3.
Another slight change in the top ten is that Erik Seidel’s lead over Jason Mercier increased from a tiny .07 to about 20. An eighth-place result in a £5,000 PLO Event from the 2008 WSOPE dropped from Mercier’s Period 6 calculations and was replaced by a lesser finish.
Welcome to the GPI
There are ten new additions to the GPI this week. Among them is 2011 WSOP November Niner Matt Giannetti, who is fresh off a win at the 2011 WPT Malta. Also joining the GPI is 2011 WSOP bracelet winner Oleksii Kovalchuk. With a ninth-place result in the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event, Kovalchuk has a very strong Period 1 to counter his other periods, with only one score in Period 2 to round out his entire GPI total.
New Additions
| Ville Haavisto | 1,279.56 | 152nd |
| Oleksii Kovalchuk | 1,189.40 | 196th |
| Matt Giannetti | 1,144.48 | 223rd |
| Ilan Boujenah | 1,138.38 | 228th |
| Simon Ravnsbaek | 1,105.91 | 247th |
| Matt Perrins | 1,075.41 | 275th |
| Eddy Sabat | 1,061.67 | 284th |
| Mustapha Kanit | 1,040.83 | 296th |
| Jonathan Karamalikis | 1,037.19 | 299th |
| Sebastian Ruthenberg | 1,036.84 | 300th |
The ten that fell from the GPI this week are Chris Tryba, Darren Woods, Govert Metaal, Jonathan Jaffe, Kristijonas Andrulis, Martin Kabrhel, Russell Carson, Zach Clark, Ronald Lee, and Phil Ivey.
Wait, what? Yes, you read that correctly. Phil Ivey is no longer in the top 300 of the GPI. Clearly, nobody is going to argue that Phil Ivey isn’t among the top 300 tournament players, but the fact is, is that the GPI requires players to actively and consistently post results. As unlikely as it seems, Ivey has no Period 1 scores. None. His last GPI-counting tournament cash, in fact, came in December 2010.
It isn’t that Ivey has been running cold lately. He simply has not been playing, for obvious reasons. In addition, his two WSOPE cashes from 2010 fell out of Period 2. Only one of those cashes was picked up into his Period 3 calculations, since his 2010 WSOP bracelet win and third-place WPT Bellagio Cup VI result already are counted in Period 3. When Ivey gets back on the tournament circuit, it won’t be long before he vaults back up the GPI.
Ups and Downs
The biggest rise of the week belonged to Frederik Jensen. Even though his 34th-place finish in the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event isn’t what you would call amazing, it offset his Period 1 results when his 14th-place finish at the the 2011 WPT Vienna dropped into Period 2. With the boost to his Period 2 results without losing ground in Period 1, Jensen saw a nice rise up the GPI ladder.
Biggest Gains
| 32nd | Sam Trickett | 1,761.84 | +54 |
| 36th | Roger Hairabedian | 1,703.76 | +54 |
| 75th | Ludovic Lacay | 1,550.15 | +127 |
| 96th | Alexander Dovzhenko | 1,465.66 | +113 |
| 111th | Giuseppe Pantaleo | 1,397.63 | +114 |
| 116th | Eric Haik | 1,383.07 | +73 |
| 137th | Stephane Benadiba | 1,321.26 | +62 |
| 138th | Salman Behbehani | 1,321.03 | +75 |
| 143rd | Tristan Clemencon | 1,305.35 | +74 |
| 144th | Dmitry Vitkind | 1,302.27 | +105 |
| 164th | Frederik Jensen | 1,250.59 | +126 |
Italian Nicolo Calia suffered the biggest hit this week. His third-place result in the High Roller event at the 2011 WPT Vienna fell from Period 1 to Period 2, leaving Calia with just one Period 1 score. Also falling was Yevgeniy Timoshenko. His drop was result of his cashes in the WSOPE Main Events from both 2009 and 2010 falling into lesser Periods.
Biggest Drops
| 190th | Marc Inizan | 1,206.17 | -74 |
| 202nd | Saar Wilf | 1,168.04 | -74 |
| 206th | Yevgeniy Timoshenko | 1,161.04 | -83 |
| 235th | Maurizio Sepede | 1,121.58 | -50 |
| 242nd | Kevin Eyster | 1,111.68 | -56 |
| 253rd | Men Nguyen | 1,099.17 | -57 |
| 267th | Luca Pagano | 1,084.62 | -77 |
| 276th | Nicolo Calia | 1,072.76 | -134 |
| 278th | Bolivar Palacios | 1,070.04 | -72 |
| 282nd | Dragan Galic | 1,064.39 | -105 |
What’s In Store?
This week is the calm before the storm because October will provide plenty of action overseas. The 2011 EPT London is set to kick off on Friday. The following Friday will see the 2011 WSOPE begin, as well.
Which players are due for a fall next week? Unless she scores big in London and Cannes in October, Vanessa Selbst is going to drop fast from her current No. 24 spot on the GPI. Her last two six-figure scores are going to fall into previous periods. Next week, her fourth-place finish at the 2010 EPT London £20,000 High Roller Event will slip from Period 2 to Period 3. The following week (most likely, but not for sure because of the cutoff date), her win at the 2011 NAPT Mohegan will drop from Period 1 to Period 2.
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 Twitter – @mrdoft




