Season 11 EPT Player of the Year Races Coming Down To the Wire
Beyond all of the tournament titles that everyone guns for on the European Poker Tour, many strive to win the PokerStars EPT Player of the Year award.
Powered by the Global Poker Index, the EPT Player of the Year award is broken down into three tiers. According to EPT.com, "the Silver tier will award points for all events with a buy-in of $600 and lower; the Gold tier will award points for all events with a buy-in of $3,000 and lower; and the Platinum tier will count all events across the EPT Festivals, no matter the buy-in, so every EPT player can take their shot at Player of the Year glory."
Points are accumulated using the GPI formula — "an independent points scoring system that ranks live tournament poker players." There are a few factors that apply to the formula, and you can learn about how it all works by clicking here.
As it stands right now, Dzmitry Urbanovich leads the Platinum level with 3,457.79 points. He's over 160 points of Joao Vieira in second place, and then Vladimir Troyanovskiy is the only other player above 3,000. In a note to the media from PokerStars, Urbanovich was quoted as saying that the award "means more to me than the money."
Platinum Standings
| Rank | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dzmitry Urbanovich | 3,457.79 |
| 2 | Joao Vieira | 3,295.89 |
| 3 | Vladimir Troyanovskiy | 3,128.43 |
| 4 | Davidi Kitai | 2,899.21 |
| 5 | Benjamin Pollak | 2,531.25 |
| 6 | Fedor Holz | 2,484.32 |
| 7 | Daniel Dvoress | 2,418.42 |
| 8 | Dario Sammartino | 2,411.31 |
| 9 | David Peters | 2,392.58 |
| 10 | Ivan Luca | 2,384.55 |
With the festival coming to a close, all members in the top 10 have been seen trying to squeak out every last-second points they can. Urbanovich is definitely one of those grinding away in the tournament room, and although he has a solid lead, there could certainly be some movement and pressure at Season 11 comes to a close.
Urbanovich also tops the Gold standings, and he's up again over Vieira. This time, though, Urbanovich is over 350 points ahead of his counterpart, so his lead is slightly more comfortable.
Gold Standings
| Rank | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dzmitry Urbanovich | 1,944.53 |
| 2 | Joao Vieira | 1,592.74 |
| 3 | Giuliano Bendinelli | 1,579.25 |
| 4 | Atanas Kavrakov | 1,512.22 |
| 5 | Georges Yazbeck | 1,445.01 |
| 6 | David Peters | 1,431.14 |
| 7 | Paul Hoefer | 1,324.30 |
| 8 | Jose Carlos Garcia | 1,276.09 |
| 9 | Dario Sammartino | 1,187.77 |
| 10 | Frederik Jensen | 1,135.49 |
As for the Silver ranks, France's Jean-Jacques Zeitoun leads with 143.85 points. He's ahead of Stavros Avdoulos with 128.14 points in second place.
Silver Standings
| Rank | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jean-Jacques Zeitoun | 143.85 |
| 2 | Stavros Avdoulos | 128.14 |
| 3 | Felix Trau | 121.48 |
| 4 | Julian Salvesen | 114.06 |
| 5 | Vincent Siri | 112.07 |
| 6 | Mariano Martiradonna | 109.50 |
| 7 | Bryan Ponce Zerna | 108.85 |
| 8 | Alejandro Perez Torres | 105.48 |
| 9 | Daragh Davey | 99.21 |
| 10 | Adam Owen | 98.23 |
With today, Friday, May 8, being the last day of the festival and three scheduled events, the race for all three leaderboards should be a fighting finish until the end.