GPI 300 Update: Schemion and Salsberg Win Big and Join the GPI Elite

The Global Poker Index Elite 300 is full of winners this week. Two Main Events in France affect the rankings from top to bottom, helping pros in the Top Twenty improve their positions, and bringing a slate of new faces to the GPI 300 in impressive fashion.

Partouche Poker Tour Main Event Guaranteed To Make GPI Impacts

The Partouche Poker Tour €8,500 NLHE Main Event results posted this week and as expected the winner, Ole Schemion, makes his GPI 300 debut at GPI#185. Joining him at the final table were Dan O’Brien, Dan Smith (GPI#3 0), and Tomeu Gomila (GPI#242). O’Brien (GPI#119 +112) finished 4^th and moves up the most in rank from the previous week’s GPI 300. Smith holds onto GPI#3 with the 55 points he picks up, inching ever closer to GPI#1. The 394 points he earned for his 7^th place finish would have been a huge boost to many players’ scores, but Smith’s incredible play this year has left him with so many large Period 1 scores that the PPT Main Event score actually replaces a score from an event he won earlier in the year, the EPT Grand Final €5,000 NLHE 6-Max Turbo, netting him the 55 points. Gomila, on the other hand, only had one Period 1 score previously so he adds the entire 382 points he earned to his score and debuts at GPI#242. Ramin Hajiyev (GPI#174) also joins the GPI 300 for the first time after barely missing the final table, finishing in 11^th place. He already had four Period 1 scores but conveniently his runner-up finish in the EPT Madrid €2,000 NLHE 8-Max Turbo ages into Period 2 this week making room for his PPT Main Event score which nets him a 309 point gain.

Some other notable cashers in the PPT Main Event are Top Ten ranked Andrew ‘luckychewy’ Lichtenberger and Mohsin Charania (GPI#17 +25) who cracks the Top Twenty for the first time. Lichtenberger and Charania have had a very profitable couple of weeks. They both followed up their cashes at the PPT Main Event with cashes at the WPT Rendez-Vous ὰ Paris €7,500 NLHE Main Event, where Charania made the final table. Lichtenberger’s WPT Paris Main Event score is excluded by the four cash cap, but he has a score aging into Period 2 this week which opens up a slot for his PPT Main Event cash. This gives him a net gain of 174 points and he moves up one spot to his highest rank to date at GPI#6. Charania also had four scores in Period 1 but two of them were lower than his scores for the PPT and WPT Main Events so they are replaced and he gains a net 291 points and is now GPI#17.

While these players celebrate their additional points for their PPT Main Event finishes, last year’s top three finishers all lose points this week and drop in rank. The 2011 PPT Main Event ages into Period 3 and contributes to them having some of the largest drops in rank and score. Last year’s winner, Sam Trickett, loses 203 points due to the aging of this event and he falls 32 spots to GPI#78. Salman Behbehani (GPI#157 -65) has the largest score drop this week of any player. The aging of his runner-up finish last year knocks out his cash in the 2011 WSOP $1,500 NLHE Triple Chance. That lowers his score by a combined 226 points. Adding a little to his drop in score is the 2010 English Poker Tour Main Event aging into Period 5 costing him an additional 26 points for a total score loss of 252 points. Oleksii Kovalchuk (62 -30) finished 3^rd last year. He has two scores aging this week but the PPT Main Event is the driving force behind his 145 point drop in score and 30 spot drop in rank.

WPT Rendez-Vous ὰ Paris Main Event Results Change the Top Ten

The GPI 300 rankings were heavily impacted by the final table of the WPT Rendez-Vous ὰ Paris €7,500 NLHE Main Event. Matt Salsberg (GPI#268) won the event and makes his GPI 300 debut. Philipp Gruissem finished 3^rd and shoots up the rankings. Just last week Gruissem rejoined the Top Twenty. The 369 points he earned from his WPT Rendez-Vous ὰ Paris Main Event cash moves him from GPI#20 all the way up to GPI#7. Timothy Adams (GPI#150 +71) finished 4^th and gets a big bump up in rank. Mohsin Charania finished 5^th and Fabian Quoss (GPI#243) returns to the GPI 300 after his 6^th place finish. Also returning to the GPI 300 after cashing in the event are Sean Jazayeri(GPI#260) and Nicolas Cardyn (GPI#293).

The first player out after the money bubble burst was Jason Mercier (GPI#2 0). Last week Mercier was unseated at GPI#1 by Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellierdespite an attempt to hold onto the top spot by entering the PPT Main Event where he was unable to cash. His cash this week brought him very close to being back on top. He finished 27^th and earned 182 points. That score replaces his score for cashing in the WSOP Main Event netting him 66 points. Unfortunately for Mercier, that was 37 points short of what he needed to overtake Grospellier.

Early Results Are In From the WPT Borgata Poker Open

While the Main Event continues at the Borgata Poker Open, many of the events are already in the books. One of those events was the $1,500 NLHE Mixed Max Re-Entry which was won by Vineet “Vinny” Pahuja (GPI#230). He earned 161 points for his win and returns to the GPI 300 this week. John Andress finished 3^rd earning 125 points and moves up 42 spots to GPI#200.
Jesse Cohen and Harrison Gimbel both made the final table of the $1,500 NLHE Bounty Re-Entry event. Cohen earned 131 points for his 4^th place finish. His final table score for the Battle at the Beach NLHE Bounty ages into Period 2 this week costing him 27 points so he nets a 104 point gain. Gimbel finished 7^th and moves up ten spots to GPI#224.

New and Returning to the GPI 300