Dan Smith is having the season of his lifetime as he continues to top the Global Poker Index chart for the 11th straight week. The top three spots remain unchanged as Jason Mercier (2nd) and Scott Seiver (3rd) are very well defending their positions.
Former World #1 Daniel Negreanu (7th) and Byron Kaverman (8th) trading their positions have continued their run in the top 10. With over $5.5m under his hood in total earnings, Davidi Kitai has advanced to the 4th spot and the winner of UKIPT High Roller title this year, Olivier Busquet also has climbed one spot up the GPI charts to the 5th position. Paul Volpe and Canadian pro Jonathan Duhamel are the new entrants in the Top 10 this week.
GPI (Global Poker Index) releases list of top 300 Poker tournament players every week on Thursday. GPI manages this index by using a unique formula to measure the performance of players in the international poker circuit. Additionally, GPI runs a Player of the Year leaderboard based on the player’s performances in the current year to award the prestigious GPI POY title.
After the final table appearance in the Super High Roller event at 2014 Asia Championship of Poker, Daniel Colman shoots up to the pole position of POY leaderboard replacing the GPI #1 Dan Smith. Davidi Kitai has taken the biggest leap in Top 10 to acquire the 3rd spot on the leaderboard. Amichai Barer is the only new entrant in the Top 10 this week.
Another player making it to GPI 300 list based on his 2014 ACOP performance is none other than the Super High Roller champion Stephen O’Dwyer in the 98th position. While WPT Lucky Hearts Champion James Calderaro sits on the bubble this week, the American player Connor Drinan with 2240.55 points remains the biggest gainer of this week taking a leap of 72 spots up the chart to his career high position 102.
Here is the list of Top 10 players in GPI rankings:
| RANK | PLAYER | COUNTRY | GPI SCORE | CHANGE |
| #1 | Dan Smith | USA | 4178.40 | = |
| #2 | Jason Mercier | USA | 3814.33 | = |
| #3 | Scott Seiver | USA | 3718.11 | = |
| #4 | Davidi Kitai | BEL | 3697.63 | +1 |
| #5 | Olivier Busquet | USA | 3510.06 | +1 |
| #6 | Ole Schemion | GER | 3444.44 | -2 |
| #7 | Daniel Negreanu | CAN | 3397.44 | +1 |
| #8 | Byron Kaverman | USA | 3295.01 | -1 |
| #9 | Paul Volpe | USA | 3226.44 | NEW |
| #10 | Jonathan Duhamel | CAN | 3206.96 | NEW |
With ACOP Main Event underway and the biggest battle of poker, WSOP November Nine set to kick off on 10th November, we would definitely witness some major ups and downs in GPI rankings as well as on the POY leaderboard.
Keep watching this space for next updates on GPI rankings.
GPI Announces Global Poker League
Meanwhile, Alex Dreyfus, the chairman of Global Poker Index announced to conduct a new poker tournament called the Global Poker League (GPL) as part of GPI’s drive to sportify poker. The GPL is expected to kick off right after Global Poker Masters (GPM), or “World Cup of Poker,” in 2015. While GPM is going to be an inter-country tournament of poker featuring 8 different countries, with the top 5 available GPI ranked players making up the teams, the GPL will be played between six to eight teams based out of USA only.
Poker is an individual sport, such as tennis or golf,” Dreyfus told in the announcement. “So, if tennis has the Davis Cup and golf has the Ryder Cup, why shouldn’t we have our own poker league? He continued, “I think this is our most ambitious project so far. We, as the GPI, can own poker in this very specific vertical. I believe it’s possible and I think the GPI is also fully legitimate to have that role.”