The GPI has made tweaks to their ranking system for the new year — primarily by expanding the tournaments that count to include events with buy-ins as low as $1,000.

UPDATE: These changes will apply retroactively for the multiyear GPI, and they started on Jan 1 for the new 2013 POY.

Calling the Global Poker Index the Nate Silver of Poker is probably stretching a bit, but as CardPlayer, Bluff, and all the others release their final tallies of tournament prowess, GPI relies on arguably the most evolved algorithm … and with that, here’s a look at the 20 players who had the best 2012s, even if you didn’t see them on ESPN or FoxSports:

POY 2012			PLAYER	TEAM	SCORE
#1	—		Dan Smith		1158.27
#2	—		Marvin Guido Rettenmaier	PartyPoker	1077.09
#3	—		Bertrand Grospellier	Pokerstars	913.35
#4	—		Kyle Julius		906.02
#5	—		Andrew Lichtenberger		889.57
#6	—		Joseph Cheong		848.91
#7	—		Phil Hellmuth		846.83
#8	—		Jonathan Duhamel	Pokerstars	812.46
#9	—		Jason Mercier	Pokerstars	810.89
#10	—		Stephen O’Dwyer		800.00
#11	—		Justin Bonomo		798.34
#12	—		David Baker		790.71
#13	—		Mohsin Charania		788.15
#14	—		Daniel Negreanu	Pokerstars	768.40
#15	—		Roberto Romanello		752.61
#16	—		Michael Watson		739.40
#17	—		David Sands		736.20
#18	—		Christopher Brammer		723.78
#19	—		John Juanda		714.42
#20	—		Phil Ivey	Ivey Poker	713.44

Gary Wise has an interesting piece about some action going down on the Global Poker Index.
It involves Pokerati non-fave Daniel Negreanu and some bets he’s making on where he’ll end the poker year (i.e. right before the start of th 2013 WSOP).

Check it out: http://www.globalpokerindex.com/negreanu-bets-on-gpi/

Forget bracelet bets — though we all can wonder if the Pokerstars pro woulda given these numbers any such validity were it still a product of Epic Poker. You gotta figure Negreanu has crunched and recrunched the numbers to believe he’s good — algorithmically, at least. The bet he’s offering is that he will move up 11 spots (he’s currently ranked 31st in the GPI 300) to crack the Top 20 by the end of May. Likewise, he’s giving 3.5:1 saying he’ll finish in the Top 10.

All fine and dandy on-the-felt … ooh, excitement, he’s all in with two cards to come, Vince! … and I know for poker pros it’s all about the money. But you can’t help but feel the needling undercurrents if any wagers related to Negreanu’s GPI rank becomes a story — or at least a subplot — moving toward the WSOP. Because, boy, can’t you imagine the chaff to Annie Duke’s hide if Negreanu (of all people) proves capable of profiting off the pride-and-joy player ranking system she created.

(The GPI, of course, no longer has anything to do with Annie since being salvaged from the Epic Poker rubble heap.)

Ya know, no one in poker really wants segregated poker, as far as I know … I mean sure, have it as an option to declare a Frenchies-only online champion, or Iowans-only for that matter … but one of the things that makes poker great is that where else can you seat people together from many different countries, regions, and cultures and engage in a competition of serious (real-money) import. Could you have the World Cup or the Olympics if they were limited by dot-country domains? Can only imagine where Brazil will be in four years. For now, in poker they are 29th, right behind Israel and Azerbaijan.

Meanwhile, @ElkyPoker may have moved into the top spot on the GPI 300, but the Frenchies actually dropped a spot to the Russians … reminding us that one man cannot carry a nation — even if he’s best player in the world.

GPI 300 BY COUNTRY

		COUNTRY	PLAYERS
1.		United States	158	—	53%
2.		United Kingdom	19	—	6%
3.		Russia	17	—	6%
4.		France	16	—	5%
5.		Canada	15	—	5%
6.		Germany	14	—	5%
7.		Italy	12	—	4%
8.		Belgium	6	—	2%
9.		Sweden	5	—	2%
10.		Ukraine	4	—	1%

A mistake in our latest installment — our fault, not the EPT’s, for taking what they have on the front page of their official, regularly updated website at face value — slighted the significance of Luca Pagano’s 4th place finish at EPT Warsaw.

We think he was one of the Big Winners of the last two weeks of October 2009, too:

Luca Pagano
EPT Warsaw (Casinos Poland)
Poland

Italian pro Luca Pagano suffered a bad beat to finish 4th. And though Pagano has found full-on wins elusive on the EPT, his $128k run in Warsaw was enough to push him past Bertrand Grospellier (“Elky”) as the top player (in terms of Tournament Leaderboard Points) on the EPT in history, with 12 cashes and five final tables.

See the real EPT’s all-time Tournament Leaderboard

I know January Player of the Year rankings mean about as much as a WSOP main event Day 1 Level 3 chip lead, but still, a quick look at CardPlayer’s 2009 POY, and I can tell you that it looks different from any other year I’ve looked at it this early — with so many non-Americans high on the leaderboard.

We’ll see if this holds up and says anything about the level of skill worldwide … it may just be reflecting the growth of international tournaments. Still … it’s different, and noted.

Rep. Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL) is speaking right now just spoke a little while ago … he’s a friend of poker!

Jackson is one of four cosponsor’s to Rep. Pete Sessions’ (R-TX) HR 6663. That bill, of course, is the most straightforward fix to the UIGEA — simply limiting its reach to online sports gambling — yet one of the more controversial because of, um, politics.

