With the first major tournament series of 2012 now in the books I figured it was time to take a look at the Global Poker Index (GPI) rankings for the first time in 2012. The GPI was created in conjunction with the Epic Poker League in order to give the eligible EPL players a ranking system. Unlike Player of the Year leader-boards at some of the poker media outlets, the GPI uses a rolling 36-month period to determine a player’s position on the Top 300 leader-board.

The Top 10 of the GPI rankings remained virtually unchanged, with players moving around ever so slightly. Erik Seidel reclaimed the #1 ranking by the slimmest of Margins over Jason Mercier, With Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, 2011 BLUFF Magazine Player of the Year Eugene Katchalov, and Shawn Buchanan rounded out the Top 5. Here is a look at the Top 10 players on the GPI, up-to-date as of January 16, 2012:

1. Erik Seidel — 2,988.29 points (previously #2)

2. Jason Mercier — 2,986.07 points (previously #1)

3. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier — 2,823.70 points (previously #3)

4. Eugene Katchalov — 2,760.52 points (previously #4)

5. Shawn Buchanan — 2,672.49 points (previously #6)

6. Sam Trickett — 2,582.47 points (previously #4)

7. Matt Waxman — 2,429.83 points (previously #8)

8. Will “The Thrill” Failla — 2,423.22 points (previously #9)

9. Vanessa Selbst — 2,412.31 points (previously #7)

10. Mike “Timex” McDonald — 2,406.80 points (previously #11)

While the Top 10 remained relatively unchanged, there was some major movement throughout the GPI as a whole, with one player in particular, Jonathan Duhamel, surging thanks to a stellar performance at the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Duhamel’s four final tables, including a side-event win and two final table appearances in the High-Roller tournaments, saw the 24 year-old Canadian and former WSOP Main Event Champion vault 30 spots on the GPI before landing in the #11 spot.

Some other players who shot-up the GPI rankings this past week included Isaac “Ike” Haxton who improved by nearly 100 spots to find himself #40 on the rankings; the Season IX WPT Champion Scott Seiver whose 81 place improvement saw him land in the #52 spot; and Team PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein who cracked the Top 100 after improving 112 places.

Two players fell out of the Top 100 as William Thorson and Erick Kollman both slid over 50 spots, while 2011 PCA High-Roller Champion Will Molson has the dubious distinction of falling the farthest, dropping 165 spots from number 131 to nearly off the GPI at #296!

You can check out the entire GPI rankings at GlobalPoekrIndex.com, as well as the formula used by the GPI to determine the rankings –which I’ll warn you in advance is pretty elaborate!

Tags: Bertrand, Bluff Magazine, Buchanan, Caribbean Adventure, ElkY, Erik Seidel, High Roller, Leader Board, Leader Boards, Margins, Media Outlets, Mercier, PokerStars, Stellar Performance, Timex, Trickett, Vanessa Selbst, Vault, Waxman, WSOP Main Event

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 21st, 2012 at 1:31 pm and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.