GPI Update: Seidel Retakes GPI#1; Duhamel Surges; Bilokur and Boeree Debut; PCA Shakes, Rattles and Rolls

The EPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure created big moves this week in the GPI with several 2012 Events recording this week and 2011 and 2010 results aging into older scoring periods. Thanks to the full slate of tournaments offered in the Bahamas 9% of the entire GPI 300 this week were not in the Index last week, with roughly 5% of them having never been in the GPI 300. A former WPT Player of the Year makes his triumphant return, the Top Twenty sees plenty of upheaval, and a former Main Event champion had a week he will not soon forget.

Top Ten Changes

Erik Seidel (GPI#1 +1) last sat atop the index November 28, 2011. His slip to GPI#2 at the beginning of December ended a record eight weeks in the top spot. This week, Seidel reclaims GPI#1 from Jason Mercier (GPI#2 -1). Seidel picks up 136 points due mainly to the effects of two of his cashes in last year’s PCA aging into Period 3, a fourth in the $25,000 NLHE High Roller and a third in the $5,000 NLHE. Prior to this week, Seidel had no results counting in Period 3 so the two scores aging this week into that period give him a big boost to his overall GPI score. It is a testament to how strong the last year has been for Seidel that he had climbed all the way to GPI#2 with only eight of a possible 12 scores counting in the most recent three periods. No other Top Ten player is currently recording a goose egg in a period within the last two years so it is not surprising that the addition of two qualifying scores pushes Seidel back up one spot to Number One.

Shawn Buchanan (GPI#5 +1) breaks back into the Top Five this week on the heels of a win in the $10,000 PCA NLHE 6-Max event, which contributes to a big 242 point overall  gain and allows him to knock Sam Trickett (GPI#6 -1) out of the Top Five. Mike “Timex” McDonald breaks into the Top Ten for the first time this week. Mike debuted on the index at GPI#141 back in June. But after a stellar Fall season, including a win in the $20,000 Epic Poker 8-Max Event, a second and third in EPT events, and a 3rd in a WPT event, the 22 year old has boosted his overall score 1,100 points and reasserted himself as one of the world’s best.

Duhamel Debuts in the Top Twenty; Jacobson, Marafioti, Return

Jonathan Duhamel (GPI#11) shoots up 41 spots in the rankings this week. Duhamel followed his final table finish in the January 5th $100,000 PCA NLHE Super High Roller event with three more cashes at the 2012 PCA, including a win in the $5,000 NLHE 8-Max and a second in the $25,000 NLHE 8-Max High Roller. Prior to this week, Duhamel only had three scores counting in Period 1. With his new PCA results now counting he gains a fourth score in Period 1 as well as nearly double the points for another due to his PCA score replacing a lower score for a whopping 642 point gain, landing him just outside the Top Ten.

Martin Jacobson (GPI#12 +23) and Matt Marafioti (GPI#13 +10) re-enter the Top Twenty just behind Duhamel. Jacobson’s tenth place in the $10,000 PCA Main Event gives him a 410 point gain since, as with Duhamel, he did not have four scores counting in Period 1 prior to this week. Marafioti’s cash in the $25,000 PCA NLHE 8-Max High Roller helps to push him back into the Top Twenty after exiting just two weeks ago.

Sam Stein (GPI#14 -4) is the only player to exit the Top Ten this week, despite picking up 20 points. Stein gets leapfrogged by the much bigger point gains of Mike McDonald (+158 points), Jonathan Duhamel (+642 points), Martin Jacobson (+410 points), and Matt Marafioti (+246 points). In a week with so many new tournament results coming in, standing still is likely to cause a fall.

An Additional Score in Period 1 Boosts Lichtenberger, Hall

Martin Jacobson and Jonathan Duhamel weren’t the only beneficiaries of an additional score counting in Period 1 this week. Fifty-one GPI players added an additional score to their Period 1 cashes this week, among them Andrew Lichtenberger (GPI#21 +9), David Peters (GPI #34 +45), Carlos Mortensen (GPI#57 +40), Galen Hall (GPI#70 +45) Adam Geyer (GPI#124 +67)and Yevgeniy Timoshenko (GPI#128 +94), all of whom cashed in the $10,000 PCA NLHE Main Event.

Biggest Gains

The biggest jump on the GPI this week belongs to Andrew Chen (GPI#96) who soars into the Top One Hundred with a whopping 119 place jump in the rankings. Chen placed second in the $10,000 PCA NLHE 6-Max High Roller and fourth at the same festival in the $2,000 NLHE Turbo, contributing to a 369 point gain in his overall GPI score this week. Also with 100 rank or greater gains this week are Barry Greenstein (GPI#98 +112), Hans Winzeler (GPI#158 +104) and Nicolas Fierro (GPI#81 +103). Greenstein peaked at GPI#28 on August 22, 2011 and remained in the Top One Hundred until the beginning of January when he plummeted to a low of GPI#219. Greenstein’s cash in the $10,000 PCA NLHE Main Event contributes to a 343 point gain for the Hall-of-Famer, boosting him back into the Top One Hundred.

Winzeler’s runner-up in the $5,000 PCA PLO Championship moves him from three results counting in Period 1 to four, resulting in a 237 gain for the pro from Florida. Fierro picked up a final table finish in the $25,000 PCA NLHE 8-Max High Roller, giving him a 382 point boost to his score.

