July 28 2011, Mickey Doft

Earlier this month, Federated Sports & Gaming (FS+G) introduced the poker world to the Global Poker Index (GPI), a revolutionary ranking system that sought to answer the question: “Who are the best live tournament poker players in the world today?” Each week the GPI releases a list of the top 300 tournament poker players in the world, so we here at PokerNews are going to see who and what stands out each time the rankings are released.

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

The Top 10 as of July 26, 2011

and Vanessa Selbst (who now sits in 11th place).

WSOP Main Event Cashers

Last week, only four new players made the GPI. This week, there are 20 new names on the list. The reason? Their cashing in the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event, combined with previous results, did the trick. Of the 20 who are making their debuts on the GPI, 16 cashed in the Main Event and are listed below.

PlayerTotal GPI ScoreGPI RankMain Event Finish

Stefan Huber	1,188.81	197	51st
Bolivar Palacios	1,182.50	202	88th
Lars Bonding	1,168	213	22nd
Tyler Bonkowski	1,164.91	218	60th
Sergei Altbregin	1,160.64	222	342nd
Steve Brecher	1,160.13	223	31st
Ruben Visser	1,133.38	240	44th
David Bach	1,133.27	241	45th
James Calderaro	1,128.14	246	260th
Darren Woods	1,112.04	252	442nd
Stephen O’Dwyer	1,094.35	261	626th
Sebastian Ruthenberg	1,086.01	269	55th
Guillaume Darcourt	1,072.57	275	35th
Steven van Zadelhoff	1,059.48	287	658th
Thomas Koral	1,046.90	298	47th
Vladimir Geshkenbein	1,036.79	300	106th

In addition, four others that were already in the GPI made massive jumps and vaulted more than 100 spots. Not coincidentally, they each made a deep run in the Main Event, as well. Joseph Cheong (gained 107 spots), Erick Lindgren (gained 132 spots), Frank Calo (gained 147 spots), and Max Heinzelmann (gained 123 spots) were the biggest movers of the week.

PlayerTotal GPI ScoreGPI RankMain Event Finish

Joseph Cheong	1,442.73	93	114th
Erick Lindgren	1,373.01	114	43rd
Frank Calo	1,314.71	139	90th
Max Heinzelmann	1,249.24	169	151st

Bellagio Cup VII

As for the other four new additions to the GPI this week, final-table finishes at Bellagio Cup VII played a key role for them. We already mentioned Stephen O’Dwyer for his WSOP Main Event cash. He also topped a field of 156 to win the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em tournament for $259,452. Joe Elpayaa finished ninth in that event to make the GPI as well. The other three newcomers are Ted Forrest, Daniel Colman, and Brandon Cantu. They each final-tabled the $10,000 Main Event and took fifth, seventh, and ninth places respectively. Here is how they shape up on the GPI.

PlayerTotal GPI ScoreGPI Rank

Joe Elpayaa	1,063.92	283
Daniel Colman	1,058.61	288
Brandon Cantu	1,057.84	290
Ted Forrest	1,054.16	292

Also making splashes at Bellagio Cup VII, as well as in the GPI, were Hafiz Khan (gained 93 spots), William Thorson (gained 30 spots), and Bryn Kenney (gained 37 spots). Each final-tabled the $10,000 Main Event, as well, finishing runner-up, third, and sixth, respectively.

PlayerTotal GPI ScoreGPI Rank

Bryn Kenney	1,663.62	43
William Thorson	1,588.89	55
Hafiz Khan	1,326.52	133

Ups and Downs

Ben Lamb (gained 41 spots)

Thanks to what will be at worst a ninth-place finish in the WSOP Main Event, Lamb has replaced one six-figure WSOP finish with another and is now up to #50 on the GPI. Remember, the GPI only takes into account a player’s top three finishes during six six-month periods. Lamb’s amazing WSOP won’t be fully reflected until the middle of December, when his first 2011 WSOP cash will fall into the second six-month period, allowing for more of his summer’s successes to be weighted.

Antony Lellouche (dropped 44 spots)

Despite a solid summer that included five WSOP cashes, Lellouche had the biggest individual drop this week. Why? Call it bad luck. His biggest score in the last three years came in January 2010 at EPT Deauville. He took second place in a “20,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller Event, but that score now factors in less because it now falls under the previous six-month period and is not weighted as heavily, dropping Lellouche to #259 on the GPI.

Hoyt Corkins (dropped 42 spots)

The “Alabama Cowboy” tumbled on the GPI this week for pretty much the same reason Lellouche did. Corkins’ largest score of the last three years came in late January of 2010. He won the WPT Southern Poker Championship for $713,986, but that score now falls under a previous six-month term and as a result, Corkins is now #88 on the GPI.

As a reminder, for a look at the entire list of 300, visit the official GPI website. Also, be sure to check out Michael Craig’s write-up on the GPI rankings. 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.

Comments

April 12 2011, Eric Ramsey

Day 4 came and went in about eight hours at the PokerStars.net NAPT Mohegan Sun. During that time, the 24 survivors who returned to the felt were reduced to just eight, and Vanessa Selbst continued to mount her charge toward an astounding repeat victory in the tournament’s second iteration.

