May 24 2012, Josh Cahlik

After six levels of play, Day 1 of the PokerStars.net LAPT Punta del Este Main Event has come to a close. Juan Garcia has managed to rise above the rest, building his starting stack of 20,000 up to 134,650.

Garcia will be joined on Day 2 by several notables who survived the first six levels of play, including Claudio Garrone (84,200), Julian Menendez (72,000), Fabrizio Gonzalez (62,875), Santiago Nadal (58,000), Bolivar Palacios (44,650), and Ari Engel (6,125). Also returning on Friday is the 2011 LAPT Punta del Este Main Event champion Alex Komaromi. Komaromi will be sitting on a stack of 37,075.

While many thrived during play, others were not so fortunate. Oded Minod, Daniela Zapielo, Juan Jose Perez, Pablo Gonzalez, and Leonardo Olivares were among those who hit the rail.

Team PokerStars had their fair share of notable names to survive on to Day 2 play. Among those returning are Angel Guillen (24,000) and Nacho Barbero (22,650). That being said, Team PokerStars pros Andre Akkari, Leo Fernandez and Christian de Leon were not fortunate enough to survive the day.

Humberto Brenes will also be returning for Day 2 play after a day filled with many ups and downs. Brenes’ lowest point occurred early on when he flopped what should have been a jackpot. Brenes’ found top set on a flop. His opponent, on the other hand, held for bottom two pair. Unfortunately for Brenes, the turn and river brought the and the giving his opponent a heart flush. All of the money went in on the river and Brenes’ chip stack was virtually crippled after doubling his opponent up. However, as the day progressed, Brenes was able to overcome the odds and end the day’s play with 16,825 in chips.

The event managed to attract 375 entrants, which was down from the attendance of 422 in 2011. The top 56 players in the tournament will get paid and first place will take home a whopping prize of $186,820.

Payouts

PlacePrize PlacePrize

1	$186,820		14	$8,310
2	$118,800		15	$7,630
3	$81,100		16	$7,020
4	$60,240		17-18	$6,470
5	$46,000		19-20	$5,970
6	$35,970		21-22	$5,540
7	$26,770		23-24	$5,710
8	$20,080		25-28	$4,830
9	$15,390		29-32	$4,510
10	$13,180		33-40	$4,220
11	$11,440		41-48	$3,950
12	$10,150		49-56	$3,700
13	$9,100

Originally, Day 1 of this event was supposed to play a full 10 levels, but the tournament staff decided to amend the structure, making both Day 1 and 2 of the event only six levels. This will provide a refreshing evening for the remaining players, as they will be able to relax and enjoy a long dinner and night off before play resumes on Friday for levels 7 through 12.

The remaining 270 players will return to the felt tomorrow at 1200 UYT (0800 PDT) for Day 2 and PokerNews will be here to provide updates on all of the action.

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March 08 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 March 5, 2012

runner-up performance vaulted him to the No. 6 spot.

Welcome to the GPI

Jason DeWitt and Dan Kelly are new to this week’s GPI following their respective performances at the WPT L.A. Poker Classic. DeWitt finished in 11th place and Kelly took third.

New Additions

PlayerTotal GPI ScoreGPI Rank

Jason DeWitt	1,357.76	159th
Dan Kelly	1,195.57	217th
Mads Wissing	1,191.61	219th
Andreas Wiese	1,175.58	224th
Brandon Meyers	1,146.68	233rd
Humberto Brenes	1,126.88	248th
Ondrej Vinklarek	1,122.38	250th
Kenny Shih	1,095.98	271st
Tyler Cornell	1,091.88	275th
Fabrizio Gonzalez	1,082.76	285th
Martin Finger	1,076.39	290th
Kevin Calenzo	1,060.11	300th

The 12 who fell from the GPI this week were Connor Drinan, Daniel Reijmer, Dan Heimiller, David Diaz, Davidi Kitai, Dominykas Karmazinas, Frederik Jensen, James Bord, Joni Jouhkimainen, Nichlas Mattsson, Randy Dorfman, and Yuliyan Nikolaev Kolev.

Ups and Downs

The biggest rise of the week belonged to Nick Binger. With a 17th-place finish in the WPT L.A. Poker Classic, Binger now has something in Period 1 to go along with the rest of his GPI portfolio.

Biggest Gains

RankPlayerTotal ScoreChange in Rank From Last Week

65th	Simon Ravnsbaek	1,668.92	+34
74th	Daniel Idema	1,630.51	+94
91st	Stephen Chidwick	1,553.87	+94
97th	Jean Thorel	1,526.97	+42
100th	David “ODB” Baker	1,521.92	+40
106th	Michael Tureniec	1,501.68	+66
147th	Joe Hachem	1,380.10	+76
148th	Nick Binger	1,378.76	+139
160th	Corey Burbick	1,350.00	+34
193rd	Martin Staszko	1,262.76	+48

On the other end of the spectrum, Antony Lellouche took the biggest hit this week. His win in the “5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event at the 2011 WPT Rendez-Vous à Paris aged into Period 2, leaving his Period 1 slate empty.

Biggest Drops

RankPlayerTotal ScoreChange in Rank From Last Week

98th	Tristan Clemencon	1,524.56	-41
124th	Joe Ebanks	1,455.47	-49
127th	Vadzim Kursevich	1,450.39	-40
169th	William Thorson	1,324.05	-31
184th	David Benyamine	1,284.95	-33
241st	David Paredes	1,136.50	-33
264th	Antony Lellouche	1,103.45	-100
268th	Fabian Quoss	1,099.24	-39
269th	Sami Kelopuro	1,098.16	-44
297th	Tim Finne	1,066.97	-64

What’s In Store?

The WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star is heading into Day 3 and Jonathan Duhamel (19th on the GPI) sits sixth in chips with 20 players remaining. With four, four-figure scores to his credit in his Period 1 results, there’s no guarantee his GPI will improve as a result. However, Dumahel has owned 2012 thus far so we wouldn’t bet against him.

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.

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