GPI First Look: EPT Grand Final

It’s final festival time on the European Poker Tour as many of the game’s best are in Monte Carlo in hopes to getting their hands on some of the final payouts of the season on the EPT … The stage is set for the EPT Grand Final!

FOUR OUT OF FIVE

Daniel Negreanu (GPI#1), Vanessa Selbst (GPI#2), Ole Schemion (GPI#3) and Jason Mercier (GPI#5) are all either here or making their way to Monte Carlo as we speak to play the EPT Grand Final Festival.

Last year: Negreanu continued his drive to #1 in the World with a 4th place finish in the Main Event … Selbst was fourth in the High Roller … Schemion won three prelim events, just like former GPI#1 Dan Smith (GPI#9) did a year earlier … and Mercier actually returned to #1 on the GPI following a 7th place finish in the Main and a 2nd place finish in the Super High Roller.

The good news for our foursome is that they have enjoyed successes in the past in Monte Carlo, the bad news, however, is that those results from last season will continue to loose value in the coming weeks, so our foursome will need to add some points this year at the Grand Final or else suffer the consequences and lose ground on the GPI300.

The only player in the Top 5 that is currently not in Monte Carlo is Marvin Rettenmaier (GPI#4). Rettenmainer is currently competing in the WPT World Championship in Atlantic City. Hopefully Rettenmaier final tables the event and has to miss the EPT Grand Final Main Event … but, if that doesn’t happen, Mad Marvin does plan to be in Monte Carlo on time for the Main Event.

EPT POY ON THE LINE

Schemion takes a sizeable lead in the EPT Player of the Year race into the Grand Final. Schemion made things much more complicated for those chasing him in the race on Sunday, winning the High Roller event at EPT Sanremo. That win means that those chasing him will need to earn several significant scores in Monte Carlo in order to catch up.

All is not lost however. Using last year’s number of entries, if any of Thomas Muehloecker (GPI#43), Selbst or Alex Bilokur (GPI#18) pull a Mercier – in other words, match what Jason Mercier did last year at the EPT Grand Final – then they would surpass Schemion at the top.

Mercier’s 2013 EPT Grand Final Results | How it would impact the 2014 PoY race:
2nd Super High Roller | 121.65 PoY points
1st Open-Face Chinese | 83.43 PoY points
7th Main Event | 159.47 PoY points

DEFENDING CHAMPION

›› STEPHEN O’DWYER  

Hometown ›› New Britain, PA, USA
Residence ›› Dublin, IRL
Age ›› 32  |  Twitter ›› @SteveODwyer

GPI# ›› 32  |  PoY# ›› 607
GPI Score ›› 2,802.29 points

Career ›› Wins: 6  | Cashes: 69  |   Top 10: 41
Earnings ›› 2014: $27,752 |  Career: $5,443,878
GPI Career Best ›› #2 (June 2012)

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