Bertrand Grospellier Back on Top of Global Poker Index 300

Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier has returned to the head of the Global Poker Index (GPI) rankings of the top 300 players in the world after a fourth-month gap.

The 30-year-old from Melun in north-central France was last in the number one spot back in August, but, although his points remain the same as last week, he has overtaken last week’s top man Erik Seidel after the American lost 34.59 points.

The Las Vegas native certainly started this year on fire, with massive wins and pay days in his Period 2 section from the AUD$250,000 Super High Roller No-Limit Hold’em event at the Aussie Millions in January, the following month’s $25,100 High Roller Event from the LA Poker Classic, and the $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em tournament at the NBC National Heads-Up Championship in Las Vegas in March.

The 52-year-old eight-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner also picked up the $100,000 Super High Roller No-Limit Hold’em event at the Five Star World Poker Classic in Vegas two months later, and also secured a quintet of top five finishes in other major events by the early days of April.

However, Triple Crown winner Bertrand Grospellier nabbed the top spot from Seidel as the American’s Period 3 results – that is, the second half of last year – were nothing to write home about.

Ultimately, though, Seidel’s points total fell due to his 14th place at last year’s WSOP $1,500 buy-in No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball event dropping into Period 4, therefore leaving him with just two results in his Period 3 column.

London-based Grospellier is undoubtedly a worthy GPI leader, though, as his collection of a World Poker Tour (WPT) crown, a WSOP bracelet and a European Poker Tour (EPT) triumph proves.

After a few weeks with little movement in the top 10, we have a new name in at number eight in Englishman Chris Moorman.

The Brighton native certainly had cause to extend his 26th birthday celebrations beyond Wednesday night – and possibly into Thursday morning anyway – after he leapt 192.65 points and 10 places for a 2,051.57 mark to replace Sorel Mizzi in the top 10.

Moorman, who saw ageing results from the last two stagings of the WSOP drop into Period 2 and Period 4 respectively, added enough points to oust Mizzi as the Canadian pro fell down six spots to 14th in the rankings

Mizzi dropped a massive 217.16 points to 1889.56 when his ninth from last year’s WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic was moved into Period 3.

American Jason Mercier, with 2,415.32 points, remained in third spot, while Ukrainian Eugene Katchalov stayed in fourth place with 2,405.03.

However, American Sam Stein (2,317.85) swapped places with Canadian Shawn Buchanan (2,219.40) for fifth and sixth place respectively, while 25-year-old Englishman Sam Trickett (2,164.90), Frenchman Fabrice Soulier (2,019.80) and States star Matt Waxman (2,014.06) again filled places seven, nine and 10.

However, there could be even more movement in the leading positions come next week as, along with older WSOP scores dropping down into lower periods, quite a few new event results will be featured.

These include some big tournaments, including Russian Andrey Pateychuk’s success from the WPT Prague on Monday this week.

Then there are other big tournament stats to come in this week from the EPT Prague and the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas. Both will be completed this weekend, so there should be some big moves and possibly huge drops come next week’s rankings release.

Back to this week’s listing, though, and there were 13 new players making it into the GPI’s top 300.

The highest new entry came from Fabian Quoss, who arrived at an impressive 157th place on 1,275.88 points following his main event win at the Grosvenor United Kingdom Poker Tour (GUKPT) Grand Final in London last weekend.

Also making notable marks on the top 200 are David Steicke (160th on 1,269.58 points) and Scott Clements (178th on 1,233.63), while the other new entries are John Monnette (248th on 1,098.79), Richard Lyndaker (257th on 1,081.51), Greg Dyer (265th on 1,075.38), Keven Stammen (278th on 1,060.30), Kristijonas Andrulis (279th on 1,056.80), Justin Smith (283rd on 1,049.86), Brock Parker (287th on 1,047.44), Kevin Vandersmissen (292nd on 1,034.97), Seth Fischer (294th on 1,028.98) and Dan Smith (300th on 1,020.73).

As is always the case, other players – including some big-name pros – dropped off the GPI list, and they were Vladimir Shchemelev, Sergey Rybachenko, Robert Mizrachi, Nikolay Evdakov, Nicolas Levi, Men Nguyen, Matt Affleck, Luca Pagano, Lars Bonding, Justin Schwartz, Jonathan Karamalikis, Farzad Bonyadi and David Chiu.

On a more positive side, the biggest climber of the week was Jean-Philippe Rohr – who shot up 87 places to 173rd on 1,237.31 points – after the Frenchman finished in 20th at November’s WPT Marrakech.

Canadian Jonathan Duhamel moved up 36 spots to 26th after his seventh-place finish at the same event as Rohr, while other notable climbers included Michael Benvenuti (up 69 places to 154th on 1,279.04 points), Bernard Lee (up 63 to 187th on 1,207.13), James Mitchell (up 49 places to 108th on 1,395.80), Noah Schwartz (up 47 places to 78th on 1,509.00), Matt Giannetti (up 47 to 158th on 1,272.07), Matt Matros (up 47 to 198th on 1,192.03), Nenad Medic (up 46 to 113th on 1,378.82), Tom McCormick (up 41 to 195th on 1,193.62), and Josh Arieh (up 36 to 210th on 1,169.21).

However, what is good news for one player always means bad tidings for another – and so we saw some big drops down the GPI 300, most commonly as a result of the final placings from last year’s WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic moving into Period 3 from Period 2.

A quartet of pros were badly affected by this change in period as John Racener – a fourth place finisher at The Bellagio in Vegas – fell 52 places to 104th on 1,409.63 points, while Andrew Lichtenberger (eighth) dropped 67 spots to 207th on 1,173.85, Amit Makhija (13th) saw his ranking slump 75 spots to see him at 179th on 1,228.78, and Andy Frankenberger (16th) lost 52 places to land at 130th on 1,326.95.

Other major fallers include Will Molson, who dropped down 75 places to 212th on 1,168.76 points, as well as Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan, whose ranking slipped 71 spots to 293rd on 1,034.13, John Duthie (down 66 places to 290th on 1,041.37), Yevgeniy Timoshenko (down 62 to 232nd on 1,132.84), Thorsten Schafer (down 54 to 114th on 1,378.52), and Jonathan Jaffe (down 51 to 233rd on 1,131.83).

Check back here every week for the latest developments on the GPI. You can find the whole top 300 at globalpokerindex.com.

The top 10 in the Global Poker Index (GPI) 300

1. Bertrand Grospellier (France) – 2,534.45

2. Erik Seidel (USA) – 2,526.35

3. Jason Mercier (USA) – 2,415.32

4. Eugene Katchalov (Ukraine) – 2,405.03

5. Sam Stein (USA) – 2,317.85

6. Shawn Buchanan (Canada) – 2,219.40

7. Sam Trickett (UK) – 2,164.90

8. Chris Moorman (UK) – 2,051.57

9. Fabrice Soulier (France) – 2,019.80

10. Matt Waxman (USA) – 2,014.06