GPI 300 Update: Roger Hairabedian Wins First WSOP Bracelet and Moves Into the Top Twenty

Roger Hairabedian moves from GPI#52 all the way up to GPI#16 this week following a very successful WSOP-E. Hairabedian adds nearly 400 points to his GPI score after finishing 3^rd in the €10,000 NLHE Mixed-Max event and winning the €5,000 PLO event. This was a huge win for Hairabedian, rewarding him with his first WSOP bracelet and the first ever for his native France. To take the top prize Hairabedian had to knock out Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi and Ville Matilla. Mizrachi’s 3^rd place finish boosts him up to his highest rank since the inception of the Global Poker Index. Mizrachi already had four scores in Period 1 so the 264 points he earned in this event replaces his score for his 4^th place finish in the $1,500 NL 2-7 Draw Lowball event from this year’s WSOP in Las Vegas. This gives him a net gain of 136 points and moves him up 4 spots to GPI#9.

Steve O’Dwyer also had a triple digit score change this week, but unfortunately it was in the opposite direction. O’Dwyer’s score drops by 170 points and he falls 3 spots to GPI#8. The change in score is mostly due to his runner-up finish in the EPT UK and Ireland £5,000 NLHE Main Event aging into Period 3. This is O’Dwyer’s lowest ranking since the beginning of May and without any new scores his slide is likely to continue in the coming weeks due to other aging scores.

GPI 300 Finish Strong in Mixed-Max and Shootout Events

Hairabedian was by far not the only GPI 300 ranked player to have a deep run in the €10,000 NLHE Mixed-Max event. The winner of the event, Jonathan Aguiar (GPI#278) makes his first appearance in the GPI 300 this week. Runner-up Brandon Cantu gains a lot of points and makes a big jump in rank, adding a net 282 points to his score and moving up 94 spots to GPI#129. Faraz Jaka (GPI#67 +124) has the largest score gain and largest upward movement in rank after his 4^th place finish. Jaka earned 306 points in this event and 129 points for cashing in the €3,000 NLHE Shootout.

Four of the top five finishes in the €3,000 NLHE Shootout were by GPI 300 ranked players and they all move up the rankings. Dan O’Brien (GPI#81 +42) finished 2^nd picking up a net 153 points. John Monnette moves into the Top One Hundred with the 117 net points he earned and Oleksii Kovalchuk (GPI#43 +15) returns to the Top Fifty after adding 119 points to his score. Adrien Allain finished 5^th and rejoins the GPI 300 this week at GPI#208.

Coming Up Next Week

Next week the WSOP-E will continue to bring changes to the GPI 300 with the reporting of the Main Event results.Jason Mercier and Phil Hellmuth both made the Final Table and could see their scores rise substantially, possibly even enough for Mercier to once again regain GPI#1.