EPT Barcelona Results Are In; Mercier and ElkY Separated By Three Points (Part Two)

EPT Barcelona Main Event and Beyond

The EPT Barcelona €5,000 Main Event began with 1,082 runners, including many current and former GPI 300 ranked players. Two of them made the final table and many more were in the money. John Juanda finished 8^th and Joni Jouhkimainen finished 3^rd. Jouhkimainen returns to the Index at an impressive GPI#129 and is one of several players who had a very good week at the EPT, cashing in multiple events. In addition to a deep run in the Main Event, Joukimainen also finished 3^rd in the €1,850 NLHE High Roller and earned over 600 combined points. He was joined at the final table of the High Roller by Jonathan Karamilikis  (GPI#255) who cashed three times in Barcelona. He won the €2,000 NLHE – 6-Max, finished 11^th in the Main Event and 8^th in the High Roller. Karamilikis outlasted Alain Roy  (GPI#96) and Rodrigo Caprioli  in both the 6-Max and the Main Event but Roy still gets a big boost in rank for these cashes. He finished 8^th in the 6-Max and 23^rd in the Main Event moving him up 80 spots and into the Top One Hundred. Caprioli also made the final table of the 6-Max and cashed in the Main Event and joins the GPI Elite for the first time at GPI#254.

Many New and Returning Faces

With so much poker being played over the past week it is not surprising that there are a lot of new faces in the GPI 300. Sixteen players join the Index this week and all but two of them cashed in Barcelona. Stephane Benadiba (GPI#268) finished 3^rd in the €2,000 NLHE event and Zoltan Szabo (GPI#216) cashed in the event. Szabo also final tabled the €1,850 NLHE High Roller. Marc-Andre Ladouceur makes his debut after finishing 2^nd in the €10,000 NLHE Heads-Up. The following players also cashed in the Main Event:  Joni Jouhkimainen (GPI#129), Anatoly Gurtovy (GPI#180), Konstantin Streletskiy (GPI#221), Konstantin Tolokno  (GPI#246), Rodrigo Caprioli  (GPI#254), Jonathan Karamilikis (GPI#255),Marko Neumann (GPI#257), Juan Manuel Pastor (GPI#263), Matthias De Meulder (GPI#273), Lucille Cailly (GPI#276), and Pedro Javier Piazuelo Ferrero (GPI#292).

Jan Heitman (GPI#198) makes his GPI 300 debut after winning the GCOP Vol. 2 4/6 €2,200 NLHE Main Event back on August 8^th. His win was recorded in The Hendon Mob database this week and it is now reflected in his GPI score. Finally, Bryce Yockey returns to the Index at GPI#298, by picking up 53 points thanks to an aging result.

Mortensen and Spindler Exit the GPI 300

Some perennial GPI ranked players leave us this week. Carlos “The Matador” Mortensen and Benjamin Spindler have been on the Index since its inception in June of 2011. Mortensen was ranked GPI#24 when the Index debuted and spent several weeks in the Top Twenty. He has been steadily sliding down the rankings in 2012 because he has only cashed in two GPI qualifying events this year, one being the PCA Main Event where he finished 94^th. Spindler was ranked 148^th when the Index debuted and rose as high as GPI#24 after winning the 2011 UK & Ireland Poker Tour €5,000 NLHE Main Event. Unfortunately, that was the last time he cashed in a GPI qualifying event so the aging of his results has been steadily lowering his overall score and he falls out of the GPI 300 this week.

Also exiting the Index are GPI staples Nick Binger,Rob Akery, and Michael Tureniec.