Global Poker Index: Jason Mercier Starts 2012 in No. 1 Spot

Each week, the Global Poker Index releases a list of the top 300 tournament poker players in the world, using a formula that takes a player's results over six half-year periods. For a look at the entire list of 300, visit the official GPI website.

As of last week, there was a change made to the GPI scoring system. Federated Sports + Gaming Chief Information Officer Eric Faulkner informed PokerNews of the change last week:

"This week marks the six-month anniversary of the Global Poker Index. As promised at the outset, the GPI model will be reviewed every six months and adjusted where necessary to reflect the changing landscape of live tournament poker. The first of these reviews occurs this week.

"One of the key features of the GPI is the cap on results that count towards a player’s score in each of the six half-year periods that the GPI scores. This cap is necessary to control for a player getting a high GPI score merely due to playing a higher than average number of tournaments. For the first six months of the GPI, there was a cap of three results that could count toward a player’s GPI score per period. The cap of three was determined by evaluating the average number of results per half-year period for the group of professional players defined as the individuals who qualified for The Epic Poker League.

"Now that the GPI has been operating for six months, the group of professional players has been redefined from the Epic Poker League qualifiers to the players in the GPI Top 300. Week to week, this group constitutes the most active players on the tour, so they are the most representative set to evaluate the cap on results. This redefinition of the consideration set of professional live tournament players, along with a general increase in live tournament play, resulted in an increase in the cap on results in Periods 1, 2 and 3 from the three highest scores to the four highest. The cap on results in Periods 4, 5 and 6 remains at three. The cap of the four highest scoring finishes for the most recent three periods, Periods 1 through 3, and the cap of the three highest scoring finishes for the three periods most distant, Periods 4 through 6, reflects the average number of cashes for the players in the GPI 300 across the entire 36 month period that the GPI measures."

How does the change affect the top ten?

The Top 10 as of January 2, 2012

Rank	Player	Total Score	Change in Rank from Last Week
1	Jason Mercier	3,015.08	0
2	Erik Seidel	2,851.80	+1
3	Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier	2,805.75	-1
4	Eugene Katchalov	2,656.33	0
5	Sam Trickett	2,582.47	0
6	Vanessa Selbst	2,441.15	+5
7	Will "The Thrill" Failla	2,432.32	+1
8	Shawn Buchanan	2,430.85	-2
9	Matt Waxman	2,395.23	+1
10	Sorel Mizzi	2,374.73	-3

With the new scoring system, Jason Mercier enjoys a bigger lead atop the GPI. As arguably the most consistent tournament player in the world over the last three years, Mercier's first three periods benefit nicely from having a fourth score. As he told PokerNews on the way to the Bahamas Wednesday, it "would be cool if I stayed No. 1 for the whole year."

Welcome to the GPI

Ten players entered the GPI this week, led by Jacob Bazeley at the No. 248 spot. One of Bazeley's WSOP cashes in a $1,500 no-limit hold'em event aged into Period 2 and had not previously counted in Period 1. Now, with a full complement of Period 1 scores along with three in Period 2, Bazeley is comfortably within the GPI.

New Additions

Player	Total GPI Score	GPI Rank
Jacob Bazeley	1,129.41	248th
Brian Powell	1,081.56	277th
Andrea Benelli	1,080.02	278th
Maksim Kolosov	1,066.87	288th
Dana Kellstrom	1,066.81	289th
Humberto Brenes	1,062.05	291st
Ted Forrest	1,061.53	292nd
Denys Drobyna	1,058.52	293rd
Jason Wheeler	1,053.64	296th
Faraz Jaka	1,047.60	300th

Those falling from the GPI this week were Brian Hawkins, Brian Rast, Daniel Idema, Jesse Martin, Josh Arieh, Matt Matros, Max Pescatori, Michael Pesek, Morten Mortensen, and Nick Grippo. Rast, winner of the Poker Player's Championship this summer, saw his GPI standing fall more than 100 places in the last few weeks as both of his bracelet wins fell into Period 2.

Ups and Downs

The biggest rise of the week belonged to Sean Getzwiller. His 35th-place finish in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Max Championship at the 2011 WSOP fell into Period 2, giving him two scores in that period to go along with a full slate of Period 1 scores.

