Jonathan Duhamel Stays Top of Global Poker Index Player of the Year

French-Canadian Jonathan Duhamel has retained his healthy lead over American Jason Koon at the top of the Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year standings.

The 24-year-old Team PokerStars Pro – who secured the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event title for $8,944,310 – holds a 181.31-point lead over second-placed Koon as the only player to have more than 300 points.

Quebec’s Duhamel has 465.55 points, while Las Vegas-based Koon – who enjoyed a good January with fourth place in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) $25,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Eight-Max High Roller event for $271,950 – sits on 284.24 as the leading 18 places remain unchanged from last week.

That means the top 10 is completed by Dutchman Ruben Visser (third on 258.03 points), Canadian Sam Chartier (fourth on 244.05), San Jose’s Faraz Jaka (fifth on 242.17), Australian duo Oliver Speidel (sixth on 238.23) and Daniel Chevalier (seventh on 228.35), Florida’s Corey Burbick (eighth on 228.03), Italian Luca Pagano (ninth on 227.52) and yet another Canadian in Erik Cajelais (10th on 212.19).

Quebec Stars Dominate Top 10

Incredibly, all three Canadians – Duhamel, Chartier and Cajelais – in the top 10 are from Quebec as the USA’s not-so-noisy neighbours start to show up well in tournaments throughout the world.

While there was little movement within the top 20 – with only Florida’s Noah Schwartz breaking in at 19 after zooming up 36 spots to 183.46 points – there were more than enough changes further down the top 100 in the chase to be crowned PoY through live tournament performances during the calendar year.

Schwartz’s climb saw San Diego’s Mike Gorodinsky (180.72 points) drop down one spot to 20th, while French star Eric Sfez – who pocketed $318,266 for winning the €10,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Deauville on February 4 – fell two spots as German Marko Neumann climbed an impressive 67 places into 21st on 179.62, just 1.05 above the Parisian.

Florida’s Harrison Gimbel showed one of the most spectacular rises of the week as he rocketed up 113 places into 33rd on 163.29 points after claiming ninth spot in the $3,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Championship Event at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Lucky Hearts Poker Open
in Hollywood on St Valentine’s Day.

Noah Schwartz Enjoys Seminole Hard Rock Event

Schwartz also benefited from finishing 18th in that event at Hollywood’s Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, while three-time WSOP bracelet winner Barry Greenstein, of Chicago, also enjoyed a good week by climbing 60 places to 49th on 138.83 points.

However, the 427 spots gained by fellow American Jacob Bazeley overshadows even Schwartz’s impressive rise. The Cincinnati pro moved into 108th on the PoY list after claiming fourth place in the WSOP Circuit Tunica $1,600 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em main event two weeks ago to now hold 112.01 points.

Other players enjoying impressive climbs include Matt Stout (up 146 places to 118th on 108.24 points), Kenny Milam (up 242 to 147th on 100.49), Justin Zaki (up 516 to 150th on 99.58), James Dempsey (up 354 to 177th on 95.81), Konstantin Streletskiy (up 734 to 183rd on 94.96), Michael Sanders (up 248 to 230th on 86.23), Viacheslav Igin (up 418 to 235th on 85.85), Robert Mizrachi (up 287 to 314th on 75.73), Clinton Baker (up 650 to 325th on 74.87), Steven Gurney-Goldman (up 441 to 336th on 73.82) and Katherine Bowen (up 425 to 423rd on 67.45).

Nearly 70 Players Make Debuts in Top 1000

Meanwhile, 68 players made their debuts on the PoY list – and they are led by California’s Jason Wheeler, who entered at 112th on 109.39 points after finishing seventh at the WPT Venice Grand Prix €4,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em main event a few weeks back.

The other players to make their mark in the top 500 are Uri Kadosh (in at 121st on 107.63 points), Matthew Juttelstad (130th on 105.06), Massimo Mosele (133rd on 103.87), Martin Staszko (175th on 96.11), Diane Gagne (194th on 92.25), Sharon Levin (279th on 79.45), Todd Jacobson (320th on 75.32), Jeremie Sochet (349th on 73.12), Keith Ferrera (362nd on 71.96), Ali Baalbaki (369th on 71.16), Omar Sider (397th on 69.11), Kurt Jewell (398th on 68.90), Andrey Gulyy (420th on 67.62), Harold Klein (437th on 66.64), Gabriele Lepore (458th on 65.26), Marcel Bjerkmann (487th on 63.12), Victor Heffesse (493rd on 62.52), Mohammad Khan (494th on 62.45).

The remaining players all made in into the top 1000 and they are (in two groups) Pascal Willemin (506th on 61.64), Christopher Thompson (508th on 61.52), Jeffrey Epstein (510th on 61.31), Alex Ivanov (520th on 60.76), James Akenhead (542nd on 59.31), Ganesh Letchumanan (548th on 59.15), Bronson Tucker (567th on 57.86), Erion Islamay (574th on 57.61), Daniel Blakeman (583rd on 57.21), Andrea Guglielmoni Guglielmetto (594th on 56.69), Gian Oliveri (599th on 56.30), Rejesh Vohra (621st on 55.03), Giacomo Valenti (633rd on 54.52), Steve Karp (647th on 53.84), Romero Gomila (652nd on 53.53), Gianluca Speranza (659th on 53.11), Antonio Colon (669th on 52.72), WeiKei Chang (673rd on 52.43), Dustin Gardner (688th on 51.77), Nicholas Avena (709th on 50.66), Michael Mervanek (712th on 50.49), Steven McClusky (728th on 49.83), William Durkee (731st on 49.72), Miguel Gurrea (749th on 48.79) and Michael Cooper (764th on 48.19).

Darryll Fish Joins Rankings at 784th

Then there was Bernard Lubitz (768th on 47.95), Rocco Palumbo (783rd on 47.21), Darryll Fish (784th on 47.13), Todd Chew (797th on 46.76), Nicholas Ricciardi (806th on 46.35), Andreas Gondrom (822nd on 45.70), Ivan Schertzer (825th on 45.59), Raymond Weaver (826th on 45.51), Kamel Chhiti (827th on 45.43), Victor Cianelli (839th on 44.87), Houston White (852nd on 44.39), Angelo Miele (856th on 44.17), John Cecil (875th on 43.37), Mickey Mills (880th on 43.23), Jae Chul Chang (902nd on 42.45), Oleg Mosienko (916th on 41.66), Douglas Carli (918th on 41.60), Frank Mull (937th on 40.81), Florian Desgouttes (939th on 40.69), Kyle Hamlin (954th on 40.07), Ivan Tabucal (958th on 39.99), Michael Schneider (972nd on 39.39), Franck Douay (988th on 38.89) and, finally, Jerry Monroe (995th on 38.74).

Current GPI Player of the Year Top 10

1. Jonathan Duhamel (Canada) – 465.55 (no change)
2. Jason Koon (USA) – 284.24 (no change)
3. Ruben Visser (Netherlands) – 258.03 (no change)
4. Sam Chartier (Canada) – 244.05 (no change)
5. Faraz Jaka (USA) – 242.17 (no change)
6. Oliver Speidel (Australia) – 238.23 (no change)
7. Daniel Chevalier (Australia) – 228.35 (no change)
8. Corey Burbick (USA) – 228.03 (no change)
9. Luca Pagano (Italy) – 227.52 (no change)
10. Erik Cajelais (Canada) – 212.19 (no change)