Global Poker Index: Jason Mercier Leads Overall for Fifth Week

Each week, the Global Poker Index releases a list of the top tournament poker players in the world using a formula that takes into account a player’s results over six half-year periods. For a look at the entire list, visit the official GPI website. Here’s a look at the rankings as of August 19, 2015.

2015 GPI Player of the Year

All was quiet this week atop the 2015 Global Poker Index Player of the Year leaderboard, with zero changes among the top 10 and Anthony Zinno remaining the frontrunner for a seventh-straight week.

Glancing down the POY list to share some news of moves, Scott Clements rose from No. 51 to No. 38 this week after winning one High Roller event and finishing runner-up in a second at the World Series of Poker National Championship in Cherokee, North Carolina.

Vladimir Troyanovskiy also ascended from No. 82 to No. 52 after a successful week in Famagusta in North Cyprus where he final tabled three events in a Russian Poker Tour series stop, winning one of them.

Canadians still are waiting for some representation in the POY race. Sorel Mizzi is the only Canadian to have made a brief appearance within the top 10 this year, but has since slipped down the list.

GPI 300 Top 10

Like the POY top 10, the top of the GPI overall rankings were similarly without much movement aside from Anthony Zinno moving up a couple of spots from No. 4 to No. 2 to come within just a tiny cash of overtaking Jason Mercier’s spot at the top. Mercier kept the No. 1 ranking for a fifth-straight week, however.

Mercier will be adding some points to his total after his victory yesterday in the $25,400 High Roller event in the 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open. Points-wise, that win will replace an earlier one from this year for Mercier since only the top six results in a given six-month period are counted. Mercier will also see a score from a year ago at the European Poker Tour Barcelona stop enter a third aging period and thus count for fewer points. Still, the win should afford Mercier a bit of breathing room at the top next week.

The closest any Canadian is to making the top 10 is Jonathan Duhamel who sits just outside in No. 12 with 3,400.23 points. One more decent tournament cash should put him among these top players.

Welcome to the GPI Top 300

Evidence of just how quiet a week it was for tournament poker comes by looking at the bottom of the GPI top 300 as only two new players nudged their way onto this week, with Nick Pupillo making a small move from No. 301 to No. 286 and David Nowling a bigger one from No. 351 to No. 300.

Biggest Gains

Nowling’s jump earned him the distinction as the biggest gainer for the week among those in the top 300. Ryan Fee likewise made a considerable move upwards from No. 272 to No. 227.

Biggest Drops

Rank		Player	Total GPI Score	Change
277		Rumen Nanev	1721.58	-43
197		Stuart Rutter	1916.03	-37
233		Marc-Etienne McLaughlin	1813.43	-37
246		Miroslav Alilovic	1787.12	-36
118		Dan Colman	2287.12	-35

Finally among the players who retained spots inside the GPI top 300 it was Rumen Nanev dropping the most after going from No. 234 to No. 277. Dan Colman appears on this list as well after losing his spot in the top 100 (falling from No. 83 to No. 118), however he’ll be gaining back next week after finishing third of 907 in the $5,250 buy-in 2015 SHRPO No-Limit Hold’em Championship won by Omar Zazay.

Unfortunately, the first mention of Canada this week is among those who have had the biggest drop. Marc-Etienne McLaughlin has slipped to No. 233. McLaughlin hasn't booked a result since his 305th-place finish in the WSOP Main Event, and his win in the $2,500 event at the Fallsview Poker Classic this February has lost value, causing his tumble in the rankings.

GPI Top 10 Canadians (the #EhTeam)

Rank		Player	Total Score
12		Jonathan Duhamel	3,400.23
15		Sorel Mizzi	3,316.76
20		Mike Leah	3,235.05
21		Daniel Negreanu	3,233.26
48		Mike Watson	2,897.40
72		Sam Greenwood	2,624.83
86		Ami Barer	2,527.87
106		Max Greenwood	2,386.76
130		Daniel Dvoress	2,230.91
133		Andrew Chen	2,207.96

The race between the top four Canadians is a fairly close one with only 167 points separating No. 1 from No. 4. With all of these players expected to be playing several events in Barcelona this week, there could be a lot of shuffling in the rankings.

What to Expect Next Week

The poker world’s focus moves to Barcelona, Spain this week as Season 12 of the European Poker Tour is now fully under way with this week’s start of the 71-event EPT Barcelona festival. Highlights of the schedule include the already-begun €1K Estrellas Main Event, the €50K Super High Roller (Aug. 22-24), the €25K One-Day High Roller (Aug. 25), the €10K High Roller (Aug. 28-30), and the €5,300 EPT Main Event (Aug. 24-30).

To view both the 2015 Player of the Year and GPI overall rankings in their entirety, visit the official GPI website. While you’re at it, follow the GPI on Twitter and its Facebook page.

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