Erik Seidel Still on Top of the Global Poker Index

Erik Seidel retained his place at the top of the Global Poker Index (GPI) as the top 10 showed only one change from last week.

The American has 2,586.96 points to remain ahead of Frenchman Bertrand ‘Elky’ Grospellier (2,493.71), fellow States star Jason Mercier (2,398.58), Ukrainian Eugene Katchalov (2,382.22) and Canada’s Shawn Buchanan (2,331.45).

However, Seidel is unlikely to retain his top spot next week as his $100,000 Super High Roller event win from the Five Star World Poker Classic will drop into Period 2. That move will hit his Period 1 points tally hard, but who will take over at the top?

The top 10 is completed by Sorel Mizzi (2,180.96), Sam Stein (2,178.26), Fabrice Soulier (2,018.48), Matt Waxman (2,003.46) and Will ‘The Thrill’ Failla (1,975.60).

While the leading nine places in the top 300 remain unchanged, Failla has leapt up seven places from 17th to replace Scott Seiver, whose World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship victory from May moved from Period 1 to Period 2 to see him fall 18 spots to 27th on 1805.86 points.

Failla finished 15th in the same event, so his points also dropped into Period 2. But, while helping his calculations for the second period, the American also received a boost with other similar successes in Period 1 now adding to his total points.

Ten players moved into the top 300 this week, with Mihails Morozovs (296th on 1,026.89 points), Markus Ristola (294th on 1,029.39), Jean-Philippe Rohr (293rd on 1,032.22), Nick Yunis (285th on 1,045.39), Ruben Visser (284th on 1,046.70), Paul Berende (269th on 1,069.74), Anton Wigg (265th on 1,071.36), Tom McCormick (235th on 1,133.99), Ronny Kaiser (231st on 1,145.22) and Nico Fierro (211th on 1,168.72) making the list.

With 10 coming in, Stephane Benadiba, Ray Henson, Maurizio Sepede, Mark Radoja, Kyle Loman, Kyle Bowker, Justin Smith, Jan Bendik, Heinz Kamutzki and Chance Kornuth dropped out of the GPI top 300.

While that was bad news for them, Scott Baumstein enjoyed the biggest upwards move of the week when climbing 175 places to 83rd following a fourth-place finish in the WPT Amneville main event, as well as first in the €10,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller tournament at the Master Classics of Poker 2011.

The next big mover was WPT Amneville main event champion Adrien Allain, who rose 173 places to 71st.

Meanwhile, other notable movers included Marc Inizan (1,219.42), who jumped 102 places to 179th, Arnaud Mattern (up 74 spots to 93rd on 1,473.79), Govert Metaal (up 59 to 85th on 1,507.30), Jonathan Jaffe (up 54 to 180th on 1,218.75), Hafiz Khan (up 50 to 63rd on 1,577.69), Andrew Chen (up 46 to 177th on 1,226.30), Micah Raskin (up 40 to 240th on 1,123.61), Josh Bergman (up 38 to 255th on 1,084.37) and Ty Reiman (up 38 to 128th on 1,342.95).

There were also some massive drops in the top 300 as Ville Haavisto fell 142 spots to 297th on 1,026.85 points. The Finn saw his points total collapse when his fourth place in the Pot-Limit Omaha event at May’s EPT Grand Final moved into Period 2, while his runner-up finish in the Master Classics of Poker 2010 dropped into Period 3.

Three other players in the top 300 dropped more than 100 places, and they are Galen Hall (down 104 to 173rd on 1,244.04), Farzad Bonyadi (down 113 to 291st on 1,034.60) and Nichlas Mattsson (down 114 to 220th on 1,157.60).

The huge falls for Hall and Bonyadi came about because their respective third and second places at the WPT Championship moved from Period 1 into Period 2.

Other notable drops saw Eric Haik (1,187.15) fall from 280th to 200th, Tyler Kenney (1,070.97) lose 70 places to be at 268th, Steven Kelly (1,168.86) give up 65 spots to sit in 210th, Phil ‘The Unabomber’ Laak (1,173.77) slump 64 places to 206th, George Lind (1,205.54) move from 188th to 249th, and Rob Akery (1,412.91) fall 56 spots to 111th.

The top 10 in the GPI 300:

1. Erik Seidel (USA) – 2586.96

2. Bertrand Grospellier (France) – 2493.71

3. Jason Mercier (USA) – 2398.58

4. Eugene Katchalov (Ukraine) – 2382.22

5. Shawn Buchanan (Canada) – 2331.45

6. Sorel Mizzi (Canada) – 2180.96

7. Samuel Stein (USA) – 2178.26

8. Fabrice Soulier (France) – 2018.48

9. Matt Waxman (USA) – 2003.46

10. Emanuel Failla (USA) – 1975.60

To see the whole top 300, you can find the official site at globalpokerindex.com.