Home / Poker News November 2012 / The Poker Grapevine – Dan Smith Retains his GPI Lead
The Poker Grapevine – Dan Smith Retains his GPI Lead
Posted by: Mark Baldwing - Fri, 2012-11-23 06:36
The 2012 GPI Player of the Year race is slowly nearing its finish line and Dan Smith who has pretty much expanded a monopoly over the top spot for no less than 13 straight weeks, is still the leader, looking as comfortable as ever. According to the latest GPI rankings, Smith has accrued 1,098.79 PoY points, thanks to the 5 wins he has thus far logged this year. Although he hasn’t even cashed in a
poker tournament for over a month, he is pretty much a lock for the first ever GPI PoY title.
Smith has successfully fended off the attacks of Marvin Rettenmaier, who is currently second with 966.63 points, and Kyle Julius (currently 3rd with 906.2 points).
Joseph Cheong and Phil Hellmuth were the only movers in the top 10 this week: Hellmuth dropped one spot from 4th to 5th, while Cheong moved up from 5th the 4th. Andrew Lichtenberger retained his 6th spot, followed by Justin Bonomo in 7th. David Baker, Daniel Negreanu and Jason Mercier round out the top 10. With only a handful of events left for 2012, there will be few chances for any of the players within the top 10 to gain positions, and even less of a chance to catch the leader.
In other news: if TV ratings are an indication, the popularity of poker in the US is actually increasing despite all the legal hurdles the game has had to deal with over the last few years. The
2012 WSOP’s ESPN coverage has seen a 17% uptick compared to last year, with around 664k households tuning in to the 2-hour primetime shows.
The first day of the 2012 October Nine showdown saw 632k households tune in. The event was aired with a 15 minute delay.
