GPI Update: Steve O’Dwyer Completes 13 Weeks At No. 1, Tom Marchese Enters Top Ten; GPL Completes First Week, As Davidi Kitai and Randy Lew Win

Steve O’Dwyer now completes 13 straight weeks at the top of the Global Poker Index (GPI) rankings, with almost no threat to his position.

The only climber in the Top 10 is Thomas ‘kingofcards’ Marchese this week. He enters the Top 10 with a slew of High Roller scores, much like Mustapha Kanit a few weeks ago. Marchese claimed three high roller titles at the Aria last year and three in 2016 alone. He made back-to-back final tables, including a win on April 1 and 2 for an accumulative $380K in cashes. In fact, Marchese is also part of the recently launched Global Poker League (GPL), which begins Week 2 of its matches.

Completing its first week, the GPL saw the New York Rounders and the Hong Kong Stars leading in points and two players Davidi Kitai and Randy Lew stealing the show, as they took their first wins.

Climbers

Tom Marchese climbs 11 places to reach No. 9.

Dippers

Anthony Zinno falls one spot to No. 10.

Stephen Chidwick loses his place in the Top 10, falling a rank to No. 11.

Indian Origin Top 300

Mukul Pahuja slips a rank to No. 22.

Nipun Java climbs two spots to No.91.

Pratyush Buddiga came down another two places this week to No.114.

Kully Sidhu is also lower, by one place at No. 121.

Global Poker League – Regular Series Begins

The GPL Regular Series began after a long wait and completed its first week. During this time, matches will be played within conferences. Inter-conference matches will be played during the Summer Series, late this year.

Davidi Kitai of the Paris Aviators and Randy Lew of the Hong Kong Stars shone during these initial matches. Kitai was the first player to get a win, when he won a six-max match that had Daniel Cates, Dzmitry Urbanovich and Igor Kurganov at the table.

Twitch.tv was abuzz with Kitai’s fold against Kurganov that left even announcers Griffin Benger and Sam Grafton shocked. The hand came when Kitai was leading 5 to 1 and held against Kurganov’s . Kitai checked the flop to Kurganov, who bet 1,600. Kitai check-raised to 4,444, only to see Kurganov re-raise to 7,288. At that Kitai simply folded, leaving all dumbstruck. He finally won, gaining 10 points for his team.

Lew, was actually a wildcard entry for his team, became the first player in week 1 to gain a perfect record, after defeating Sergey Lebedev of the Moscow Wolverines in the heads up match.

Overall, the Hong Kong Stars were toppers with 18 points in the Eurasia conference, with the Berlin Bears lowest with 3 points.

Amongst the Americas, the New York Rounders lead with 16 points, while the San Francisco Rush are last with 6 points.

Week 2 Schedule

Tuesday, April 12
12:00 pm ET Six Max: Eurasia Conference
1:40 pm ET Six Max: Eurasia Conference
3:30 pm ET Six Max: Americas Conference
5:10 pm ET Six Max: Americas Conference

Wednesday, April 13
12:00 pm ET Heads Up: London Royals vs. Hong Kong Stars
2:30 pm ET Heads Up: Paris Aviators vs. Rome Emperors
5:00 pm ET Heads Up: Moscow Wolverines vs. Berlin Bears

Thursday, April 14
1:00 pm ET Heads Up: Sao Paulo Metropolitans vs. Montreal Nationals
3:30 pm ET Heads Up: San Francisco Rush vs. New York Rounders
6:00 pm ET Heads Up: Las Vegas Moneymakers vs. L.A. Sunset