Selbst’s Day 4 began much as her Day 3 had ended – with her dragging down pots. Eric Froehlich was the first victim of her monster stack, relegated to the rail within a few minutes of the start of play. On a flop, Froehlich and his check-called a bet of 33,000 from the preflop raiser. He picked up a draw when the landed on fourth street and check-raised from 66,000 all-in for 320,000 total. Selbst couldn’t have called any quicker with her set of deuces, and the river was a blank to seal Froehlich’s elimination as the second casualty of the day. By the time the first hour had ticked off the clock, Selbst was approaching 2 million with more than twice as many chips her nearest challenger.

With 15 players left, Selbst struck again, and this time it was Ara Melikian who she claimed as the next unlucky soul. Melikian can’t be faulted for three-bet shoving on Selbst with , but the Team PokerStars Pro quickly matched his bet with the dominating , and the board kept her kickers in front. Melikian was out in 14th place, and Selbst vaulted up to 2.47 million with well over 20 percent of the chips in play. Things cooled off for Selbst over the final few levels, but her bag is still stuffed with 2.249 million chips, good enough for the second spot overall. It’s an eerie parallel to her victory last year in which she relinquished the lead late on Day 4 before running over the final table to take the trophy.

Sebst wasn’t the only one working on Tuesday, though. Dan Shak had himself a fine day on the felt, doing some dirty work and claiming a couple of eliminations of his own. The first to fall was one of the amateurs left in the field, Jonathan Schroer. The schoolmaster from North Carolina played patient poker for three days and got his last 21 big blinds into the middle with his racing against Shak’s . The board ran out blank, though, coming to start Shak off on the right foot. A while later, Shak took the rest of Nenad Medic’s chips in a lucky out-draw. The table had folded around to the blinds when Shak shoved with and Medic woke up with the next door — good enough to call it off. Shak flopped lucky, though, and the board was all she wrote for the former bracelet winner. Medic’s elimination moved Shak into the top three with 1.35 million chips, and he continued to increase for the rest of the day, bagging up 1.571 million chips before rushing over to the adjacent room to join the second flight of the $10,000 Bounty Shootout.

While some notables were picking up pots left and right, a few others had a tougher go of it on Day 4. Chris Tryba and his were no match for Jacobo Fernandez’s , and Tryba only lasted for one level before succumbing in 21st place. Adam Geyer began the day in the top five with 803,000 chips, but his bid to make the final table was cut short within two levels, as well. It was another battle of the blinds that saw Geyer get his final chips in with his dominated by the of David Stefanski. The board was no help to Geyer, forced to settle for a $12,000 consolation prize. With 21 players left, Taylor von Kriegenbergh dodged elimination when his cracked Aaron Overton’s . Von Kriegenbergh couldn’t make his second chance stick, though, surviving until 18th place when his and the rest of his chips fell to Philippe Plouffe’s .

After that knockout, though, the rest of Plouffe’s day was a bit of a mixed bag. Just a few minutes later, he fell back from 600,000 under 200,000 after tangling up with Stefanski. On a board, Plouffe bet and called a raise on the turn. He called another 2/3-pot bet on the river, and Stefanski’s was good enough to cripple his opponent down to just 189,000. He doubled up to 554,000 shortly thereafter, though, when his got there against Joseph Gibbons’ in a tournament-saving pot.

Plouffe held onto those chips for a couple hours until they all ended up in the stack of Steve O’Dwyer. It was O’Dwyer who opened the pot to 44,000 in position, and Tyler Kenney flatted in the middle. Plouffe squeezed in a reraise from the big blind, shoving his last 475,000 chips into the middle. O’Dwyer tanked before making the call for about 80 percent of his chips, turning up . He was right. Plouffe could only show , and the board rewarded O’Dwyer for that call with the knockout. That pushed him over the million-chip mark for the first time in the event, a milestone that seemed impossible two days earlier. During the last level of Day 2, O’Dwyer had just one-third of his starting stack but turned those 10,000 chips into 110,000 by night’s end. On Day 3, an early chip charge vaulted O’Dwyer’s stack up into the realms of respectability, and he began this Day 4 with an above-average stack of 507,000. That was quickly whittled down to just 300,000, but O’Dwyer mounted another comeback, and it wasn’t long before he was up to 1.2 million and challenging for second place. O’Dwyer bagged up 1.032 million chips at the end of the day.

It looked for a while like nobody would catch Selbst, but Tyler Kenney rode a second-half surge to take control of the top spot. He began the penultimate day in the middle of the pack with just shy of a half million chips, and he sat still for the first few rounds of the day before forming his attack on the leaders. During Level 22, Kenney won a big pot off Stefanski to crest the million-chip mark, and soon thereafter, he preflop five-bet his way past the two-million mark. A minute later, he and Selbst tangled up in a pot that pulled the two of them very close in chips, and she doubled up Aaron Overton a few minutes later to complete the changing of power. It was Kenney all alone at the top, and he continued to bolster his stack for the remainder of the night, bagging up an impressive 3.021 million at night’s end to set the pace for the sprint to the finish.

Here’s how the final eight players will be laid out when the final table begins at 1200 EDT (1600 GMT) on Wednesday.

SeatPlayerChips

1	Joe Tehan	1,238,000
2	Thomas Hoglund Jr.	541,000
3	Dan Shak	1,571,000
4	Vincent Rubianes	1,711,000
5	Steve O’Dwyer	1,032,000
6	Tyler Kenney	3,021,000
7	Aaron Overton	373,000
8	Vanessa Selbst	2,249,000

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