GPI Player of the Year June Recap: Smith and Ivey Take Turns at Number One; Duhamel’s Position Starts to Weaken

After holding onto the top spot for over 5 months, ’s lead in the GPI Player of the Year race was decimated by an amazing month of results at the WSOP by Phil. But after only two weeks in the top spot, Ivey loses the position to Dan Smith who extends an equally amazing late spring run.

Ivey Amazing WSOP

At the beginning of June, Ivey was sitting in Player of the Year position 114 with only two qualifying cashes, the 2012 Aussie Millions A$10,000 NLHE Main Event and the EPT Grand Final €25,000 8 Max High Roller. Having sat out of the 2011 WSOP, there was much speculation about how Ivey would play if he returned to the WSOP in 2012. All questions were answered and all critics were silenced with his performance last month. While not winning a bracelet, Ivey cashed six times, five of which were final tables. Out of those six cashes, Ivey gets four new PoY results. Scores now counting in his 629 Player of the Year points are his 2^nd place finish in the $10,000 PLHE Event, 5^th place finish in the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Event, 3^rd place finish in the $5,000 Omaha Hi/Lo Event, and 7^th place finish in the $5,000 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo Event.

For these efforts, Phil Ivey took over the Number One spot on June 18^th and held onto it for exactly two weeks.

Dan Smith Inches Ahead

While Ivey had a tremendous run in June and Duhamel had an amazing run in January, Dan Smith recorded most of his results in April with a trio of wins in €5,000 events at the EPT Grand Final and a final table appearance at EPT Berlin. Smith was only a handful of points behind Duhamel at Player of the Year position 2 for all of May and the first half of June, falling to position 3 in the second half of June after Ivey leapt ahead in the Standings on the heels of his WSOP performance. Despite falling behind Ivey, Smith needed only one more significant cash to take the Top Spot after his impressive April run. With his 3^rd place finish in the WSOP $5,000 NLHE Event, Smith earned the points he needed to take the lead. Smith now sits 33 points ahead of Ivey and 66 points ahead of Duhamel. While it is a double digit point lead, the race is still anyone’s to win.

Vedes, Bonomo and Chidwik All Move Into the Top Ten

Entering the Top Ten this month are Tommy Vedes, Justin Bonomo and Stephen Chidwik. All three were in the hunt over the last month and each secured points this month at the WSOP with multiple cashes to help solidify their spots in the Top Ten.

Tommy Vedes has cashed five times at the WSOP, improving his Player of the Year score by 151 points. He moves up from position 23 at the beginning of the month to position 8 this week due to his cashes in the $10,000 NLHE Heads-Up Event and the $5,000 NLHE Event.

Justin Bonomo has also had an active WSOP cashing 5 times and jumping three spots from position 12 to position 9. Three new cashes counting this month for Bonomo include his scores in the $1,500 LHE-Shootout Event, $3,000 NLHE-Shootout Event, and the $3,000 LHE Event.

Like Vedes and Bonomo, Stephen Chidwik has also cashed 5 times at the WSOP and lands in position 10 improving 23 places over the course of the month. His new cashes counting towards Player of the Year points include his 6^th place finish in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship Event and his cash in the $5,000 NLHE Event.

Koon and Grospellier Improve Top Ten Positions

Jason Koon entered the month in position 9 and improves this month four spots to position 5 by adding Player of the Year points with cashes in the WSOP $3,000 NLHE Event and the $2,500 NLHE Four Handed Event. Koon has cashed an impressive 6 times at the WSOP so far.

Grospellier also improved in the Standings this month, moving up 2 spots from position 8 to position 6 with three WSOP cashes all of which count towards his score.

Halfway Point for the GPI Player of Year Race

With the end of June comes the end of the first scoring period for the GPI Player of the Year race. For the first half of the year, a player’s best six qualifying scores for events that begin on or before June 30^th are counted. Any events that start on or after July 1^st are counted for the second half of the Player of the Year race. As of this week, all scoring slots are reset and players get to accumulate a whole new set of scores to add to their first half performance. Unlike the first half of the year where six scores count, only the top five scores will count for the remainder of the race, giving a total of eleven for the year. With such a tight competition at the top of the Standings, the race could be blown wide open with a streak by one of the current contenders or any of the hundreds of others waiting in the wings.