It is still very early in the GPI POY race for 2017, but two stars of Asian poker are already stamping their authority on the leaderboard. Alan King Lun Lau and Sparrow Cheung have stormed into the top 10 places and hope to be key players in the race as it heads into the spring.
Great start of the year for Alan Lau and Sparrow Cheung
The reason that Alan King Lun Lau and Sparrow Cheung’s achievements are special is that neither player puts in high volume at the bigger buy in events, but they have managed to scale the leaderboard regardless.
Alan Lau lifted the Asia Player of the Year title in 2015, and would no doubt love to add a GPI POY title to that, but there is still a long way to go. His victory in the Red Dragon event in Macau last month played a large part in his current position. He took home a career best score of $420,803 for that win, bringing his total live career cashes up to $665,371.
Sparrow Cheung has been a regular on the Asian poker scene for several years, and has $887,613 in total career cashes on the live circuit. His best win came in the Macau Poker Cup last month where he won a side event for over $126,000. Both men are from Hong Kong, and will be looking to build on their impressive start in the coming months.
Sergio Aido ranks 4th after big scores in Asia
These two talented players are joined in the top 10 by Sergio Aido from Spain, a player who has been making a serious impact in Asian tournaments lately. In the last few weeks, he managed to pick up a 4th and a 2nd place at the Triton High Roller Series, netting a combined total of almost $1.5 million for those results. He also won one High Roller event at the Macau Poker Cup last month for a further $267,302. This brings his lifetime live cashes up to over $4.6 million, and elevates him to 4th place on the POY rankings.
More: Interview: Getting to know Spain’s high roller Sergio Aido
Bryn Kenney currently leads the 2017 POY race with 1,780.53 points, with Aido having 1,175.05 and Cheung sitting in 8th place with 958.34. King Lun Lau occupies 10th spot with 931.71.
GPI POY 2017
#1 Bryn Kenney: 1,780.53 pts
#2 Mustapha Kanit: 1,597.35 pts
#3 Byron Kaverman: 1,257.50 pts
#4 Sergio Aido “zcedrick” Aido: 1,175.05 pts
#5 Koray Aldemir: 1,147.45 pts
#6 Manig Loeser: 1,121.64 pts
#7 Roland Israelashvili: 1,057.54 pts
#8 Park Yu “Sparrow” Cheung: 958.34 pts
#9 David Yan: 956.39 pts
#10 Alan King Lun Lau: 931.71
Reminder: Overall GPI Vs GPI POY
The GPI PoY score should be differentiated from the Overall GPI Ranking. In the overall rankings, points are collected for cashing tournaments based on buy-in and finish position, just as in the POY race, but the overall rankings cover a 36-month period, with cashes diminishing in value as they age. The POY race is simply the same formula being applied to the top 13 results a player accumulates in a 12-month timeframe.
GPI (Overall)
#1 David Peters: 3,453.94 pts
#2 Bryn Kenney: 3,255.49 pts
#3 Nick Petrangelo: 3,234.88 pts
#4 Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo: 3,130.44 pts
#5 Adrian Mateos: 3,089.31 pts
#6 Ankush Mandavia: 3,065.68 pts
#7 Dan Smith: 2,956.33 pts
#8 Jason Koon: 2,951.83 pts
#9 Alan Ari “Ari” Engel: 2,936.25 pts
#10 Byron Kaverman: 2,925.64 pts
Article by Craig Bradshaw
