High Rollers Hold Top GPI Player of the Year Spots

The poker world has finally beaten the post-World Series of Poker hangover and after a few sizable domestic events, in Oklahoma and Florida, the PokerStars Championship Barcelona series seems to be shaking up the 2017 GPI Player of the Year race. High Roller events are the biggest driving force of those recent Player of the Year changes and players that earn their livings playing in the stratosphere have a stranglehold on the current top-five.

Bryn Kenney was absent from the live poker scene during the WSOP but he looks to be back in action, with two final table finishes over the last few days in Barcelona. The New Yorker finished 7^th in the opening Spanish €50,000 Super High Roller and then notched a runner-up finish in a €25,000 event to restore his POY reign.

The Poker Central Podcast’s favorite German also used that €50,000 Super High Roller to help his POY cause. Koray Aldemir finished 3^rd, good for a $620,000 result, and the young German currently sits 2^nd, with Dario Sammartino, who had a stellar WSOP campaign, sitting 3^rd. American High Rollers Nick Petrangelo and Dan Smith round out the top-five, with a handful of international players book-ending 2016 Player of the Year David Peters in the bottom half of the top-ten.

2017 GPI Player of the Year Standings (August 23)

1. Bryn Kenney (3,284.93 pts)
2. Koray Aldemir (2,992.49 pts)
3. Dario Sammartino (2,928.47 pts)
4. Nick Petrangelo (2,881.97 pts)
5. Dan Smith (2,841.98 pts)
6. Sergio Aido (2,809.01 pts)
7. Pete Yanhan Chen (2,747.89 pts)
8. David Peters (2,745.14 pts)
9. Ari Engel (2,713.64 pts)
10. Manig Loeser (2,645.66 pts)

Bracelet winner Adrian Mateos, Super High Roller Bowl final tablist Justin Bonomo, British High Rollers Charlie Carrel and Stephen Chidwick, and Daniel Negreanu are all comfortably in the top-25 and while those players aren’t confirmed for next month’s Poker Masters series, regardless of how many do participate, the five-event high stakes series should have serious Player of the Year implications.

Outside of the WSOP, few standalone events move the POY needle like World Poker Tour events and with the addition of final table broadcasts to the PokerGO live events library, fans everywhere will be able to see that needle move in real time. The WPT Legends of Poker final table will be the first to hit PokerGO later this week and with big money up for grabs, that could also mean plenty of POY points are also for the taking.

Stay tuned to both Poker Central and PokerGO throughout the next few months, before the 2017 GPI Player of the Year is crowned at the end of the year.