Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier has become the number one ranked poker tournament player in the world, according to the Global Poker Index. Grospellier edged past Jason Mercier to take over the top spot in the new worldwide ranking system.
Federated Sport + Gaming are utilizing the new dynamic GPI ranking system to evaluate the top 300 live tournament players in the world. GPI scores are based on 3 years of results, weighed within 6 time periods, each a half-year. Individual-event scores in each time period are multiplied by 3, 2.25, 1.2, 0.6, and 0.25 (in the pair of oldest periods), respectively. More recent results count as more; that’s what makes GPI a measure of current skill.
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier nudged past Jason Mercier for GPI#1, and Erik Seidel (GPI#4) replaced Fabrice Soulier (GPI#7) in the Top Five. In the second week of the GPI Top 300, the jockeying for position demonstrates two important features of the Index: (a) it is an index of current skill, in which the age of results affects their value, and (b) by rewarding quality of results over quantity, an overabundance of results will benefit a player, but only secondarily.
These GPI ranking features which help balance recent performance with long-term excellence. So in an inactive week, Grospellier passed Mercier while Seidel advanced 14 spots.
Top 10 Ranked Players
1. Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier 2446.83
2. Jason Mercier 2434.30
3. Eugene Katchalov 2248.83
4. Eric Seidel 2197.38
5. Samuel Stein 2168.85
6. Sorel Mizzi 2135.88
7. Fabrice Soulier 2133.87
8. David Baker 2027.32
9. John Juanda 2013.63
10. Vanessa Selbst 2011.05
Each player's GPI score reflect their three best scores from each half-year period, which is the mean number of cashes per period for professional players as defined as the group of players who qualified for the Epic Poker League. Players should not rank higher merely because they accumulate more cashes than other skilled professionals, simply because they play more volume. At a certain level, however, an overabundance of good results should at least secondarily help a player’s ranking.
For instance, during the first half of 2011 Eric Seidel had tremendous results: 1st place, $100K Super-High-Roller, Bellagio; 1st place, NBC National Heads-Up Championship; 3rd place, A$100K NLHE, Aussie Millions; 2nd place, WPT Indiana; 4th place, $25k PCA Super-High-Roller. That January 13th PCA result didn’t make Erik’s top 3 results - until now. When the result passed into the next-oldest period, it replaced an inferior result but did not cost him (like it cost Mercier whose PCA finish counts for less than a week ago). Thus the rankings keep a player from scoring a high ranking by volume of results alone, yet eventually reward the rare case where a great player strings together more than 3 exceptional results in a short period.
The GPI will be updated weekly on USATODAY.com, on EpicPoker.com and GlobalPokerIndex.com.
Federated Sport + Gaming are utilizing the new dynamic GPI ranking system to evaluate the top 300 live tournament players in the world. GPI scores are based on 3 years of results, weighed within 6 time periods, each a half-year. Individual-event scores in each time period are multiplied by 3, 2.25, 1.2, 0.6, and 0.25 (in the pair of oldest periods), respectively. More recent results count as more; that’s what makes GPI a measure of current skill.
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier nudged past Jason Mercier for GPI#1, and Erik Seidel (GPI#4) replaced Fabrice Soulier (GPI#7) in the Top Five. In the second week of the GPI Top 300, the jockeying for position demonstrates two important features of the Index: (a) it is an index of current skill, in which the age of results affects their value, and (b) by rewarding quality of results over quantity, an overabundance of results will benefit a player, but only secondarily.
These GPI ranking features which help balance recent performance with long-term excellence. So in an inactive week, Grospellier passed Mercier while Seidel advanced 14 spots.
Top 10 Ranked Players
1. Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier 2446.83
2. Jason Mercier 2434.30
3. Eugene Katchalov 2248.83
4. Eric Seidel 2197.38
5. Samuel Stein 2168.85
6. Sorel Mizzi 2135.88
7. Fabrice Soulier 2133.87
8. David Baker 2027.32
9. John Juanda 2013.63
10. Vanessa Selbst 2011.05
Each player's GPI score reflect their three best scores from each half-year period, which is the mean number of cashes per period for professional players as defined as the group of players who qualified for the Epic Poker League. Players should not rank higher merely because they accumulate more cashes than other skilled professionals, simply because they play more volume. At a certain level, however, an overabundance of good results should at least secondarily help a player’s ranking.
For instance, during the first half of 2011 Eric Seidel had tremendous results: 1st place, $100K Super-High-Roller, Bellagio; 1st place, NBC National Heads-Up Championship; 3rd place, A$100K NLHE, Aussie Millions; 2nd place, WPT Indiana; 4th place, $25k PCA Super-High-Roller. That January 13th PCA result didn’t make Erik’s top 3 results - until now. When the result passed into the next-oldest period, it replaced an inferior result but did not cost him (like it cost Mercier whose PCA finish counts for less than a week ago). Thus the rankings keep a player from scoring a high ranking by volume of results alone, yet eventually reward the rare case where a great player strings together more than 3 exceptional results in a short period.
The GPI will be updated weekly on USATODAY.com, on EpicPoker.com and GlobalPokerIndex.com.