Biggest Drops

This week was not so kind to Justin Smith (GPI#195 -72), Daniel Colman (GPI#225 -108),Nick Schulman (GPI#228 -109), and Will Molson (GPI#296  -165) who experience the biggest dips in their rankings this week. Smith loses 146 points, mainly due to the net effects of his runner-up finish in the 2010 $10,000 WPT Bellagio Cup IV NLHE Championship Event aging into Period 4. Colman has three results aging this week.  A cash at the 2011 $10,000 Bellagio Cup VII NLHE Main Event ages into Period 2 while a fourth place finish in last year’s $5,000 NAPT PCA NLHE Bounty Shootout and a final table in the $5,000 NLHE Heads-Up Championship at the same PCA both age into Period 3, costing him a total of 228 points.  Schulman loses 234 points due to his only Period 1 score from last week, a cash in the 2011 $10,000 Bellagio Cup NLHE Main Event, aging into Period 2 and not only leaving him with no results now counting toward his Period 1 score but also knocking out a cash in the 2011 $10,000 WSOP Seven-Card Stud Championship from Period 2, resulting in a net loss of 234 points.

Molson drops the most in the rankings this week, plummeting 165 places due to a 302 point loss. Molson has recorded some of his biggest career results at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Having not cashed at this year’s PCA, his stellar past performance is bad news as PCA results from years past age this week. Molson’s biggest point loss comes from his win in the 2011 $25,000 PCA NLHE High Roller Event aging into Period 3, which accounts for 201 points of the total 302 Molson loses this week. Molson also finished runner-up in the same event in 2010, which now ages into Period 5, and a cash in the 2011 $2,000 PCA NLHE Event ages into Period 4. This leaves Molson with only one result now counting in Period 1 and two results counting in Period 2, causing his crash.

Twenty-Seven New Faces Join the GPI

The volume of tournament results coming in this week from The Bahamas stir up the GPI rankings this week, with a full 9% of the index comprised of players who have either never been ranked previously or who are making their return to the rankings. This week seesJonathan Turner (GPI#119), Faraz Jaka (GPI#145) and Pius Heinz (GPI#249) return the rankings. Turner, Jaka and Heinz all fell off the index last week, in Heinz’ case due to the aging of his $10,000 WSOP Main event win. Turner returns this week having cashed three times at the PCA, with his highest finish a second in the $5,000 8-Game Mix. Coming off a strong 2011 WSOP, where he cashed four times, Turner had no qualifying cashes for the rest of 2011 with his only result being a 41st in the $1,000 Caesars Palace Classic NLHE Championship Event where the buy-in did not meet the minimum $1,500 GPI requirement. With the strong return to form, Turner gets full credit for all three results at the PCA, increasing from zero Period 1 scores to three, and contributing to a hefty 494 point increase in his overall score. Jaka returns this week on the strength of his third place finish in the $10,000 PCA NLHE Main Event while Heinz’ fifth place in the $5,000 NLHE 8-Max at the same festival lifts him back into the Top 300.

The highest debut on the GPI this week belongs to Leonid Bilokur (GPI#97). Bilokur won the $25,000 PCA NLHE 8-Max High Roller event. With a field of 141 runners, this high buy-in event was also a high value event in the Index and Bilokur picked up a whopping 556 points for the victory, causing him to debut in the Top 100. Also making her debut this week is Liv Boeree (GPI#263). Boeree is best known for winning the 2010 €5,000 EPT San Remo NLHE Main Event but had not previously been ranked. Her cash in the $10,000 NLHE Main event at the PCA is enough to nudge her into the Top 300.

Other Players New to the GPI This Week:

Kunimaro Kojo (GPI#151)
Randy Lew (GPI#152)
Ruben Visser (GPI#162)
Luca Pagano (GPI#187)
Jason Koon (GPI#192)
Corey Burbick (GPI#194)
Kyle Julius (GPI#215)
Laurence Houghton (GPI#232)
Maksim Semisoshenko (GPI#234)
Andrew Badecker (GPI#240)
Nicholas Grippo (GPI#246)
Danyel Boyaciyan (GPI#252)
Bolivar Palacios (GPI#255)
Xuan Liu (GPI#258)
Vyacheslav Igin (GPI#262)
Justin Schwartz (GPI#264)
Alexander Venovski (GPI#278)
Edward Sabat (GPI#279)
Mike Leah (GPI#282)
Yuliyan Nikolaev Kolev (GPI#286)
Stephen Chidwick (GPI#291)
Adam Levy (GPI#292)

Big Names Exit the GPI

In a week where twenty-seven players enter the GPI rankings, twenty-seven players must also exit and among those are some of poker’s biggest names. Phil Laak had a big 2011 WSOP, cashing three times, but has not cashed since. Coming off of his huge run at the WSOP, Laak peaked at GPI#68 in July but with all of his WSOP cashes now having aged into Period 2 and no results counting in Period 1, Laak falls off the rankings this week. Other big names making their exits this week are Joe Hachem, Ted Forrest and Erick Lindgren. As in Phil Laak’s case, none of these players have cashed since July, leaving them all with zero scores counting toward their Period 1, which has the highest value. It is not surprising to see these players exit the rankings with so many new Period 1 results recording this week.

Next Week: Australia Makes its Mark

With the 2012 PCA behind us, the larger ticket tournaments at the Aussie Millions start up this weekend, including a $1,500 NLHE Bounty Shootout and a $100,000 Challenge, both of which should be completed in time to record in next week’s rankings. Results from the 2011 Aussie Millions will also be aging out, which is likely to have some big effects at the top of the GPI. Results from the Southern Poker Millions and the WSOP Circuit Event in Choctaw should also be in the mix.