GPI Update: PCA Super High Roller Rolls Over the Rankings; WSOP Main Event Exits Period 1

This week the tournament poker world came back to life after the holidays with results coming in from the PCA Super High Roller (SHR) and WPT Dublin. These early results ringing in 2012 caused some of the biggest upward moves in the GPI this week. As previewed last week, the aging of WSOP Main Event results from 2010 and 2011 caused some of the biggest drops in the Index. And one big-name player staved off the effects of WSOP aging with a big finish in The Bahamas.

Mercier Holds on to the Top Spot

For the fourth week running, Jason Mercier (GPI#1) occupies the Number One spot on the GPI. The rest of the GPI Top Five also remains unchanged with Erik Seidel (GPI#2), Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (GPI#3), Eugene Katchalov (GPI#4) and Sam Trickett (GPI#5) all holding on to their positions. Sam Stein (GPI#10 +3) breaks back into the Top Ten despite losing points and Shawn Buchanan (GPI#6 +2) and Matthew Waxman (GPI#8 +1) both gain ground despite their scores remaining unchanged this week due to the effects of aging on other players’ scores. Sorel Mizzi (#12 -2) took the biggest hit of any of the players in last week’s Top Ten, losing 154 points due mainly to his top hundred showing in the 2011 WSOP $10,000 NLHE Main Event aging into Period 2, causing him to exit the Top Ten of the GPI. Vanessa Selbst (GPI#7 -1) lost 29 points, slipping a spot, due to her cash in the Main Event from 2010 aging into Period 4 while Will Failla (GPI#9 -2) lost 72 points and fell two spots for the same reason.

Glantz and Dovzhenko Join the Top Twenty

Two newcomers break into the GPI Top Twenty this week. Alexander Dovzhenko (GPI#14 +7) was sitting on the bubble last week at GPI#21. Dovzhenko, who has had a strong Period 1, picks up 74 points this week due in part to his 2011 WSOP $5,000 PLO Hi/Lo cash aging into Period 2 and 2010 WSOP Main event cash aging into Period 4, allowing a third place finish in the 2010 Partouche Poker Tour €1,350 NLHE and fourth place finish in the 2011 WSOPE €1,500 PLO 6-Max to now count toward his overall score in Period 3 and Period 1, respectively, boosting him 7 places in the rankings. Matt Glantz (GPI#20 +3) did not pick up any points this week but benefits from Bryn Kenney’s (GPI#24 -5) aging results. A variety of Kenny’s Period 2, 3, 4 and 5 scores aged this week, costing him a net 90 points and allowing Glantz to leapfrog him into the GPI Top Twenty for the first time.

With the strongest 2011 WSOP Main Event finish of any player in the GPI Top Twenty, David “Doc” Sands (GPI#18 -6) gets hit the hardest by aging. His fourteenth in the Main Event aging and his in-the-money finish at the 2011 PCA $10,000 Main Event both age this week, to a 162 point net loss to his GPI score.

PCA Super High Roller Propels Hall, Cushions Negreanu

The most significant new results this week came from the kickoff event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, the $100,000 NLHE Super High Roller (SHR) Event. Thirty players entered the high ticket tournament in the Bahamas, with two players re-entering after getting knocked out. The biggest jump this week in the rankings belongs to the third place finisher in that event, Galen Hall (GPI#115 +63). Hall, who won the PCA Main Event last year, had results age like many others. However, the benefit from his third place finish in this event far outweighed the aging of old results, allowing him to pick up 148 points, vaulting him in the rankings.

Daniel Negreanu (GPI #78 -1) only slips one spot in the rankings thanks to his fifth place finish in the $100,000 SHR this past weekend. With a second in the same PCA SHR Event last year aging into Period 3, costing him a total of 183 points, and his cash at the 2011 WSOP Main Event aging into Period 2, costing him 54 points, Negreanu was poised for a plummet in the rankings this week. The 205 points he earned for his fifth place finish in the PCA $100K Event staves off the drop, allowing Negreanu to hold steady in the GPI.

Two other in-the-money finishers at the SHR benefit in the GPI. Runner-up, Dan Shak (GPI#267), makes his return to the GPI, last being ranked October 4th, 2011. Fourth place finisher, Jonathan Duhamel (GPI#52 +30), took a big hit in the rankings at the end of December, falling from a high of GPI#26 to GPI#82 last week. Duhamel was one of the two players who chose to re-enter the PCA $100,000 SHR and the decision clearly paid off with his fourth place finish resulting in a huge upward move to just outside the GPI Top Fifty.

