Byron Kaverman Still Atop GPI 300, Takes Over GPI POY Race
The Global Poker Index (GPI) released its latest rankings on Wednesday and for the sixth consecutive week, Byron Kaverman is on top. His 4,379.14 points just edges out former number one Jason Mercier, who has 4,264.20.
Kaverman has added points to his total in the last couple weeks (the way the GPI is calculated, it is possible to lose points, but we’ll address that in a moment) with a strong showing at the European Poker Tour (EPT) Malta stop. He finished first in the €10,000 High Roller event, good for €430,800 and 550.31 points, finished ninth in the €10,000 8-Handed High Roller event (€32,495, 277.01 points), and placed fifth in the €25,000 8-Handed High Roller tourney (€141,415, 323.01 points).
Byron Kaverman
Image credit: globalpokerindex.com
Mercier also earned some GPI points at EPT Malta, coming 30th in the €10,000 High Roller event (€17,930, 200.27 points) and finishing tenth in the €10,000 8-Handed High Roller event (€26,645, 266.20 points), one spot behind Kaverman.
Returning to the GPI top ten are Bryn Kenny, who moved up from twelfth to fifth, and Dominik Nitsche, who rose from thirteenth to ninth. Mike “timex” McDonald and Mustapha Kanit dropped out.
The Global Poker Index is a weighted, rolling rankings system. It takes into account a player’s last three years’ live tournament results, divided into half-year intervals. A player’s top five tournament scores are counted from each of the most recent three half-year period, while four are counted for the three trialing half-year intervals. Thus, a maximum of 27 tournament scores are incorporated into player’s tally.
Limiting the number of tournament scores that are counted prevents a player from ranking as one of the best in world simply because of volume. It is also the reason why Byron Kaverman, despite earning 1,150 points for the three above tournaments only saw his GPI total increase by about 122 points. Two of his EPT Malta scores were high enough to drop two of his scores from the past six months from his total.
We won’t go into the gory details of how a score from a tournament finish is determined, but taken into account are the player’s finish relative the total field, the buy-in (up to a $20,000 cap), and an aging factor which weighs the most recent six-month period more than the previous one and so on.
Roberto Romanello made the biggest one-week leap in the Global Poker Index, rising from 273rd to 176th. Not so fortunate was Tom Hall, who fell from 124th to 239th.
Making it into the GPI 300 were (in order of ranking) Johnny Lodden, Tristan Wade, Brian Roberts, Rainer Kempe, Seth Berger, Diogo Cardoso, Alexander Kuzmin, Jens Lakemeier, and Oliver Weis. Their nine counterparts who departed the GPI 300 were J.C. Alvarado, Ben Vinson, Daniel Buckley, Jonas Lauck, J.J. Liu (those five were the first five out), Naoya Kihara, Ray Qartomy, Ludovic Geilich, and Alex Bilokur.
Then there is the GPI Player of the Year race, which works very much like the overall Global Poker Index, except that it only takes into account tournament results from this calendar year with no aging factor applied. And again, to credit quality over quantity, only a player’s best thirteen scores are counted.
There was a shakeup in the 2015 POY competition this week, as Kaverman took over first place, knocking Anthony Zinno out of the top spot. All three of Kaverman’s EPT Malta scores were applied to his POY ranking, knocking three lower ones off his record, boosting his POY score to 4,736.90. Zinno, the reigning World Poker Tour Player of the Year, also added two very good scores in Malta, but it wasn’t enough to hold onto the pole position.
As the Global Poker Index continues to try to “sportify” poker, these rankings become more important, as they start determining who gets invited to participate in competitions like the GPI World Cup, rather than just serving as a way to give someone bragging rights.
Overall GPI Standings – November 4, 2015
Byron Kaverman – 4,379.14 points
Jason Mercier – 4,264.20 points
Anthony Zinno – 3,993.77 points
Nicholas Petrangelo – 3,816.52 points
Bryn Kenney – 3,815.83 points
Davidi Kitai – 3,768.63 points
Scott Seiver – 3,757.87 points
Paul Volpe – 3,745.62 points
Dominik Nitsche – 3,710.99 points
Steve O’Dwyer – 3,700.14 points
GPI Player of the Year Standings – November 4, 2015
Byron Kaverman – 4,736.90 points
Anthony Zinno – 4,606.62 points
Nicholas Petrangelo – 4,406.04 points
Dzmitry Urbanovic – 4,095.19 points
Jason Mercier – 4,076.07 points
Steve O’Dwyer – 4,070.13 points
Dominik Nitsche – 3,848.66 points
Scott Seiver – 3,834.10 points
Connor Drinan – 3,771.11 points
Erik Seidel – 3,759.92 points
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