GPI300: Smith returns to #1, Kitai makes Top 10 debut

Dan Smith becomes third player ever to crack 4,000-point barrier while Davidi Kitai makes Belgian history …

VIEW FROM THE TOP

The intense race between the “Big Three” atop the GPI World Poker Rankings seems Dan Smith (GPI#1, +2) return to the top this week. Smith outlasted 424 opponents over the weekend to win for the sixth time on the European Poker Tour, second in Barcelona. Smith has won three times on tour this year and has collected over $4.2M since last December, when he won the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond title. Ole Schemion (GPI#2, -1) and Daniel Negreanu (GPI#3, -1) each drop a spot in the GPI World Poker Rankings.

Three-time WSOP bracelet winner and Triple Crown club member Davidi Kitai (GPI#9 CB, +20) makes his long-awaited debut inside the Top 10. Kitai, who finished 49th in the EPT Barcelona Main Event, becomes the first-ever player from Belgium to be ranked in the Top 10 on the GPI World Poker Rankings.

Former World #1 Erik Seidel (GPI#10, +1) joins Kitai inside the Top 10 this week while a pair of American stars, Jacob Schindler (GPI#16, -6) and WPT Player of the Year Mukul Pahuja (GPI#22, -13) find themselves on the outside looking in with this week’s rankings release.

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SWIMMING UPSTREAM

Four scores so far at the EPT Barcelona Festival helped Mikhail Korotkikh (GPI#160, +130) make the biggest move inside the GPI300 this week, moving up 130 spots to #160. Korotkikh also enters the GPI National Russia Top 10, moving up to 5th in the country.

Kimmo Kurko (GPI#138, +94), Daniel Shak (GPI#74, +62), Sergio Aido (GPI#176, +61) and Kitty Kuo (GPI#134, +45) are just a few other notables to move up this week.

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DOWN THE LADDER

Former EPT Loutraki Champion Zimnan Ziyard (GPI#238, -83) takes the biggest hit this week, falling over 80 spots in the standings. Ziyard’s last score on the live tournament circuit was last April at EPT Sanremo.

Victor Ramdin (GPI#277, -71), Yevgeniy Timoshenko (GPI#236, -67) and Phil Laak (GPI#272, -65) are just a few of the other players going down in the rankings this week.

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IN-N-OUT

A total of 18 players switched spots in and out of the GPI300 this week. Former EPT Champions Robin Ylitalo (GPI#144) and Anton Wigg (GPI#226) lead the charge and make a return to the Top 300 this week.

Meanwhile, Phil Ivey (GPI#305), Greg Mueller (GPI#309) and Chris Moorman (GPI#329) are three of the notable to fall out of the 300 this week. Also, Robert Mizrachi (GPI#313) is also out, meaning that for the first time in GPI history, a Mizrachi is not ranked inside the Top 300.

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ON THE BUBBLE

On the bubble this week is five-time WSOP bracelet winner Jeff Lisandro (GPI#301). The Australian-born Italian had been ranked inside the Top 300 since mid-June. No word yet on where the “Iceman” plans on playing next on the live tournament circuit.