After a year in which many voices in the poker world stated there were issues with the status quo, the Global Poker Index announced last week that they were adjusting their scoring system that is used for the Player of the Year competition.
In 2016, the number of High Roller and Super High Roller events – tournaments that start out at $25,000 and can go as high as $100,000 (or even more) – became an issue for not only the Global Poker Index’s POY race but also for other organization’s charts and standings (such as CardPlayer Magazine). In some cases, players were making all their points in these types of events, which usually have smaller fields and (in theory) could be easier to make it through than a tournament that has hundreds if not thousands of players for a lower buy in. There are several examples of not only the inequity in the scoring but how it has had a sizeable effect on the scoring and races.
Bryn Kenney, who basically set up shop in Las Vegas and played every one of the multitude of Aria High Roller and Super High Roller events, spent much of the year in the Top Ten of the POY listings. Kenney would eventually finish the year out of the two major POY races Top Ten lists, but other players also had inflated points totals due to the buy-ins they were playing and the smaller fields they were facing. In another instance, Cary Katz basically made the Top Ten on the CardPlayer Magazine POY race at the end of the year because of finishes in the Aria events – a win, a runner-up, and a third-place finish between December 29-31.
Then there was the late-season rush used by eventual POY champion David Peters in catching and passing Fedor Holz. Holz, who had dominated the POY throughout the year (arguably partially because of his success in High Roller and Super High Roller tournaments including the PokerCentral Super High Roller Bowl), was caught by Peters because of his success in December in High Roller events. Without the High Roller events, Peters’ third place finish in the final European Poker Tour Main Event in Prague, Czech Republic, would not have been enough to push him past Holz for the POY.
An examination of the POY standings for the GPI and for CardPlayer do show an inequity in who is on the board because of the tournaments they play. Several of the players – including Peters, Holz, Justin Bonomo, Chance Kornuth, Dan Smith and Katz – frequently take part in the high buy-in events that normally draw less than 100 entries. Counter that with players such as Ari Engel, who had much of his success from his victory at the Aussie Millions Main Event in 2016 but also made a substantial amount of points from “normal” tournament play where there can be hundreds if not a thousand competitors (Engel finished fourth on the CardPlayer rankings, sixth on the GPI board).
The GPI is looking to counteract that factor by balancing out the importance of playing in “normal” tournaments with those that have massive buy-ins. Instead of focusing on the size of the buy-in for a tournament, the GPI will now reward players with more points for having participated in larger-field tournaments. Furthermore, the High Roller or Super High Roller events will have a new threshold to meet to be considered for the POY race. In 2016, it was only 21 players that were required; in 2017, it is now a 32-player field that is necessary for the event to be included on the POY rankings.
These changes aren’t something that sprang just from last season, per the GPI’s Eric Danis. “The full release of this updated scoring system is over 18 months in the making,” Danis, the GPI Head of Poker Content, stated during the announcement of the new scoring system. “With the ever-changing poker landscape, we recognized that a revamp was required, more than the standard adjustment we usually already make on a yearly basis. We listened to the players and are convinced that this is the way to go; the updated scoring process will see successful players at most buy-in levels rewarded in our rankings.” The changes are effective as of January 11, but it will take some time to see if the changes will correct some problems with the GPI system.
The CardPlayer scoring system seems to be the same as previously (with heavy multipliers for tournaments with a higher buy-in (10 times) versus those with larger fields (only six times) and a higher criterion for player number qualification (50 players), but there is one clause that may make a difference. The CardPlayer rankings also include a rule that “regularly scheduled daily or weekly events, that are not part of a series, do not qualify.” This could influence whether the Aria tournaments – which aren’t part of a tournament schedule or series but a “stand alone” roster of events – will be included in the future.
It won’t be until some tournaments are actually in the books – and if the Aria tournaments continue onward – to see if these changes have any effect. Kenney, for example, is already in fourth place on the CardPlayer rankings because of his two wins at the PokerStars Championship Bahamas in the $25,000 and $50,000 High Roller events. As more results come in, it should show if the changes made by the GPI (and, to a lesser extent, CardPlayer) have been effective or not.