Last year, Phil Ivey had steered clear from the World Series of Poker (WSOP), but this year he is back and as cliché as it may sound, he is indeed back with a vengeance. He is on the road towards winning his ninth WSOP bracelet.
Phil Ivey, 36, was one of the popular pro online poker players on FullTilt. He had announced his hiatus last year, but even with that break, his skill doesn’t seem to diminish at all. At present, he has three final table finishes at this year’s WSOP held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Vegas. His scores in just two of these three final tables brought him back to the list of the top 100 players on the Global Poker Index (GPI) 300.
He now ranks 90th in the GPI with 1,620.70 points. Reportedly, his eyes are set on one goal and that can be manifested through how he has showed his poker skills to thousands of players attending the WSOP. On the $5,000 buy-in Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo Split-8 or Better Event #15, he was able to finish seventh and got $34,595 from the event.
In the $10,000 buy-in Pot-Limit-Hold’em event #17, he was able to bag an additional $275,559 to his already growing winnings. He came in second to the event winner Andy Frankenberger. These events have allowed him to enter back into the GPI on his comeback.
It is said that Ivey will still be climbing higher in the GPI rank as the events go by. Other events that had earned him generous amounts of winnings are Event #24 $5,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Split-8 or better, where he finished third and the $10,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E event where he finished fifth. He won $99,739 on this event alone.
Andy Frankenberger is now on the 64th place of the GPI and has 1,765.87 in total number of points. So far, Frankenberger has earned almost half a million dollars from the past events he has played in at WSOP 2012. But his 75-spot climb was nothing compared to Alex Venovski who shot up into 76th place; a good 138 climb from his previous spot.
Phil Hellmuth, another one of the big names of poker, has climbed up 19 spots and secured the 20th spot on the list with 2,135.55 points. He was able to win his 12th WSOP bracelet after outlasting everyone on Event #18 $2,500 buy-in Seven-Card Razz. Prior to that, he had already made good money on three other events. This year’s WSOP proved to be one of Hellmuth’s best as he shot to the top of the list after ranking 63rd before the series started. He is set to climb further on the list when his fourth place finish in Event #32 is added to his Period 1 results.
The GPI top ten is quite a different story since only a little movement in the ranks has been observed. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier remains at the top spot for the seventh consecutive week. Bertrand presently has 2,894.87 points and is able to hold a good lead over Jason Mercier who comes in second in the rank. Mercier has 2,702.47 points, which puts Grospellier in a 192.4 point lead.
Grospellier was able to finish sixth in Event #23 $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max. He earned $68,738 from the event, which added greatly to his scores for his Period 1. This extended his lead over Mercier as well.
John Monnette also returned to the GPI 300 ranking 123rd with 1,487.15 points. Brian Hastings, Justin Schwartz, Brandon Cantu, Max Pescatori, Brian Rast, Antonio Esfandiari, James Akenhead and Humberto Brenes also entered the GPI 300.
Rankings will still have to change for Monnette as his second place win on Event #32 has yet to be added to his Period 1. He has already won his bracelet for this year after winning Event #10 $5,000 buy-in Seven-Card Stud.
Pros who have fallen off the rankings this week are Rob Akery, Tyler Bonkowski, Ted Lawson, Barny Boatman, Daniel Alaei, Fabian Quoss and Randy Dorfman.
