Erik Seidel Falls Out of Global Poker Index Top 20

American star Erik Seidel has dropped out of the top 20 on the Global Poker Index (GPI) 300 for the first time since its inception back in June of last year, with the eight-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner falling a huge 17 places to now sit in 23rd on 2,002.16 points.

The Las Vegas pro – who was ranked at 20th on the first GPI list last year – lost a massive 474.42 points to result in his dramatic drop, having previously moved into the top 10 within three weeks of the rankings system being adopted.

Now, however, after steadily dropping over the past few weeks, the 52-year-old has seen his points score collapse – for the biggest drop this week – as his two WSOP Europe (WSOP) cashes from late last year aged into Period 2.

Seidel took 12th place for $35,558 in the €10,000 buy-in Mixed No-Limit Hold’em event in Cannes last October and followed that up with 21st in the €10,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em main event a few days later for $49,427.

However, with both scores ageing into Period 2, Seidel now has no results within Period 1.

Poker Hall of Famer Sees WSOPE Scores Age

The Poker Hall of Famer lost 81 points from his main event score, while an enormous 227 points disappeared from his mixed game finish at Le Croisette Casino Barriere Cannes, with that latter result being excluded from Period 2 as he already has surplus of big scores.

The remainder of his points loss come from his WSOPE main event finish displacing his 13th place score – for $32,057 – at event #33, the $10,000 buy-in Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship, at last summer’s WSOP in Vegas – in Period 2.

Seidel must be concerned as, with the GPI only counting the four best scores within the top three periods, he really needs to find a good finish soon for Period 1 to halt his dramatic fall from grace.

Vanessa Selbst Hit By Ageing Cannes Result

But Seidel was not alone in seeing scores at October’s WSOPE hitting rankings hard, with Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst dropping four spots into 21st on 2,083.24 points and Englishman Chris Moorman losing 11 places to now sit in 25th on 1,952.04.

Brooklyn’s Selbst – a one-time WSOP champion – finished 28th for $9,235 at the WSOPE €3,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Shootout, but saw that score fall into Period 2, where is has been omitted because of the four-event maximum rule.

So, without a new score to replace that result in Period 1, 27-year-old Selbst has lost 136 points and her place inside the top 20 on the GPI after first moving into the higher echelons of the list back on November 21 last year.

Lock Poker Team Pro Elite member Moorman, meanwhile, also exited the top 20 with his runner-up spot for $1,068,690 at the WSOPE main event last autumn also ageing into Period 2 to leave the 26-year-old from Brighton with just two scores in Period 1.

Sean Getzwiller Plummets 129 Places to 247th

Even more pros found their GPI scores hit hard due to the ageing of WSOPE event results, with Arizona’s Sean Getzwiller suffering the biggest drop by sliding down 129 places into 247th on 1,104.04 points.

Getzwiller lost 365 points after two WSOPE scores aged into Period 2, with his 26th place in the €3,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Shootout for $9,235 being joined in that drop from Period 1 by his 43rd spot – for $32,061 – in the Cannes main event.

The States star lost 64 points after that main event result fell into the lower weighted category, while his Shootout score has been excluded completely as his Period 2 list is full to hit him with another 141-point fall.

Additionally, Getzwiller’s eighth place finish for $40,481 at the European Poker Tour (EPT)/UK and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) £10,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max High Roller Turbo in London last October has been knocked out by his WSOPE main event score to see 160 more points eliminated from his total.

Those negatives mean Getzwiller now has just two scores counting towards the vital Period 1 category – once more highlighting how crucial it is to maintain a level of consistency throughout all the periods, but particularly the most recent.

Matt Waxman Falls to 58th

Florida’s Matt Waxman also suffered when losing 388 points – the second highest drop behind Seidel – as well as 34 places to sit in 58th on 1,659.07 after seeing two WSOPE scores age into Period 2 without having any to replace them in Period 1.

Waxman’s 11th place for $35,558 in the €10,000 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em event and his 30th spot for $42,748 in the main event fall into the second period to leave the American with just one score in Period 1, while also seeing him leave the GPI’s top 50 for the first time since September 5 last year.

Russian Alexander Dovzhenko and New York’s Victor Ramdin also saw two WSOPE scores age, with the result being that the former drops 44 spots into 75th on 1,591.42 points and the latter loses 77 places to now be at 136th on 1,358.58.

