Ole Schemion overtakes Daniel Negreanu in GPI POY race

Daniel Negreanu looked to be sitting pretty in his quest to become the first player in poker history to sweep the Player of the Year awards, but a final thrust by German poker pro Ole Schemion at the EPT Prague Main Event will be his undoing, and Negreanu will have to settle for the Cardplayer Magazine, Bluff Magazine, and WSOP Player of the Year awards.

With his final table appearance Schemion surpassed Negreanu on the Global Poker Index Player of the Year rankings, and the GPI has confirmed that there isn’t a scenario where Negreanu, or anyone else, could overtake Schemion for the GPI POY title.

Schemion’s 2013

Schemion is one of many young, talented German poker players*, so his name has sort of been lost in the shuffle during the 2013 tournament season – not to mention he’s still not old enough to play in Nevada (minimum age 21) so he had to skip the entire World Series of Poker, so who knows where he would rank on the other POY leader-boards had he been able to participate.

A quick look at Schemion’s results will give you a clear indication why he is considered one of the top young talents in the game. Here is a look at just his six-figure scores from 2013 according to the Hendon Mob:

* 4th place in the $25k High-Roller at the PokerStars PCA

* 1st place in the Lebanese Poker Tour Kyrenia Championship

* 1st place in the EPT Grand Final $10k Turbo

* 6th place in the $50k Super High Roller at the EPT Barcelona

* 6th place in the $10k High-Roller at the EPT Barcelona

*For a quick glimpse at how strong the German contingent is, they had three players in the GPI 2013 Player of the Year Top 10, and even more impressively, three players in the Top 10 of the GPI rankings, #2, #3, and #4 to boot!

Negreanu’s 2013

Negreanu was by no means as consistent as Schemion in 2013, but he had a number of huge scores that led to his Player of the Year dominance.

According to his Hendon Mob page, Negreanu won the inaugural WSOP APAC Main Event in Australia; finished 4th in the PokerStars EPT Grand Final Main Event; 7th in the WPT $25k Championship; runner-up in the $2,500 buy-in 2-7 tournament at the WSOP; and won the $25k High-Roller tournament at the WSOP Europe tournament series.

While the GPI Player of the Year award slipped through his fingers, Daniel’s 2013 accomplishments are quite amazing considering the current state of poker, and how hard it is to win and make final tables in major tournaments.

For me, his greatest accomplishment of 2013 is making the Top 7 in the WSOP APAC, the EPT Grand Final, and the WPT Championship. Those are three of the toughest fields in poker.

Here is a look at a detailed breakdown of Negreanu’s results from 2013, which he posted on his Twitter account:

2013 Poker Results:

* Cash 13 of 66 19.7%

* Hours 613.5

* Buyins 1,211,833

* Cashed 3,203,423

* Profit 1,963,500

* Hourly Rate $3200

* Avg buy in 18,362

The WSOP POY controversy

There was a bit of controversy this year surrounding the World Series of Poker Player of the Year race, and more specifically, which tournaments were counted.

This was a topic I delved into in-depth (you can read my thoughts here) but this was not an indictment of Daniel Negreanu winning, this was a criticism of the system, Daniel did everything properly and didn’t “buy” the award or anything along those lines; he simply competed within the rules and won.

Final Standings for the GPI POY

* 1st place — Ole Schemion

* 2nd place — Daniel Negreanu

* 3rd place — Michael Watson

* 4th place — Philipp Gruissem

* 5th place — Bryn Kenney

* 6th place — Shannon Shorr

* 7th place — Marvin Guido Rettenmaier

* 8th place — Paul Volpe

* 9th place — Scott Seiver

* 10th place — Ravi Raghavan

 

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