Each week, the Global Poker Index releases a list of the top tournament poker players in the world using a formula that takes into account a player’s results over six half-year periods. Here’s a look at the rankings as of March 11 in Asia Pacific.
Australia: 1st Jeff Rossister, 2nd Alexandre Lynksey, 3rd James Obst
Top of the Australian GPI rankings is Jeff Rossiter. He is ranked 72nd in the world. Perhaps the most consistently successful live tournament player to have come out of Australia, Rossiter has a fantastic $6.23 million in live career cashes, and currently sits 2nd on Australia's all time money list. His largest ever cash is $3,155,887 which he won for 2nd place at the GuangDong Millions Main Event.
Ranked 2nd in Australia by the GPI, Alexander Lynskey has $757,073 in career cashes, having hit his biggest score at the Aussie Millions in January 2016. He finished 4th in the Main Event, for $311,530. He took 9th place in the same event the previous year. Having only started posting consistent live results two years ago, Lynskey is certainly a rising star of Australian poker. James Obst sits in 3rd with an impressive $1,272,747 in live cashes. He recently finished 11th of the Aussie Millions Main Event.
Jeff Rossiter (Photo Neil Stoddart courtesy of PokerStars)
China: 1st Yingui Li, 2nd Dong Guo, 3rd Quan Zhou
Yingui Li tops the Chinese GPI rankings, with his victory in the WPT National Main Event in Paris late last year helping propel him into 1st. His worldwide GPI ranking is 224th. Li's other key results came in May 2015, with a 4th and a 12th in High Roller events for a combined $144,000. He has $459,887 in career cashes.
Since winning the ACOP Warm Up Event in November 2015, for $176,863 Dong Guo has occupied 2nd place on the GPI rankings for China. He also finished 29th in the WSOP main Event in 2014, taking home $230,487 for that result. He has a total of $565,686 in career winnings.
Quan Zhou sits in 3rd place on the list. He finished 3rd of the MPC24 High Roller event few days ago and has $684,244 in career cashes.
Yingui Li (Photo ClubPoker)
Hong Kong: Raiden Kan 1st, "KC" Wong 2nd, "Sparrow" Cheung 3rd
Raiden Kan finished runner up in the ANZPT Player of the Year race in 2015, partly due to 7th in a side event and 10th place in the Main Event at the Aussie Millions. He took home over USD$176,000 for those results combined. He has a total of $909,752 in career cashes. Last month, Raiden Kan was chosen by Celina Lin to represent the Hong Kong Stars in the Global Poker League.
KC Wong's consistency on the APPT circuit almost won him the Asia Player of the Year title last year. He currently has $389,481in career cashes. In 3rd place, is HKPPA's Chairman "Sparrow Cheung"
Raiden Kan
India: Nipun Java 1st, Kunal Patni 2nd, Raghav Bansal 3rd
With 134 live cashes and counting, Nipun Java is quickly becoming one of the most successful poker players in India, and his national number 1 GPI ranking is a reflection of that. Java is ranked 84th in the world. He notched 33 cashes in 2015 alone, with many of his cashes coming in the USA. Among his cashes last year was a 2nd place in the WSOP 6 Handed PLO Event, for $270,509. He has a total of $1,698,154 in live career cashes.
Kunal Patni holds 2nd spot, with career winnings of over $134,000 in live events. Raghav Bansal sits in 3rd, with star of Indian poker, Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal in 4th.
Nipun Java (Photo WPT)
Indonesia: John Juanda 1st
John Juanda is far and away the most successful Indonesian player of all time, and currently sits 332nd in the global GPI rankings. His nearest challenger in the national rankings is over 11,000 places below him in the global rankings. Juanda has had a glittering career so far, with 238 live cashes, over a near 20 year career, in which he has amassed $18,111,008 in winnings. Those numbers tell you everything you need to know about John Juanda's career.
In a very distant 2nd and 3rd place on the Indonesian national GPI rankings, are Fabien Parisel and Satrya Teja.
John Juanda
Japan: Naoya Kihara 1st, 2nd Takuya Yamashita, 3rd Takashi Ogura
Naoya Kihara is the number 1 GPI ranked player in Japan currently, and was the first Japanese national ever to win a WSOP bracelet. His career cashes total $1,050,134 and he is currently ranked 401st in the world. The largest of his cashes was his bracelet win in 2012, which netted him $512,029.
The 2nd highest ranked player in Japan is Takuya Yamashita. He has a total of $285,178 in career cashes, which include 3rd place in a Red Dragon event, and 1st in an ACOP side event.
3rd in Japan is a man very well known and highly regarded on the Asian circuit Takashi Ogura. Having posted strong, consistent live results since 2009, and with $702,518 in career cashes to his name, he is undoubtedly one of the best talents in Japanese poker.
Naoya Kihara (Photo Kenneth Lim courtesy of PokerStars)
Macau : Huidong Gu 1st, Lo Shing Fu 2nd, Paul Phua 3rd
Huidong Gu occupies 767th on the GPI world rankings and 1st place on the Macua rankings. He has accumulated $218,961 in career cashes, including six cashes in the five figure range. 2nd and 3rd on the Macau GPI rankings are Lo Shing Fung, and Paul Phua.
Huidong Gu (Photo Kenneth Lim courtesy of PokerStars)
Malaysia: 1st Sam Nee, 2nd Victor Chong, 3rd Richard Yong
The Malaysian GPI ranking list is led by Sam Nee Aik Chuan. He may only rank 1,294th in the world, but his results in the last 18 months have helped him move up through the national rankings. His best result is a 2nd place at the WSOP-APAC, worth $58,111.
