GPI National Finland | Top 10

Our GPI First Look at EPT Barcelona features two Finnish players (Jouhkimainen, Ziigmund) that ran deep in the Main Event last year. It’s no secret that some of the top poker players in the world come from Finland so we thought we would take a look at the Top 10 on the GPI National Finland rankings … which does not include either Ilari Sahamies or Patrik Antonius:

#10 | Jussi Nevanlinna

Finished 7th in a 6-Max Turbo event last season at EPT Barcelona.

GPI#1057, Highest #355

#9 | Samuli Sipila

2013 season includes a runner-up finish in a 1K side event at EPT Deauville for €34,240.

GPI#991, Highest #597

#8 | Ville Mattila

Coming off a 2nd place finish in the 2K PLO rebuy event at the Fennia Grand Slam in his native country, Mattila has a total of five Top 3 finishes in PLO events in the past 12 months on the live tournament circuit including a PLO win earlier this year at the Helsinki Freezeout 2013.

GPI#966, Highest #847

#7 | Kimmo Kurko

With over 1M USD in total earnings on the circuit, the former EPT Sanremo Side Event winner finished fourth at WPT Baden earlier this year. That final table also featured Paul Berende and Marvin Rettenmaier. Vladimir Bozinovic would end up winning the title.

The Sanremo side event win came in a 2K No-Limit Hold’em event back in 2009 where Kurko earned the biggest cash of his career, €220,000.

GPI#866, Highest #146

#6 | Markus Ristola

The 2009 WSOP Europe Final Table participant has already collected two victories on the live circuit this season: the Diamond Championship at the Euro Finals of Poker in February and the PLO Turbo 8-Handed event at EPT London in March.

GPI#777, Highest #144

#5 | Ville Wahlbeck

The online star was also a standout on the live tournament circuit for quite some time. Recently, the Team PokerStars Pro has made some noise live as well … after winning the 8-Game Championship at EPT London, Wahlbeck was a contender late at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo. Wahlbeck would end up finishing 29th out of a total of 531 players.

GPI#734, Highest #431

#4 | Aku Joentausta

Coming off a PLO win at the Fennia Grand Slam in Helsinki, Joentausta earned his fourth Top 10 finish of the year.

GPI#575, Highest #272

#3 | Lauri Pesonen

2013 has been the best season on the circuit for Pesonen. He has six cashes this season including a victory in the 2K NLH Turbo event at EPT London.

Pesonen also contented at the WPT Venice Grand Prix (15th) and the EPT Grand Final (56th).

GPI#434, Highest #350

#2 | Joni Jouhkimainen

Known as one of the top young guns in the game, Jouhkimainen also enjoyed a succesful Fennia Grand Slam winning the 5K PLO event, his first cash since the WSOP this past summer.

The young Finn has 15 cashes on the live tournament circuit so far in 2013, including an impressive 12 Top 10 finishes. A great start to the career for the 22-year old, in fact, his next cash should propel him over the 1.5M USD mark for career earnings on the live felt.

GPI#81, Highest 38

#1 | Juha Helppi

Despite the strong push of several pros, The King of Finnish poker is still at #1 in his homeland. Helppi first rose to stardom way back during Season 1 of the World Poker Tour where he would join the Champions Club by winning the 2002 Aruba Poker Classic.

Juha’s 2013 season totals nine Top 10 finishes to date, including the W in the High Roller event at WPT Barcelona.

With just under 5M USD in live tournament winnings, Helppi isn’t showing any signs of slowing down, further cementing his status as best player to ever come out of Finland.

GPI#56, Highest #8

[table id=275 /]