The conclusion of The World Series of Poker-Europe created a lot of poker excitement over the past week. The Poker Brat, Phil Hellmuth, won his 13^th WSOP bracelet in the Main Event with some aggressive play over a field of tremendous talent. That talent included Jason Mercier who returns to Number One after making the final table. This will be Mercier’s thirty-fourth week at Number One, far more than Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier or Erik Seidel, the only other players to have been the World Number One. ElkY and Seidel combined have only spent two weeks more at Number One than Mercier, with 19 weeks and 16 weeks respectively in the top spot.

Hellmuth’s win was part of a streak of wins for the GPI 300 ranked players this week. The GPI 300 won both of the WSOP-E events reporting, the €10,000 NLHE Main Event and the €50,000 NLHE Majestic Roller Re-Entry event. They also won two of three EPT San Remo events reporting, the €2,000 NLHE Turbo and the €5,000 NLHE High Roller. In addition, twenty-two of the GPI 300 ranked players made final tables this week.

WSOP-E Main Event Changes the Top Ten and Beyond

Phil Hellmuth’s Main Event win earned him 581 points. Due to having excess cashes in Period 1 it replaces his cash in the €10,000 NLHE Mixed-Max event from just last week. He also has two scores aging this week. His 7^th place finish from last year’s €2,500 NLHE 6-Max event in the same tournament ages into Period 3 replacing a lower score and his cash from this year’s Irish Open €3,200 NLHE Main Event ages into Period 2. With all of these changes his overall score gain is 354 points. This moves Hellmuth up 20 spots to GPI#9, bypassing many players including Dan Smith (GPI#10 -7). Smith’s score lowers the most of any player this week. Smith has had an amazing year as evidenced by the fact that he is leading the GPI Player of the Year race. But the GPI considers not only who is playing well currently but consistency over time. While Smith has many excess scores this year that is not the case over the earlier aging Periods and it has a large impact on his score this week. Two of his scores from the 2011 EPT/UK and Ireland tournament age into Period 3 this week and replace two lower Period 3 scores costing him a total of 306 points. With no other Period 2 scores to replace them he falls from GPI#3 to GPI#10.

To get his hands on his latest bracelet Hellmuth had to beat Jason Mercier and several other GPI 300 ranked players at the final table. Stephane Albertini (GPI#270) finished 3^rd and joins the GPI Elite this week for the first time. Albertini previously only had one Period 1 score so he adds the entire 475 he earned to his score. Joseph Cheong (GPI#29) took 4^th place and Christopher Brammer finished 5^th. Brammer has one of the largest jumps in rank this week moving up 93 spots to GPI#73. Finishing just behind Mercier in 9^th place was Timothy Adams. Adams score for this event replaces a lower Period 1 score which gives him a net 90 point gain, enough to move him up 25 spots to his highest rank to date at GPI# 126.

Michael Watson Joins the Top Twenty

Michael Watson (GPI#15 +29) won the WSOP-E €50,000 NLHE Majestic Roller Re-Entry event and enters the Top Twenty for the first time. He was joined at the final table by John Juanda (GPI#65 +23) and Tobias Reinkemeier (GPI#39 +2), as well as Top Ten ranked Philipp Gruissem (GPI#6 0) and Steve O’Dwyer. O’Dwyer (GPI#4 +4) gets a nice score boost from his 7^th place finish, a net 110 points and improves his position by 4 spots.

Stammen and Ladouceur are Winners in San Remo

Keven Stammen (GPI#69 +91) and Marc-Andre Ladoceur (GPI#152 +117) both won events in San Remo. Ladoceur celebrated his first tournament win in the €5,000 NLHE High Roller. He earned 326 points and the largest jump in rank of any player this week. Stammen won the €2,000 NLHE Turbo and enjoys one of the largest score gains, partially because he also cashed in the WSOP-E Main Event. He picks up a net 360 points this week and moves into the Top One Hundred.

New Names Join the GPI 300

In addition to moving players up in the GPI 300 rankings the WSOP-E and San Remo events add new faces to the GPI Elite this week. This week’s freshman class includes Eric Sfez, Roman Romanovskyi, and  Kevin Saul (GPI#292). The only San Remo event reporting this week that was not won by a GPI 300 ranked player, the €2,000 PLO 8-Max Turbo, was nearly won by Eric Sfez. Sfez (GPI#272) was the runner-up in the PLO event and earned 173 points to make his GPI 300 debut. Roman Romanovskyi (GPI#255) also joins the GPI Elite for the first time this week. Romanovskyi finished 5^th in the EPT San Remo €2,000 NLHE Turbo earning 163 points.

Along with Stephane Albertini, returning this week after finishing 11^th in the WSOP-E Main Event is Nicolas Cardyn. He earned 350 points for his deep run and returns at GPI#171. Also returning to the GPI 300 this week are Leo Fernandez (GPI#218) and Adam Levy (GPI#237).

Tyler Reiman Exits the GPI 300

Tyler Reiman leaves the GPI 300 this week. Reiman has been a staple of the Index since it’s inception in June of 2011. He was ranked among the world’s best players nearly every week, missing only 3 of the Index’s 68 weeks. Two other familiar faces to exit are Bernard Lee and Edward Sabat. In addition, Fabian Quoss, Khiem Nguyen, Matthias De Meulder, and Simeon Naydenov also leave the GPI 300.