Victor Chong and Marcus Lau occupy 2nd and 3rd places on the national rankings.
Sam Nee (Phot PokerStars)
New Zealand: 1st David Yan, 2nd Thomas Ward, 3rd Jan Suchanek
David Yan has the distinction of being the top ranked player in New Zealand, with $1,580,138 in live cashes, and a global ranking of 71st place. He took 1st in an Aussie Millions side event in January 2016, has had many five figure scores in his career, and a largest ever cash of $314,669 which he won for 2nd place at WSOP-APAC in the $25,000 High Roller event.
Thomas Ward currently sits in 2nd on the national rankings, largely due to his $481,960 score for 2nd place in the ACOP Main Event in November 2015. He has $751,807 in total career cashes. In 3rd place, is Jan Suchanek.
David Yan (Photo Kenneth Lim courtesy of PokerStars)
Philippines: Andrew Gaw 1st, Florencio Campomanes 2nd, Adrian Brion 3rd
Andrew Gaw tops the rankings for the Philippines, with a global GPI ranking of 652nd. The Holdem Mix Max event at the 2015 WSOP saw Andrew Gaw bank his biggest ever score, when he took 3rd place for $109,015. His total cashes amount to $384,827 and he has been a highly respected player on the Asian tour for over 4 years.
Florencio Campomanes currently resides in 2nd place, with career cashes of $296,712. He has risen to 903rd in the world, and has been a regular on the Asian tour for over 3 years. His largest ever cash came when he finished 3rd at APPT Macau in May 2015, for $119,444.
Adrian Brion sits in 3rd place currently, and has been one of the top players in the Philippines for the past 2 years. His total career cashes exceed $125,439 and he is ranked 1434 in the world.
Andrew Gaw
Singapore: Diwei Bryan Huang 1st, Chris Chong 2nd, Don Mishra 3rd
Diwei Bryan Huang is ranked 484th in the world, and his national GPI ranking puts him comfortably number 1 in Singapore. He is well known and respected, with $854,703 in career cashes. His ten year career includes a 2nd place in the Macau Poker Cup Red Dragon event, and 3rd in the APPT Macau Main Event.
He remains some distance ahead of 2nd and 3rd place players, Chris Chong, and Don Mishra, in the national rankings.
Byran Huang (Photo Kenneth Lim courtesy of PokerStars)
South Korea : 1st Simba, 2nd Hyon Skip Kim, 3rd SJ Kim
The Korean national rankings currently see Jae Kyung Sim aka "Simba" sitting in 1st place, with $528,499 in career cashes. He only ranks 1,242nd in the world, but has had a distinguished career so far, with his first recorded cash coming in 2010. Winning the APPT Cebu Main Event, for $95,487 back in May 2013, remains his best result to date. In 2nd and 3rd places on the Korean national rankings, are Hyon Skip Kim and SJ Kim.
Jae Kyung Sim aka "Simba"
Taiwan: Kitty Kuo 1st, Terry Fan 2nd, Li-Ta Leon Hsu 3rd
Ranked 202nd in the world and 1st in Taiwan, Kitty Kuo has been a recognisable Asian poker player for quite some time, having been posting consistent results since 2009. Her career cashes exceed $1,092,000 and her biggest ever cash came in the recent Aussie Millions Main Event of 2016, where she finished 6th, for $189,018.
The number 2 ranked player in Taiwan is Terry Fan . He won few days ago the MPC24 HK$20,000 event for Hk$1,097,720.
Li-Ta Leon Hsu sits in 3rd place, with $321,758 in total cashes. While his career cashes are not huge by any means, 40 of Hsu's 49 cashes have come in the last two years, which has helped propel him up to 3rd on Taiwan's national rankings.
Kitty Kuo
Thailand: Chane Kampanatsanyakorn 1st, Pakinai Lisawad 2nd, Ben Abrahams 3rd
The number 1 ranked player in Thailand is currently Chane Kampanatsanyakorn, who won the APPT Seoul Main Event in April 2014, collecting his biggest ever cash of $141,719. He ranks 657th on the GPI global rankings, and has over $521,000 in career cashes.
In 2nd place is Pakinai Lisawad, who only started posting consistent live results in 2013, but has shot up to 2nd partly because of his best ever result by far – 2nd in the WSOP Pot Limit Omaha High Roller in the summer of 2015. He took $693,553 for that career defining result, which has helped his total career cashes climb to $893,553. Ben Abrahams is in a distant 3rd place on the GPI rankings for Thailand.
Vietnam: Linh Tran 1st, Tien Quyet Hong Pham 2nd, Hoang Anh Do 3rd
Linh Tran currently sits in 1st place for Vietnam's national rankings, and has amassed over $428,000 in live cashes. With his largest cash only being $42,501 Tran has shown a steady consistency that has seen him rise to the top. His global ranking is 784th and he maintains a comfortable lead over Tien Quyet Hong Pham and Hoang Anh Do, who occupy 2nd and 3rd place.
Linh Tran
Louis Hartwell
Graduated in Media Communication at the University of Lausanne, Louis Hartman is a co-founder of somuchpoker.com. He began his career in Cambodia as freelance journalist. In same time he was making his living by playing poker every night at that time. Intense learner, he read dozens of poker strategy books to improve his skills during many years. With a strong interest about poker "behind the scene" in Asia and his communication skills, Louis launched Somuchpoker in 2014.
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