GPI300: Smith, McDonald Make Big Moves Up

Huge moves into the Top 10 from a pair of star players highlight this week’s update…

VIEW FROM THE TOP

Second straight week at the top for young German star Ole Schemion (GPI#1, -) as he manages to keep Daniel Negreanu (GPI#2, -) away from the #1 spot yet again this week.

For the third consecutive week, Marvin Rettenmaier (GPI#3, +1) and Philipp Gruissem (GPI#4, -1) are involved in a little switch-a-roo at #3 and #4 … a strong performance at the PCA allows Vanessa Selbst (GPI#5, -) to remain at #5.

But it’s two other star players who grabbed this week’s headlines as former World #1 Dan Smith (GPI#6, +10) and Mike McDonald (GPI#8, +18), both coming off great performances at the 2014 PCA in the Bahamas, move up over ten spots each to make their long-awaited return to the GPI Top 10. Smith returns to the Top 10 for the first time since he held the #3 spot this past March … for McDonald, it’s the first time he’s ranked in the Top 10 in 16 months – welcome back, gents.

Ravi Raghavan (GPI#10, +1) joins Smith and McDonald as the three players who enter the Top 10 this … the news isn’t so good for Shannon Shorr (GPI#11, -4), Stephen O’Dwyer (GPI#13, -5) and Erik Seidel (GPI#17, -7) all drop out of the Top 10 this week.

GPI TOP 10:

[table id=765 /]

SWIMMING UPSTREAM

After struggling late in the season, making his way in and out of the GPI300, Vineet Pahuja (GPI#151, +129) pushed himself right back into the mix with his score at the PCA in a 5K prelim event. Pahuja moves up over 120 spots to 151, where he should be able to make himself comfortable for a little while.

Other players on their way up this week include: American David “ODB” Baker (GPI#103, +114), Greek #1 Georgios Karakousis (GPI#172, +101) and Brazil’s Ariel Bahia (GPI#109, +79), who moves closer and closer to the GPI Top 100.

This week’s Top 10 Movers within the GPI300:

[table id=766 /]

DOWN THE LADDER

German high stakes pro Tobias Reinkemeier (GPI#262, -146) took the biggest hit this week. Reinkemeier’s last qualifying score came in October in the Super High Roller event at EPT London. Although Reinkemeier collected over 3M USD on the live tournament circuit in 2013, over 2M USD of those winnings were earned in non-qualifying high roller events.

One Drop High Roller winner Anthony Gregg (GPI#271, -87), who actually took a big jump up last week, Vladimir Troyanovskiy (GPI#178, -80) and David Benyamine (GPI#253, -77) join Reinkemeier on the bottom in this week’s update.

This week’s Top 10 Drops within the GPI300:

[table id=767 /]

IN-N-OUT

In case you haven’t heard, the Global Poker Index announced changes to its scoring formula earlier in the week. Although the changes were minor for the most part, it did cause many that were barely hanging on to the 300 to move out and a fresh batch of players to move in.

Amongst those who either make a return to the GPI300 or enter the 300 for the very first time include: Mike Leah, Grayson Ramage, Marcel Luske, Simon Deadman and PokerNews GPI Update Podcast favourite Tommy Vedes.