Global Poker Index: Fedor Holz Joins POY Top 10, Byron Kaverman Stays in Front
Each week, the Global Poker Index releases a list of the top tournament poker players in the world using a formula that takes into account a player’s results over six half-year periods. For a look at the entire list, visit the official GPI website. Here’s a look at the rankings as of November 11, 2015.
2015 GPI Player of the Year
| Rank | Player | GPI Score | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Byron Kaverman | 4736.90 | - |
| 2 | Anthony Zinno | 4649.07 | - |
| 3 | Nicholas Petrangelo | 4406.04 | - |
| 4 | Dzmitry Urbanovich | 4095.19 | - |
| 5 | Jason Mercier | 4076.07 | - |
| 6 | Steve O’Dwyer | 4070.13 | - |
| 7 | Dominik Nitsche | 3848.66 | - |
| 8 | Fedor Holz | 3834.30 | +3 |
| 9 | Scott Seiver | 3834.10 | -1 |
| 10 | Connor Drinan | 3771.11 | -1 |
After stopping Anthony Zinno’s 17-week run atop the 2015 Global Poker Index Player of the Year leaderboard a week ago, Byron Kaverman held onto first position for a second-straight week following a relatively uneventful seven days for the current leaders.
There’s just one newcomer in the Player of the Year top 10, Fedor Holz, who moves up from No. 11 to No. 8, his highest ranking so far this year in the POY standings.
If you watched the run-up to the 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event final table on ESPN, you were reminded of Holz’s 25th-place finish there for a $262,574 payday. Holz has been making numerous other deep runs this year, including many final tables, and in fact that WSOP ME cash marked only his fourth-biggest score of 2015.
His move into the POY top 10 came thanks to his having final tabled the HK$250,000 High Roller in the Asia Pacific Poker Tour 2015 Asia Championship of Poker where Holz finished seventh for a HK$889,000 cash (worth almost $115K USD).
GPI 300 Top 10
| Rank | Player | GPI Score | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Byron Kaverman | 4407.20 | - |
| 2 | Jason Mercier | 4275.56 | - |
| 3 | Anthony Zinno | 4025.88 | - |
| 4 | Nicholas Petrangelo | 3816.52 | - |
| 5 | Dan Smith | 3792.67 | +14 |
| 6 | Paul Volpe | 3742.82 | +2 |
| 7 | Bryn Kenney | 3725.01 | -2 |
| 8 | Dominik Nitsche | 3698.28 | +1 |
| 9 | Kevin MacPhee | 3694.56 | +2 |
| 10 | Martin Finger | 3685.07 | +3 |
Kaverman remained the front-runner in the overall GPI rankings this week as well, enjoying a seventh-straight week at the top.
Meanwhile there was some movement below him with former No. 1 Dan Smith making a big move upwards from No. 19 to No. 5 to rejoin the overall top 10. Smith cashed a couple of times at the recently completed European Poker Tour Malta series, with the one he picked up in the €5,300 Main Event giving him the points to move upward in the rankings.
Both Kevin MacPhee and Martin Finger also pushed their way into the overall top 10.
MacPhee added an eighth-place finish in the EPT Malta €10,300 High Roller to his recent WSOP Europe Main Event victory to help him move up to No. 9, his highest career ranking. Meanwhile Finger finished 11th in that same High Roller event to boost him back into the top 10 at No. 10.
2015 WSOP Main Event champion Joe McKeehen is currently ranked No. 80 in the overall GPI list, having moved up from No. 113 after gathering additional points for the win (on top of what he’d already earned for making the final nine). McKeehen had just made a similarly-sized jump in the rankings the week before after winning the Wynn Fall Classic late last month.
Welcome to the GPI Top 300
| Rank | Player | Total Score |
|---|---|---|
| 206 | Ray Qartomy | 1914.88 |
| 226 | Aleksandr Gofman | 1853.20 |
| 233 | Loni Harwood | 1836.36 |
| 252 | Naoya Kihara | 1806.43 |
| 253 | Ben Vinson | 1805.98 |
| 257 | Sehn Man Ung | 1795.33 |
| 275 | Mario Sanchez | 1771.17 |
| 287 | Stefan Schillhabel | 1743.82 |
There were eight new names in the newest overall top 300 rankings, with Ray Qartomy the highest-ranked of the group after moving up from No. 312 to No. 206. It was a 17th-place showing in the World Poker Tour bestbet Bounty Scramble won by Tyler Patterson that helped Qartomy make his move upward.
Biggest Gains
| Rank | Player | Total GPI Score | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 257 | Sehn Man Ung | 1795.33 | +166 |
| 275 | Mario Sanchez | 1771.17 | +145 |
| 233 | Loni Harwood | 1836.36 | +138 |
| 206 | Ray Qartomy | 1914.88 | +106 |
| 164 | Kevin Eyster | 2053.30 | +93 |
Qartomy’s advance in the rankings was only the fourth-biggest gain of the week among players inside the top 300, with Senh Man Ung’s move from No. 423 up to No. 257 representing the biggest jump of the week.
Two cashes in High Roller events in Malta helped Ung make his move up the rankings. His highest previous GPI ranking has been No. 111 in March 2015.
Biggest Drops
| Rank | Player | Total GPI Score | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| 278 | Charlie Carrel | 1763.48 | -101 |
| 181 | Ramin Jajiyev | 1991.18 | -79 |
| 295 | Ryan Van Sanford | 1727.63 | -78 |
| 131 | Joao Vieria | 2199.90 | -50 |
| 217 | Richard Dubini | 1877.69 | -47 |
Finally, looking at those who slipped the most among players still in the top 300, Charlie Carrel may have final tabled this week’s Super Tuesday on PokerStars (where as “Epiphany77” he finish fourth), but in the live tournament rankings he slipped from No. 177 to No. 281 to top this week’s “Biggest Drops” list.
What to Expect Next Week
Among the tournament highlights from the coming week, the APPT Asia Championship of Poker continues at the City of Dreams in Macau with live reporting from the festival right here on PokerNews, the WPT visits the Playground Poker Club in Montreal (also withlive reporting here on PokerNews), the WSOP Circuit touches down at Planet Hollywood in Las Vegas, and Norway prepares to host its first ever legal poker tournament event, the Norwegian Championships that get underway next Wednesday.
To view both the 2015 Player of the Year and GPI overall rankings in their entirety, visit the official GPI website. While you’re at it, follow the GPI on Twitter and its Facebook page.
