December 12 2014, by Eric Danis

The race is on for GPI Player of the Year

The 2014 poker season is coming to a close but there is still a flurry of activity on the live tournament circuit (in Prague and in Las Vegas) and although Dan Colman leads the way, the next 10 days will help determine if Colman wins GPI Player of the Year or if someone will be able to snatch up the title late, the way Ole Schemion did in 2013, moving by Daniel Negreanu at the very last second.

THE LEADER OF THE PACK

Daniel Colman GPI (Jules Pochy)An incredible 2014 season on the circuit sees Daniel Colman (GPI#20) lead the way with only days left before closing out the poker year. Colman has scored wins victories on the live tournament circuit this season, including his monumental victory at the 2014 WSOP Big One for One Drop, where he defeated Daniel Negreanu (GPI#5) for $15,306,668.

But before you lump in Colman in a group of players that just earn their points playing high rollers, his win at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open in August proves that Colman isn’t a one-trick pony. He survived the 1,499-entry field, including Mike Leah (GPI#22) heads-up, to earn the $1,446,710 first place prize.

Colman heads into the final weeks of the season with a 262 point lead on the chase group. This leads protects him from having someone earn a small cash somewhere moving ahead of him, however, with big points potentially on the live at EPT Prague, the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic, WPT Alpha 8 Las Vegas and a pair of high roller events at Aria on the Vegas Strip, Colman is far from sitting in a comfortable position. With those big buy-in events in Las Vegas, one would expect Colman to take part in those events – he won an Alpha 8 event in London and played Alpha8 in St. Kitts last week + he finished third in a 100K event at Aria in July – but there is still no indication that Colman will be playing those tournaments.

Another important note is that Colman has cashed in 11 events so far this season. This is crucial as the GPI counts the 13 best scores for the Player of the Year. While Colman will still automatically count points in qualifying events, others who may have already reached 13 cashes will need to score more points than their 13th best score in order to add points to their 2014 PoY totals.

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THE CHASE GROUP

The chase group sees a pair of former GPI Players of the Year hoping to become the first to win a second PoY title. After quieting down a bit reigning PoY Ole Schemion (GPI#2) kicked things into overdrive just days ago in Amsterdam. With final table appearances in both the Main and High Roller events at the Master Classics of Poker, Schemion was able to jump right back into contention.

Currently ranked #1 on the GPI World Poker Rankings, Dan Smith sits fifth in the PoY race. Smith, who won the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic last December, will be hoping for a repeat performance at Bellagio as this year’s Five Diamond kicks off on Monday in Las Vegas.

Although Smith is already expected to be in Vegas starting this weekend, it will be interesting to see whether or not Schemion makes one final trip to the Western world should things not go as planned at EPT Prague. Fellow German Philipp Gruissem (GPI#163) is hosting a charity tournament for his REG initiative at Aria next week and Schemion did win the $100,000 Super High Roller event this summer at Aria, will this convince Schemion to jump on a plane and head to Vegas?

Canadian Ami Barer (GPI#6) is a surprise no show so far at the EPT Prague festival. Barer’s great run in 2014 includes a win at the 2014 Aussie Millions. He currently sits 3rd in the race but it does look like his 2014 season may be over. The other member of the chase group, Davidi Kitai (GPI#4) is hoping to end his successful 2014 season with a bang. Kitai is not only eyeing the overall Player of the Year race but he also currently sits just 23 points back of Schemion for European Poker Player of the Year race; you can bet that he would love nothing more than to raise that trophy at the GPI European Poker Awards in Malta this coming March.

All four of these players are right in the thick of things. A deep run in a big event or a prelim or side event win could see them move by Colman in the race.

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ONE LAST SHOT

The first two players in this group, Mustapha Kanit (GPI#30) and Jason Mercier (GPI#9), could very well reach the top of the charts with an outright win in the Main Events at EPT Prague or the WPT Five Diamond. Sadly for Mercier, he was recently eliminated in the Prague Main while Kanit still remains in contention as of press time.

For the others in the group, it gets a little more complicated. A Prague of Five Diamond win probably wouldn’t be enough to move past Colman at the top. They will need to add another score or make two deep runs in high scoring events in order to make their way to #1.

Never one to shy away from high buy-in tournaments, Scott Seiver (GPI#3) may be one of the players in the best position to accomplish this with so many high roller events taking place in Las Vegas starting this weekend. Expect to see the #3 ranked player in the World in the Vegas tournament fields next week.

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LIVING ON A PRAYER

Our next group of players may be running out of time … that being said, they’re not out yet. Although it would take multiple scores for any of these players to takeover the Player of the Year race, none of them are mathematically eliminated and you should be keeping an eye on the players on this list, especially if some of them go deep in the last few events.

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About the author

Eric Danis’ passion for poker came at a very early age but it’s when writing about and covering the game he loves that Danis is most in his element. Danis is better known for creating www.PTPRpoker.com where he spent a few years covering poker events. Danis is also known for having worked on the poker shows Poker Eh! and The Pulse on the Quad Jacks Network.