Perhaps shockingly, he didn’t mention anything about the critical importance of being able to easily compete in online WSOP satellites in his five minutes he had to address the world … but hey, that’s where we stand: We have a young, pre-introductory Day 1 speaker to the Democratic party (his debut performance on such a stage) aware of our issues and philosophically on our side, though not exactly the way the PPA would like him to be.

Speech transcript / Video

According an official WSOP updates e-mail to mark the halfway point of the 2008 WSOP, here are some interesting statistics:

Players on the verge of pure exhaustion who entered the most events:

Thomas McCormick (23)
Sirous Jamshidi (22)
Amnon Filippi (21)
Justin Bonomo (21)
Phil Ivey (21)

Players who might my new best friends with the most cashes:

Nikolay Evdakov (6)
Rolf Slotboom (5)
Tom Schneider (5)
Kathy Liebert (5)
Alex Jacob (5)
Roland Isra (5)

Players who have lives outside of the WSOP with the highest cash percentages:

Kathy Liebert (5 out of 8 events)
Sarah Bilney (4 out of 8 events)
Tom Lee (3 out of 6 events)
Peter Debest (3 out of 6 events)
Calen McNeil (3 out of 6 events)

Players who won’t give me their phone numbers earning the most money:

Grant Hinkle – $831,462 (1 cash)
Phil Galfond – $817,781 (1 cash)
Nenad Medic – $810,608 (2 cashes)
Scott Seiver – $781,866 (3 cashes)
Duncan Bell – $666,697 (1 cash)

Finally, 12 players are tied for reaching the most final tables (2) this year:

David Singer, Chris Bjorin, Andy Bloch, Alex Bolotin, Scott Clements, Jacobo Fernandez, Fu Wong, Minh Ly, Daniel Negreanu, J.C. Tran, Theo Tran, Erick Lindgren (WSOP claims 11, but I found 12 – revision may be in the works)

UPDATE: David Benyamine and Barry Greenstein should also be listed as reaching 2 final tables this year. (Thanks to the peanut gallery commenters!) If there are any more missing from the list, I give up!

Donkey Bomber Pokerati Tom — my words, not his — is at another final table today. That’s about all we know. I think it’s in a $2,500 Venetian/NPL Vegas Open event — I know it’s not at one of the preliminary Bellagio 5-Diamond tourneys where most of the pros are playing — but can’t be sure because, frankly, Tom tends to slack off from his frontline tournament reporting duties whenever he’s playing well (or vice versa). Too bad Goldfarb’s not making more final tables, because even if he can’t post directly from the table, he loves to send me the suckout-by-suckout recaps.

Tom Schneider starts today third in chips … I do know that much. And yeah, looking again, it’s gotta be event #3, because that’s one that counts toward Player of the Year. He really wants to win it, and thinks he can. Personally, I don’t think he stands a chance — though I suppose technically it’s possible and the Arizona Cardinals could win the next Super Bowl, as neither have been mathematically eliminated from contention.

In the meantime, keep up the good work, Tom (6)! We’re rooting for you against David Pham, Jonathan Little, Scott Clements, Bill Edler, JC Tran, David Fox, James Van Alstyne, Jared Hamby, and Danny Wong! Actually, I’m kinda rooting for Danny Wong, too … because he’s on my fantasy team. And Travis Rice, who is Dallas Poker’s highest ranked player in the CardPlayer standings at #11 — 5 spots, and 680 points behind Tom.

UPDATE (from Tom):

Belagio 2500 started yesterday 247 players

Hmm, OK, so I guess it was not one of the Venetian tourneys … it was a 5-Diamonder. Oops! But can we say sic.?

CORRECTION: Despite his own reports to the contrary, Schneider starts the day second in chips, not third. Click below to see who’s at the final table …

More…

The following question was posed on 2+2 and I really liked it. “Who Should Be the Player of the Year”? Here are the five that they proposed as possible candidates. For those of you that don’t know, I won; however I’m not saying that I should have and I’m not asking for your support; however, I think the debate is interesting. Here are the results for each of the players that they listed including total cash won, finishing position, number of entrants and event. If there are others that are worthy of consideration, please review their results for the assignment that I am going to give you.

Tom Schneider ($416,829):
Event 5: 1st/327 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better
Event 16: 4th/382 H.O.R.S.E.
Event 46: 1st/668 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better

Jeff Lisandro ($457,309):
Event 7: 13/145 Pot Limit Omaha W/Rebuys
Event 13: 2nd/398 World Championship Pot Limit Hold’em
Event 32: 1st/213 Seven Card Stud
Event 40: 18/620 Mixed Hold’em limit/no-limit
Event 46: 62/668 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better

Robert Mizrachi ($861,138)
Event 5: 26/327 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better
Event 9: 40/690 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better
Event 16: 6th/382 H.O.R.S.E.
Event 26: 5th/192 H.O.R.S.E.
Event 50: 1st/314 World Championship Pot-Limit Omaha

Phil Hellmuth ($738,724)
Event 10: 104/1,531 No-Limit Hold’em
Event 15: 1st/2,628 No-Limit Hold’em
Event 28: 6th/827 No-Limit Hold’em
Event 34: 25th/296 Limit Hold’em
Event 45: 31st/728 No-Limit Hold’em / Six Handed
Event 52: 95/1,048 No Limit Holdem w/ rebuys

Freddy Deeb ($2,291,489)
Event 4: 45/481 Pot Limit Hold’em
Event 30: 27/847 No-Limit Hold’em / Six Handed
Event 39: 1st/148 World Championship H.O.R.S.E.

More…