What is Hot and What is Not? The 2012 GPI

As we wave goodbye to a fantastic poker soaked 2011 it is a good time to review the Global Poker Index (GPI).

The GPI is fast becoming known as the world’s foremost expert on who are the best tournament players in the world. Each week the GPI updates its list of the top 300 tournament players in the world by using a formula that interrogates a player’s results over six half-year periods.

When the GPI was first released six months ago, promises were made to review the system every six months. After the review the Federated Sports + Gaming (FS&I) Chief Information Officer (CIO) Eric Faulkner told the online site Pokernews that the only changes being made were to increase the cap on results that counts towards a player’s score in each of the six half-year periods.

The changes to the scoring system meant that Jason Mercier finished 2011 as the best tournament poker player in the world. Erik Seidel took 2nd, Bertrand Grospellier took 3rd, Eugene Katchalov took 4th and Sam Trickett took 5th.

Players who fell out of the top 300 included Max Pescatori, Morten Mortensen, Brian Rast and Josh Arieh. In the first week of January the biggest riser was Sean Getzwiller followed by Brandon Meyers and Matt Stout. The biggest fallers were Barry Greenstein, Mike Binger and Owais Ahmed.
With 41 events about to kick off at the sun soaked PCA, the World Poker Tour Dublin and EPT Deauville keep your eyes peeled for further changes to the GPI.

Did You Know?

Team PokerStars Online member Randy "nanonoko" Lew set a new Guinness World Record for the greatest number of hands played in an eight-hour session while still turning a profit. The American played 23,493 hands and made a profit of $7.65.