WPT Dublin Barely Moves the GPI

Across the Atlantic, the WPT held its first event of the New Year in Dublin. The third largest jump in the rankings this week belongs to Dermot Blain (GPI#81 +37), who finished 22nd in the €2,500 NLHE Main Event. But Blain was the only in-the-money finisher at WPT Dublin ranked in the GPI, which is not that surprising since most of the more active players on the tournament circuit were busy at the PCA.

WSOP Aging Finishes With a Bang

With the 2010 and 2011 WSOP $10,000 NLHE Main Event Results aging into Period 4 and Period 2, respectively, this week, this is the last time for the next five months that we will see WSOP aging effect the GPI. And the WSOP is not going out quietly. Sands, Mizzi and Negreanu aren’t the only players feeling the negative effects of the Main Event aging into a period with a lower multiplier this week. 2011 WSOP Main Event Champion, Pius Heinz, and runner-up, Martin Staszko, both made their GPI debuts the last week of December 2011. But, as expected, this week sees them exit the GPI as their biggest cashes age into Period 2.

Christian Harder (GPI#33 -17) and Ben Lamb (GPI#105 -60) also both take big losses this week. Harder cashed in both the 2010 and 2011 WSOP Main Events, so this week was particularly hard on his GPI ranking. The aging of those two results cost him 128 points triggering a 17 position fall out of the GPI Top Twenty.

Lamb’s situation is a little more severe. His third place finish in this year’s Main Event aging into Period 2 caused a cascade of other losses to his GPI score. The result itself aging costs Lamb 146 points as it moves from Period 1 with a multiplier of 3.0 to Period 2 with a multiplier of 2.25. But, because the GPI only counts the four highest scores in a period, the third place finish moving into Period 2 now causes his second place in the 2011 WSOP $3,000 PLO to be excluded by the cap, costing him an additional 222 points. It is a testament to how stellar Lamb’s performance was in the first half of 2011 that he has such a surplus of strong finishes that a second in a WSOP event would be excluded. But as strong as the first half of the year was for Lamb, the second half was that dry. The Main Event finish moving out of Period 1 leaves Lamb with no scores counting in that Period now, devastating to his GPI score. However, Lamb could climb back up the rankings quickly since, with no scores currently counting in Period 1, each new cash will get full point credit in the current half year

For Vanessa Rousso (GPI#57 +30) and Freddy Deeb (GPI#44 +26) WSOP result aging is good news. Rousso had a strong second half of 2011 so her 2011 Main Event cash was not counting until this week when it moved into Period 2, where only her fifth place finish at the EPT Grand Final Madrid €25,000 NLHE High Roller event was counting toward her score. With the addition of the second score in Period 2, Rousso gets a nice 103 point boost. Deeb similarly benefits from the aging of his 2011 Main Event Cash. Deeb had a surplus of scores in Period 1 but only two scores in Period 2, a cash in the 2011 WSOP $10,000 Omaha Hi/Lo Championship and the $2,500 10 Game/Six Handed, also at the WSOP. With the Main Event cash now counting toward his overall GPI score, Deeb picks up 127 points, moving into the Top Fifty.

Welcome Back to the GPI

While only one player makes his GPI debut this week, Ognjen Sekularac (GPI#291), nine players make their returns to the rankings. Dan Shak (GPI#267) makes the highest return, followed by:

Paul Berende (GPI#280)
Nicolas Cardyn (GPI#281)
Jan Bendik (GPI#285)
Nikolay Evdakov (GPI#289)
Amnon Filippi (GPI#290)
Gregory Brooks (GPI#293)
Ville Haavisto (GPI#294)
Andrew Robl (GPI#298)

Expect a Lot of Noise from the PCA

The PCA should dominate the results rolling in next week so expect a big impact from them. Not only will results be in from the $10,000 NLHE Main Event, which drew a massive 1072 runners, but the $25,000 High Roller event will also be complete as well as a handful of $5,000 and $2,000 buy-in events from the festival. For players who cashed in the Main Event, like Faraz Jaka, that is good news. Jaka fell off the rankings this week but with the cash at the PCA, his return is likely.