Browsing the Global Poker Index

During the World Series of Poker this summer one of my PokerNews assignments was to compile the weekly column reporting on the updated Global Poker Index rankings. I picked that duty back up back in September and have been delivering that news each week for the last several months.

Has been kind of interesting to pay a little closer attention both to the 2014 Player of the Year race and the overall GPI rankings.

The current standings show Daniel Colman leading in the 2014 POY race, a spot he’s held for six weeks running. Ole Schemion -- who won the 2013 GPI POY -- picked up a couple of big finishes at the Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam recently to surge up to second behind Colman. With EPT Prague and the WPT Five Diamond Poker Classic still left to go, there ought to be more movement in that race before the calendar reaches December 31.

Meanwhile in the overall rankings Dan Smith has led the way for 16 straight weeks. He just lost some points, though, after his victory in last year’s WPT Five Diamond Main Event (which I helped cover) became more than 12 months old and thus now counts less for him points-wise. Schemion is number two in those rankings as well, now just a small cash or so away from surpassing Smith.

The GPI has been around since the start of 2011, and some may not even remember it was created along with the ill-fated Epic Poker League as a means to decide which players would qualify for EPL events. From the ashes of that dumpster fire arose the GPI, surviving as not only an interesting discussion-starter but also as an increasingly relevant part of the poker tournament circuit.

I was thinking today how the GPI should perhaps go back into the past and apply its formula -- or a modified version of it -- to pre-2011 tournament poker. Records are fairly complete for a lot of the tours going back at least into the early 2000s, making it possible perhaps to perform a kind of retroactive ranking of players and naming of POYs.

Obviously there are pros and cons to the ranking system as far as its worth as an indicator of players’ ability. I also understand well the cynicism of those who are not on board for the whole campaign to “sportify" poker (as the GPI rankings could be said to attempt to do). But the lists are still quite diverting and if anything help bring some publicity to a lot of players -- and the game, generally -- that might not otherwise happen.

Travel Report: Season XII WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, Day 6 -- Keeping the Beat

For the final table of the World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas, the action moved out of the poker room and into one of the ballrooms on the other side of the Bellagio. As usual, the WPT had a huge set constructed for the big finale, and unlike the previous WPT events I’ve worked this one was shot for TV broadcast (sometime in the spring, I think).

The playing down from six players to a winner in Dan Smith -- a.k.a. “King Dan” -- took around seven hours or so with only a few short breaks along the way. Smith, who I mentioned yesterday on Day 5 had enjoyed some good fortune to avoid going out with 16 players left, began the day with the chip lead. He kept the lead for the first part of Day 6, but at three-handed Eddy Sabat was in the top spot and appeared in good position to win.

Smith had some more run good, though, after doubling his short stack through Sabat with versus the latter’s , then winning another big pot two hands later against Sabat when he flopped a flush. That one saw Smith getting Sabat to call on all three post-flop streets including the last all-in push, and so Smith doubled again to take a commanding lead before winning the event a couple of dozen hands later.

The last day saw me tracking chip counts after every hand while the posts were handled by my blogging partners B.J. Nemeth (who did hand reports) and Ryan Luchessi (who posted lots of cool features along the way). Was a little like moving over from playing lead guitar to sitting behind the drums in this power trio, and while I’ll admit it took me a little while in the early going to get the beat right I got acclimated before too long and ended up enjoying the night’s work.

Was also fun to see the shooting of the WPT program, something I’d never actually witnessed before. I want to write a little more about what that was like and so am going to save discussing that until tomorrow, but I will say it’s an impressive, finely-tuned production they have in place -- not that surprising considering they’ve been at it for over a decade now.

Flights back from Las Vegas were relatively smooth though I was pretty beat once I finally got home. Will be taking a little bit of a break from the traveling at the moment, but there will be more globetrotting to come.

Getting some rest now. More tomorrow about the final day at the WPT Five Diamond.

Travel Report: Season XII WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, Day 5 -- King Dan’s Two-Outer

Was a full day yesterday for Day 5 of the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic as they played down from 21 to the final six.

The tourney was relocated to the “high-limit” area of the Bellagio poker room, an elevated section in the far right corner, which took the players out of the center of the very active cash games happening at the mostly filled tables in the rest of the room.

Once the three tables played down to a final ten-handed table, the final table of that $100K high roller event the Bellagio was putting on was moved over into the same area as well, and in fact would play out long after we finished with Brian Rast winning more than $1 million for topping a small field.

Rast was one of the couple of players who had actually entered the $10K WPT event seven times (thanks to the unlimited re-entry format), and so despite finishing in 32nd and in the money, he’d lost more than $40K in that one as his cash was only for a little over $26K.

Not sure if Rast re-entered the $100K or not, but you can check out reports on the event by Eric of Poker Telegraph who was on hand to file updates on that one from start-to-finish.

The big news entering Day 5, of course, was the prospect of start-of-day chip leader Jean-Robert Bellande perhaps making the televised final table and thus adding a bit of entertainment to the proceedings later today. JRB was still leading at mid-afternoon yesterday, but had one calamitous level that took him from the top of the counts to the bottom, and it wasn’t long after they’d gone to the ten-handed final table that he busted in 10th.

It took a good while, but finally they reached the final six with Dan Smith the chip leader. Smith had narrowly avoided finishing 16th in the tournament when he’d been all in with 10-10 versus the K-K of Steven Silverman and no help had come on either the flop or turn. But a 10 fell on fifth street to save Smith, and he’d go on to carry the lead to today while Silverman would be the one to finish 16th.

“King Dan” will be joined by Eddy Sabat and Joe Serock at this final table, as well as a player named Shaun Suller whom I met a few times covering WSOP Circuit stops. Suller is a friendly guy and I overheard him telling the WPT TV crew in an interview how he planned to donate a percentage of his winnings to the Jimmy V Foundation, which gave me another reason to be glad he’d made the final table.

Meanwhile others coming up short along with Bellande and Silverman were Christian Harder, Dan O’Brien, and Will Failla.

Have a hectic day ahead and so am cutting things short again. Check over at the WPT site for updates later on from tonight’s final table. Should be interesting to see the staging and presentation for the TV show, as Mike Sexton, Vince Van Patten, Lynn Gilmartin will all be there to do their commentary as it goes.