Global Poker Index: Colman Still Leads POY; Davidi Kitai, Ole Schemion Make Late Charge

3 min read
Davidi Kitai

Each week, the Global Poker Index releases a list of the top 300 tournament poker players in the world using a formula that takes into account a player’s results over six half-year periods. The GPI also ranks the top performers of the year over two six-month periods as calculated by the USA Today Global Poker Index point system.

2014 GPI Player of the Year

RankPlayerGPI ScoreChange
1Daniel Colman4141.91-
2Davidi Kitai4096.10+2
3Ole Schemion3879.30-1
4Ami Barer3873.15-1
5Dan Smith3839.04-
6Mustapha Kanit3656.31-
7Jason Mercier3545.77-
8Scott Seiver3480.86-
9Anatoly Filatov3409.34-
10George Danzer3394.22+4

With just a couple of weeks to go, Daniel Colman continues to hang on to the top spot in the 2014 GPI Player of the Year race. Colman has held the POY lead since early November, remaining No. 1 despite not adding any cashes over the last seven weeks.

Meanwhile Davidi Kitai jumped up two spots this week to No. 2 and now sits just a few points behind Colman after having earned a boost for finishing 10th in the recently-completed European Poker Tour Prague Main Event.

That move also positions the Belgian player in the lead at the moment in the GPI European Poker Player of the Year race. However, last year’s overall POY winner Ole Schemion is poised to move back ahead of Kitai next week on the strength of his sixth-place showing in the EPT Prague High Roller event (not reflected in this week's totals).

GPI 300 Top 10

RankPlayerGPI ScoreChange
1Dan Smith4034.58-
2Ole Schemion3883.44-
3Davidi Kitai3670.65+1
4Ami Barer3531.90+2
5Daniel Negreanu3435.32-
6Scott Seiver3430.12-3
7Olivier Busquet3393.64-
8Pratyush Buddiga3312.37+35
9Jacob Schindler3294.96+1
10Stephen Chidwick3265.04+4

In the overall rankings Dan Smith remains on top for a 17th-straight week, with Schemion still second and Kitai moving up into the No. 3 position, his highest career ranking ever. Meanwhile Pratyush Buddiga leapfrogged all of the way from No. 43 to No. 8 this week, also a career-high for the player from Colorado. Buddiga joins the top 10 after winning the Aria $25,000 High Roller I last week where he topped a field of 59 to earn a $543,683 first prize.

Welcome to the GPI Top 300

RankPlayerTotal Score
178Ilkin Amirov1902.46
194Richard Dubini1856.92
200Leo Fernandez1847.75
219Miltiadis Kyriakides1804.92
228Liv Boeree1786.74
242Juha Helppi1737.06
248Martin Staszko1721.39
253Georges Yazbeck1709.56
258Vladimir Schemelev1699.66
263Bobby Oboodi1684.55
267Shyam Srinivasan1673.16
268Anton Astapau1671.61
277Atanas Kavrakov1659.63
279Thomas Butzhammer1654.57
285Omar Lakhdari1637.48
287Sam Greenwood1636.40
293Roman Valerstein1622.22
294Mikhail Korotkikh1621.10
295Rasmus Agerskov Larsen1619.52
296Nicolas Cardyn1617.24
297Vyacheslav Stoyanov1615.47
298Albert Daher1614.65

With lots of tournaments in action, there has been a lot of movement up and down the GPI rankings over the last couple of weeks, including 22 new names inside the top 300 this week.

Among those joining the list were several who cashed in the EPT Prague Main Event, including Miltiadis Kyriakides (who finished eighth), Thomas Butzhammer (16th), Albert Daher (31st), Omar Lakhdari (39th), Ilkin Amirov (40th), Vladimir Schemelev (95th), Vyacheslav Stoyanov (109th), and Liv Boeree (118th).

Biggest Gains

RankPlayerTotal GPI ScoreChange
253Georges Yazbeck1709.56+495
200Leo Fernandez1847.75+453
219Miltiadis Kyriakides1804.92+237
298Albert Daher1614.65+231
285Omar Lakhdari1637.48+212

Players going deep at EPT Prague also were some of the biggest gainers overall this week, with Kyriadides, Daher, and Lakhdari each moving up more than 200 spots in the rankings.

Leo Fernandez made it all of the way from No. 653 to No. 200 after a big week that included a victory and runner-up finish at the BSOP Millions in Sao Paulo. And George Yazbeck collected multiple cashes in Prague this week, winning two different preliminary events to more than double his GPI points and move from No. 748 to No. 253.

Biggest Drops

RankPlayerTotal GPI ScoreChange
201Nick Schulman1847.31-142
282Dan Kelly1646.13-126
291Brock Parker1628.45-115
300Greg Merson1609.39-73
177Govert Metaal1916.43-61

Finally Nick Schulman and Dan Kelly fell the furthest this week among those keep their spots inside the top 300. Almost falling out of the list was Greg Merson who tumbled from No. 227 to No. 300.

To view the entire list of 300, visit the official GPI website. While you’re at it, follow the GPI on Twitter and its Facebook page.

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