GPIPoY: Watson Shuts it Down for the Year

The race for GPI Player of the Year moves on but one contender had decided to shut it down for the remainder of 2013:

GG, SIRWATTS!

Mike Watson (GPI#7) has been one of the most consistent poker players in the world for the past few years on the live tournament circuit. Watson has spent all of 2013 – minutes one week – amongst pokers’ elite as a member of the GPI Top 10.

Earlier this year, SirWatts held the #1 spot on the GPI Player of the Year race. Currently ranked #3 in the GPIPoY race, Watson’s successes on tour continue.

After playing WPT Caribbean and WPT Montreal, we were expecting for Watson to head back to Europe to close out the year playing WPT and EPT Prague but Watson decided against it:

Out 9th, just couldn't beat the swede. I'm skipping Prague but I'll be back to work at PCA in the new year

— Mike Watson (@SirWatts) December 5, 2013

With two trips to Australia, plenty of trips to Europe and a couple of trips to the Caribbean, it sure looks as if Watson is all poke red out and has simply decided to shut it down for the season, choosing to come back fresh at the PCA in January.

IMPACT ON THE RACE

Watson dropping out of the race is certainly great news for fellow Canadian Daniel Negreanu (GPI#1) who has one less contender to worry about as he holds onto the #1 rank at the moment. Kid Poker missed a great opportunity to gain points on his opposition over the weekend when he was unable to cash at the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic.

Ole Schemion (GPI#4) remains Negreanu’s biggest nemesis as the end of the season draws near. Coming into the final stretch down by a little over 100 points, you can rest assured that, like Negreanu, Schemion will be playing the big tournaments in Prague.

Philipp Gruissem, Bryn Kenney, Shannon Shorr and Marvin Rettenmaier, who are all expected in Prague, are some of the other players who have an outside shot at the 2013 GPI Player of the Year title.

TOP 25 REMAINS UNCHANGED

For the first time in a long time, the Top 25 Leaderboard remained exactly the same this week as Negreanu and company continue to brawl of it all.

Joseph Cheong (GPI#25) came close to entering the Top 25 as he gained 10 positions, moving up to #27, with his 17th place finish in the Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza Main Event. Similarly, Matt Stout (GPI#57) also moved way up to #31 following his cash at the Borgata Fall Poker Open.

[table id=667 /]