GPI 300 Update: Kenney and Mizrachi Move Up; Serock in Top Twenty

The poker world has entered one of the busiest parts of the season and it is reflected in the GPI 300 rankings. Ten of the GPI 300 won an event this week and many more posted new results. Nearly every player moved in rank, including some significant changes to the Top Twenty, and thirteen players join the GPI Elite while another thirteen exit.

The two highest ranking players to add points to their scores for a win are Michael Watson and Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi. Watson returns to the Top Ten with the reporting of his win in the Aussie Millions Poker Championship A$2,500 PLO event. ‘The Grinder’ won the WSOP Circuit $3,300 NLHE Main Event held in Vanderbijlpark, South Africa last week. Mizrachi moves up 3 spots to GPI#12 with the 134 point net gain he receives from his win replacing his score for cashing in the Isle Poker Classic $2,500 NLHE Main Event. Bryn Kenney also moves up 3 spots. Kenney made his Top Ten debut just last week and wastes no time securing his place among the best of the best. Kenney cashed twice at the EPT Deauville, finishing 5^th in the €10,000 NLHE High Roller Single Rebuy event for a score of 257 points and 9^th in the €1,000 NLHE Turbo Bounty event for a score of 88 points. The latter score is not one of his largest Period 1 scores and is therefore excluded by the five cash cap. The score for his High Roller finish is among his best scores and therefore takes the place of a 160 point score for a 5^th place finish in the EPT Prague €5,000 NLHE Six Handed event. This nets him a 97 point gain and moves him up to GPI#7.

One other notable change to the Top Twenty is the addition of Joseph Serock (GPI#20 +1). This is Serock’s first appearance in the Top Twenty. While Serock’s score has been gradually increasing over the last few weeks he enters the Top Twenty this week due to the aging results of Eugene Katchalov (GPI#23). Katchalov has been a staple of the Top Twenty since the inception of the Global Poker Index in June 2011 but the aging of his score from the Epic Poker League $20,000 NLHE Six Handed event causes his overall score to dip. This pushes him out of the Top Twenty and opens the door for Serock to enter. Jason Mercier and  Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier are currently the only two players to have ranked in the Top Twenty in every week of the GPI’s existence.

GPI 300 Win at EPT Deauville

Over half of the EPT Deauville events were won by the GPI 300. The €10,000 NLHE High Roller Single Rebuy event was won by Vojtech Ruzicka and provides the largest changes in the rankings this week.  Ruzicka gets the largest boost in rank. He moves up 111 spots to GPI#135. Steven Silverman (GPI#185 +100) has the next largest rank gain thanks to the 240 points he earned for his 6^th place finish. The two largest score gains of the week go to 7^th place finisher Jonathan Duhamel (GPI#30 +22) and 11^th place finisher Davidi Kitai (GPI#75 +61). Each player cashed twice in Deauville. Duhamel also took 4^th place in the €2,000 NLHE event. He earned 225 points in the High Roller and 216 points in the €2,000 NLHE for a total score gain of 441 points. Kitai also took 6^th place in the €2,700 NLHE High Roller for a total net score gain of 388 points.

The other EPT Deauville winners included:

EPT Deauville Main Event Adds Players to GPI Elite

The EPT Deauville Main Event brings lots of new and returning faces to the GPI 300. Among them are GPI newcomer Walid Bou Habib (GPI#202) and returning player Jeffrey Hakim (GPI#180).  Habib and Hakim both made the final table with Habib finishing runner-up and Hakim leaving in 8^th place. Hakim also finished 9^th in the €2,000 NLHE Turbo event.

Other brand new names to the GPI 300 who cashed in the Main Event include Timothy Patrick Reilly (GPI#278) and Michel Abecassis(GPI#293). Returning on the heels of a Main Event cash are Matthias De Meulder (GPI#199), Casey Kastle (GPI#259), Eric Sfez (GPI#286), and Paul Guichard (GPI#289).