GPI Year in Review: Smith, Pair of Julians Win, Schemion Steals PoY in December

Dan Smith returns to the winners’ circle, a pair of Julians win big in Prague and Ole Schemion upsets Daniel Negreanu in a race for the finish…

SMITH SCORES ANOTHER SEVEN-FIGURE PRIZE

Another tournament, yet another seven-figure score for reigning and defending GPI Player of the Year Dan Smith. After a stellar 2012 season on the live tournament circuit, Smith had a relatively quiet 2013 on the circuit heading into the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic. Days later, Smith had salvaged his season and would end the year with over 1M USD in earnings, for the second straight season.

Brian Rast won the 100K High Roller event and, like Smith, would earn over 1M USD for the victory. Rast defeated poker legend Erik Seidel heads-up.

TRACK, THOMAS, SELBST WIN IN PRAGUE

A pair of Julians would wrap-up the 2013 season with victories in Prague. EPT Prague hosted a monster 1,000+ player event at the Hilton Prague and upstart Julian Track would come out as the sole survivor. Track’s victory would mark his first ever score on the live tournament circuit … well played, sir!

Vanessa Selbst was also a winner in Prague. The victory was Selbst’s third this season and 13th of her career. Other EPT winners in Prague included: Dimitri Holdeew (Eureka Prague), David Peters (Eureka HR), Ivan Soshnikov (High Roller) and Jonathan Little (5K NLH 6-Max Turbo).

Staying in Prague, yet another German, Julian Thomas, would win the ultra-competitive WPT Prague in what would be the final major poker tournament of the 2013 poker season. Thomas’ victory would leave Vasili Firsau in the role of the bridesmaid for the second time on the World Poker Tour in just a few months. Firsau finished second to Mohsin Charania at the WPT Grand Prix de Paris in October.

Meanwhile, the WPT hosted its very first event in South Korea as Masato Yokosawa would win WPT Korea, earning the $100,000 USD top prize. A total of 137 players would enter the first ever World Poker Tour event in South Korea.

DECEMBER IN A FLASH

Govert Metaal closed out WPT Montreal with a victory in the High Roller event, earning over 180K USD for the win … Fellow Dutch pro Florens Feenstra won Unibet Open Riga, collecting a win for the second straight month on the live tournament circuit … Tristan Bain won big at APT Sydney.

In the US, the Heartland Poker Tour closed its season in Indiana where Edward Ochana would pickup the top prize … the WSOP Circuit ended 2013 with two events: in Atlantic City (Joseph Lapinta) and in San Diego (Shahin Edalatdju) … the WPT Regional Series setup shop in Tampa Bay where Stephen Diamantas won the event, surviving the charge from a few notable pros including Allen Kessler and David Tuthill.

NEGREANU’S RISE TO GPI#1:

Daniel Negreanu would miss out at the WPT Five Diamond and at EPT Prague. He would then chose to skip the Prague High Roller event and head back home to Las Vegas to enjoy the holidays.

Despite being shutout in the final two months of the year, Negreanu would still end 2013 as the #1 poker player in the world. He would enter 2014 on a nine-week reign atop the GPI300. Congratulations to Daniel for an amazing 2013 campaign – now comes the challenge of holding onto to all of those valuable points in 2014.

SCHEMION’S ROAD TO GPI PLAYER OF THE YEAR:

Negreanu’s inability to score any points in the final two months of the season + his decision to skip the High Roller event at EPT Prague would leave the door open for Ole Schemion to take one last shot at Player of the Year. Now the door wouldn’t be wide open. Schemion would need to go deep, REAL DEEP, in the EPT Prague Main Event in order to steal the PoY title away from Kid Poker … and in a tournament with over 1,000 players, it would take a minor miracle for Schemion to breakthrough.

But breakthrough he did. Schemion would actually final table EPT Prague and thus, would takeover from Negreanu in the 2013 GPI Player of the Year race in the most dramatic of situations … Congratulations to young Schemion on an amazing 2013 season.

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GPI YEAR IN REVIEW:

January ››  PCA, Aussie Millions Kickoff January
February ››  Welcome to February, Where Fantasy Met Reality
March ››  EPT Victory for Visser, Rocco Rocks Venice in March
April ››  Kid Poker Hits the Ground Running in April
May ››  Mercier Shines in Monte Carlo in May
June ›› WSOP Dominates June Headlines
July ››  Elezra, Harwood, Alaei Win, November Nine Set in July
August ›› Hinkle, Sivler Win Big in Florida, Rybin, Cristos Win WPTs in August
September ›› Big October Wins for Middleton, Zinno, Marvin Moves to #1
October ›› Negreanu Makes His Move as October Offers Tons of Action
November ›› Four Win on WPT, Mizzi Wins Premier League in November
December ›› Smith, Pair of Julians Win, Schemion Steals PoY

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