There are several days left of 2016 and given the fact that Aria Resort & Casino hosted a high roller tournament yesterday and is to host two more such tournaments before the end of the year, there may occur certain last-minute changes in the GPI Player of the Year leaderboard.
It is yet to become known whether there would be any surprising turns but now, and for now, US poker pro David Peters is heading the ranking after its latest Wednesday update. The GPI Player of the Year leaderboard ranks players from all around the world based on their performance on the live poker circuit throughout a calendar year.
And Peters has had quite a year, scooping up $7,271,415 from live tournaments all around the world. A recent final-table appearance in what was the last EPT poker festival ever secured the player with the top spot in the GPI Player of the Year ranking. Although Peters was certainly aiming at winning the EPT Season 13 Prague €5,300 Main Event, he eventually took the prestigious 3rd place in the event for €397,300 and 482.29 points for his GPI PoY score.
In November, the player took down the 2016 Asia Championship of Poker HK$250,000 High Roller for HK$4,885,200. His excellent result boosted significantly his GPI PoY score with 372.66 points. Here it is important to note that the US poker professional managed to do what many believed was impossible – to remove German Fedor Holz from the Player of the Year ranking’s top spot. Holz occupied the leading position for the greater part of the year.
Peters and Holz clashed on the live poker scene in early January. The two players were the last men standing in the first-ever $200,000 buy-in Triton Super High Roller Series (part of the WPT National Philippines festival). Odds were in the young German’s favour at that point and he sent his opponent to the rail in 2nd place. Peters’ runner-up finish secured him with $2,309,000 in prize money and 259.39 GPI PoY points.
The US-born player was a constant presence at the tables of some of the world’s top poker destinations, playing and cashing in some of the major tournaments to have run throughout the year, and winning a satisfactory number of those.
The latest GPI Player of the Year update show that Peters has collected 3,666.31 points so far. It is yet to become clear whether he will manage to add some more points and to retain his top spot until the very end of 2016. If he does so, he will be crowned this year’s GPI Player of the Year.
- Author
Harry Evans
