Bertrand Grospellier remains on top of GPI rankings

Frenchman Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier has made it three successive weeks at the top of the Global Poker Index (GPI) rankings.

The 30-year-old London-based pro – who lifted the $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Championship at this summer’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas for $331,639 – sits on 2,473.134 points.

The Team PokerStars Pro is just the fourth player to have completed the triple crown of poker, with wins in the World Poker Tour (WPT), European Poker Tour (EPT) and WSOP, but is not too far ahead of second-placed American Erik Seidel.

The 51-year-old eight-time WSOP bracelet winner – who has 2,457.361 points – overtook fellow American Jason Mercier (2,434.301), while another Frenchman, Fabrice Soulier (2,193.589) – this year’s WSOP $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship winner – moved above Los Angeles pro Sam Stein (2,168.853) into fifth spot.

Outside the top 10, yet another American, Vanessa Selbst, continued her slow slide down the rankings – which have been created by Federated Sports & Gaming (FS+G) – to drop another two places to now sit in 13th place on 1985.30 points.

But Canadian superstar Daniel Negreanu (2005.60) and American David Peters (1989.99) moved up one place each to fill the 11th and 12th spots respectively.

Six players made their first appearances on the GPI rankings this week, with the most notable being 2004 WSOP main event champ Greg Raymer (1035.26), of North Dakota, in 293rd place.

American pro Scott Clements – a respected tournament grinder – also made it into the top 300 on 1027.01 points in 299th place, while the other new entrants are Joao Barbosa (297th on 1030.00), Zachary Clark (296th on 1032.56), Francesco De Vivo (294th on 1033.71) and Kenneth Hicks (291st on 1036.37).

As a result, some well-known faces dropped out of the list, including Alan Sternberg, Andrew Pantling, Yuval Bronshtein and James Bord, although Tyler Smith (1025.95) was the biggest loser of the week after falling a staggering 104 places into 300th.

American Smith secured two cash finishes at the recent WSOP, but his Gold Strike World Poker Open main event success in Tunica and Winter Bayou Poker Challenge main event triumph in New Orleans from last year have now been removed from his points total, resulting in his staggering slump.

It was also a bad week for Cornel Cimpan (1128.75) as he dropped 90 places to 243rd, while John O’Shea (1052.88) had an even more spectacular fall from grace to slip 96 spots into 280th.

Other players to suffer a bad week included Thomas Bichon (1,364.461), who dropped 38 places to 118th, Kristijonas Andrulis (down 33 spots to 148th on 1,299.572), Shander De-Vries (down 48 places to 179th on 1,224.759), and Ludovic Lacay (down 28 places to 201st on 1,187.85).

But other players enjoyed a successful week, with Steve O’Dwyer (1334.48) jumping 132 places up to 129th after his 626th place finish at the WSOP main event and success in winning the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em title at the Bellagio Cup VII for a rather handy $259,452.

Former world champions Joe Hachem (up 33 places to 83rd on 1489.69) and Jonathan Duhamel (up 35 places to 73rd on 1525.82) broke into the top 100, while Shaun Deeb (up 58 places to 116th on 1368.01) and Andrey Zaichenko (up 55 places to 111th on 1392.18) also enjoyed a good week.

There were a few other notable movers, though, with Davidi Kitai (1,271.338) moving up 64 places to 164th, Jeffrey Papola (1,217.907) leaping 49 places to 183rd, Antony Lellouche (1,210.715) climbing 72 spot to 187th, Benjamin Pollak (1,201.045) gaining a staggering 73 places to sit in 194th, and Lucien Cohen (1,144.412) lifting his ranking by 31 spots for 233rd.

Numerous pros will be aiming to move up the GPI rankings over the next few weeks as the Legends of Poker, the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Tallin – which is taking place right now – Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) Uruguay, and EPT Barcelona all take place in August.

Not too far off on the horizon are the Epic Poker League (EPL), WSOP Europe, and the Festa al Lago Classic, so it highly likely there will again be some big winners – and losers – to track over the next few months.

This week’s GPI top 10 placings:

1. Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier (France) – 2,473.134

2. Erik Seidel (USA) – 2,457.361

3. Jason Mercier (USA) – 2,434.301

4. Eugene Katchalov (Ukraine) – 2,248.826

5. Fabrice Soulier (France) – 2,193.589

6. Sam Stein (USA) – 2,168.853

7. Sorel Mizzi (Canada) – 2,115.122

8. Tom Marchese (USA) – 2,035.664

9. David ‘Bakes’ Baker (USA) – 2,027.315

10. John Juanda (Indonesia) – 2,013.628