Other notable losers included Germany’s Dominik Nitsche (down 126 places to 278th on 1,060.38 points), Miami’s Hans Winzeler (down 90 to 284th on 1,050.83), Londoner Max Silver (down 86 to 292nd on 1,039.00), San Diego’s Salman Behbehani (down 77 to 178th on 1,254.09), North Dakota’s Tom ‘The Shamrock Kid’ McCormick (down 68 to 287th on 1,043.45), Tristan Wade (down 65 to 213th on 1,162.59), of Orlando, Californian Taylor Paur (down 45 to 222nd on 1,147.72) and North Carolina’s Justin Young (down 45 to 115th on 1,445.64).

Jason Mercier Stays Top for 10th Week

Back at the top of the GPI, American Jason Mercier has held on to the top spot for a 10th successive week by increasing his lead over second placed fellow Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier by 19.54 points to hold a 216.21 advantage.

The Frenchman lost 75.81 points from his overall score to now sit at 2,718.46, while Hollywood’s Mercier saw 56.27 points go to hold 2,934.67.

Another American pro, David ‘Doc’ Sands was, in fact, one of the few players near the top to add points to his tally – moving up two places into third for his highest ranking so far when increasing his score by 11.37 to 2,544.84.

Maryland’s Sands was ranked at 85th when the GPI debuted last summer, but has eased up the list since before making his surge into the top 10 on March 5 when zooming up 22 spots into sixth place.

The former internet marketing analyst benefited from fourth-placed Ukrainian Eugene Katchalov and Canadian Shawn Buchanan – who drops two spots into fifth – seeing scores age.

Eugene Katchalov Retains Fourth Spot

New York-based 31-year-old Katchalov – who has one WSOP bracelet to his name from last summer’s 42nd staging of the prestigious festival – lost 86.25 points to now sit at 2,490.44 because his runner-up spot for $68,000 from the North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Uncasville $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em High Roller Bounty Shootout has aged into Period 3.

While the Team PokerStars Pro remains in fourth place, Sands has now opened up a 54.40-point lead on the Ukrainian by taking third on the GPI.

Former Full Tilt Pro Buchanan, meanwhile, lost a massive 335.24 points to slip two spots into fifth on 2,416.19 – mainly because three of his scores have now aged into Period 2 to leave him with just three scoring results in the top category.

The British Columbia pro lost 111 points when his sixth place for $267,173 at the WSOPE main event aged, as did his runner-up finish for $277,357 in the Mixed event in Cannes to lose an additional 100 points, while his 14th for $18,898 in the €5,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha tournament – also in France – aged into Period 2.

That final score has been excluded from that second period due to the four-score cap, resulting in his massive points loss.

Stephen O’Dwyer Up To Sixth

The remainder of the top 10 sees Vegas-based Stephen O’Dwyer move up one spot into sixth on 2,385.82 – even though he actually lost 38.54 points – to be followed by a trio of Canadians in Sorel Mizzi (up one place to seventh on 2,359.48), Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald (up two on 2,305.99) and Jonathan Duhamel (up two to 2,288.28), as well as 10th placed Long Island player Andrew Lichtenberger (up two to 2,278.62).

Now, even with just four tournaments reporting, the GPI 300 has seen a few other upwards movers after 12 ranked players cashed at the Irish Open main event in Dublin’s Burlington Hotel.

That dynamic dozen from the €3,200 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em main event in Ireland’s capital city enjoyed big points gains, with Belgian Lock Poker Pro Kevin Vandersmissen leading the way by adding 396 to his overall tally after winning the title for $553,316.

Kevin Vandersmissen Climbs 143 Places Into 78th

Vandersmissen saw off 501 rivals to the crown to enjoy the biggest points gain and largest leap in the rankings after climbing 143 places to 78th on 1,569.83 points, while Canadian Sam Chartier – who earned $58,625 for his seventh place finish at the same event – just breaks into the top 20 on the rankings list for the first time when moving up 17 places on to 2,103.20.

American duo Jason Wheeler and Byron Kaverman also enjoyed good finishes in Ireland, with Californian’s Wheeler climbing 61 places into 223rd on 1,146.69 points for taking 15th for $20,288, and Ohio’s Kaverman moving up 66 spots into 64th on 1,640.75 following his 16th place finish for $17,324.

That gave them the second and third biggest climbs, while 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth was the fourth best mover when zooming up 41 places into 51st on 1,717.00 points following his 33rd place for $12,384 on the Emerald Isle.

Phil Hellmuth Closes in on Top 50

The 47-year-old had peaked at 15th on the GPI back on December 19, but then dropped out of the top 20 the following week, before exiting the top 50 the very next week. Taking 51st on the latest list ensures this is his highest placing since that dramatic collapse.

Englishman James ‘Flushy’ Dempsey (34th for $12,384) also enjoyed a positive move by climbing 27 places into 53rd on 1,714.79, while Canadian Mike Watson cashed in 37th for $10,539 to rise 29 spots into 70th on 1,613.41.

Meanwhile, two other pros – Americans Adam Levy and Kenneth Hicks – returned to the GPI 300 after cashing in the main event in Ireland.

New York State’s Levy – who was last ranked on February 6 – earned $20,288 for 14th place to return at 203rd on 1,186.52 points, while West Virginia’s Hicks returned at 279th – for the first time since November – on 1,059.40 after taking 20th for $14,755.

Ivo Donev Debuts on Rankings List

Seven other pros made their respective debuts on the GPI, with Austrian Ivo Donev coming in at 294th on 1,038.38 points, to be followed by England’s Tom Middleton (295th on 1,036.33), Frenchman Lucien Cohen (296th on 1,033.44), German duo Andreas Wiese (297th on 1,033.25) and Sebastian Winkler (298th on 1,031.12), Bulgaria’s Dobromir Nikov (299th on 1,031.09) and Canadian Owen Crowe (300th on 1,030.44).

The nine players dropping out are English Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree, Californian pair Tyler Cornell and Dylan Wilkerson, North Carolina’s Mark Flowers, England’s Jon Spinks, Portuguese Joao Barbosa, Pennsylvania’s Jesse Alexis Cohen, Brent Hanks, of Vegas, and French pro Antony Lellouche.

There were some other significant moves up the rankings, with Parisian Guillaume Darcourt climbing 48 places into 88th on 1,525.82 points after seeing his runner-up spot for $24,607 in the Barriere Poker Tour €1,350 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em main event provide him with an additional 152 points.

Dmitry Vitkind Takes Over in 69th

Moscow’s Dmitry Vitkind might not have enjoyed the biggest of moves, but he did add 69 points from his fifth place finish for $35,759 in the Russian Poker Tour (RPT) €1,825 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Grand Final in Kiev to climb 17 places into 69th on the GPI.

The other most noteworthy climbers were Russian Leonid Bilokur (up 44 places to 87th place on 1,536.55 points), Ohio’s Keven Stammen (up 38 to 86th on 1,536.85) and another Russian in Vyacheslav Igin (up 33 to 189th on 1,220.03).

You can expect to see other major changes on the next rankings list with the World Poker Tour (WPT) Vienna High Roller and main event having been completed, as has the €5,000 buy-in EPT Berlin No-Limit Hold’em main event, which was won by Belgian star Davidi Kitai.

Bertrand Grospellier Adds EPT Berlin High Roller Title

Notably, Grospellier added another High Roller event title to his growing collection after picking up $301,992 for taking down the €10,000 buy-in event in Germany over the weekend.

The London-based 31-year-old had to overcome a tough final table that included the likes of fellow Team PokerStars Pro Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom (seventh for $38,828), of Sweden, as well as German duo Tobias Reinkemeier (fifth for $60,398) and Marvin Rettenmaier (third for $112,169), before ultimately defeating Englishman Moorman (second for $189,824) heads-up in the 57-player competition.

However, the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown main event in Florida does not end until today, so won’t be included on the GPI rankings until next month.

The Global Poker Index Top 10

1. Jason Mercier (USA) – 2,934.67 (no change)

2. Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier (France) – 2,718.46 (no change)

3. David ‘Doc’ Sands (USA) – 2,544.84 (up two places)

4. Eugene Katchalov (Ukraine) – 2,490.44 (no change)

5. Shawn Buchanan (Canada) – 2,416.19 (down two places)

6. Stephen O’Dwyer (USA) – 2,385.82 (up one place)

7. Sorel Mizzi (Canada) – 2,359.48 (up one place)

8. Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald (Canada) – 2,305.99 (up two places)

9. Jonathan Duhamel (Canada) – 2,288.28 (up two places)

10. Andrew Lichtenberger (USA) – 2,278.62 (up two places)