Biggest Gains

Rank	Player	Total Score	Change in Rank From Last Week
129th	Matt Stout	1,392.51	+41
150th	Sean Getzwiller	1,337.10	+61
163rd	Brandon Meyers	1,292.81	+50
175th	Eric Baldwin	1,267.66	+23
177th	Barny Boatman	1,261.79	+24
179th	Per Linde	1,260.34	+23
180th	Daniel Neilson	1,260.31	+23
181st	David Parades	1,258.32	+23
197th	Vivek Rajkumar	1,229.76	+24

Barry Greenstein, Mike Binger, and Owais Ahmed took the biggest tumbles down the GPI ranks. Each was the victim of an aging score as the Poker Player's Championship is now six months old. Greenstein (15th) and Binger (14th) don't have any Period 1 scores now, while Ahmed (fourth) still has one.

Biggest Drops

Rank	Player	Total Score	Change in Rank From Last Week
206th	Daniel Alaei	1,211.30	-86
214th	Justin Bonomo	1,204.51	-83
216th	Jesse Alexis Cohen	1,201.83	-81
217th	Thorsten Schafer	1,201.06	-75
218th	Daniel Reijmer	1,198.79	-92
219th	Barry Greenstein	1,196.84	-126
244th	Mike Binger	1,134.98	-120
264th	Russell Carson	1,102.48	-79
269th	Jon Spinks	1,097.94	-87
298th	Owais Ahmed	1,048.34	-110

What's In Store?

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure kicked off Thursday and will no doubt have an impact on the GPI over the next two weeks. The $100,000 Super High Roller tournament will wrap up Saturday, so expect movement from a notable player or two come next week's GPI.

Article Source: Poker News Website

The Insiders: Groupe Bernard Tapie Lawyer, Behnam Dayanim

Without a doubt, the top story of 2011 was Black Friday. Now, as the new year begins, the ramifications of that story continue to permeate the poker industry. There have been significant developments over the course of the past eight months, but perhaps none more meaningful than Groupe Bernard Tapie’s (GBT) interest in acquiring Full Tilt Poker. That time-consuming acquisition is still unfinished but seemingly certain, priming it to be one of the biggest stories of 2012.

As the poker world waits for the next development to break, PokerNews reached out to the man representing GBT’s interest in the United States, Behnam Dayanim, a lawyer based in the Washington, D.C., office of Axinn, Veltrop, Harkrider, LLP.

Dayanim, co-chair of AVH's Litigation and Regulatory Group, received his Bachelor of Arts degree, summa cum laude, in 1989 from Yeshiva University in New York, followed by his Juris Doctorate, cum laude, from Harvard Law School. He was previously a partner with Paul Hastings Janofsky & Walker LLP and has been recognized on the national level through Chambers USA and the Legal 500.

An experienced litigator, Dayanim's expertise is in gambling and gaming; export controls and sanctions; information technology licensing and outsourcing; privacy and data protection; electronic signatures and payments regulation; and advertising and marketing.

Behnam Dayanim

What’s the latest in the Groupe Bernard Tapie/Full Tilt Poker talks with the U.S. Department of Justice? Has there been any recent progress?

No, there’s nothing new.

The latest news in the Full Tilt Poker saga was that shareholders had approved a deal to transfer assets to Groupe Bernard Tapie. What will be the next step?

It’s a multistep process. I’ll start with the first step to get to the last step. The first step was negotiating with the Department of Justice, which was done back in November. That provided, upon consent by Full Tilt companies to forfeit their assets, that the DOJ would sell those assets to GBT. We concluded that in November.

The second step was obtaining the consent of Full Tilt companies to forfeiture into the proposed arrangement of the assets to us. [The shareholder’s approval] covers that piece.

The next step is negotiating and memorializing a definitive agreement with the DOJ that essentially sets out all of the details surrounding the terms to the letter agreement. That’s what we are doing now. Once that’s done, the final step would be the actual forfeiture, and the order of court that allows for the Department to subsequently sell the assets to us.

When can we expect to see that happen?

Well, I tend not to give timelines. Whenever I give timelines there are events that are not under our control, so I can’t tell you a definitive timeline to conclude this process. I would hope that we would get this done in the early part of the year.

In November, news broke that GBT would acquire FTP for $80 million. According to that deal, GBT would pay back players outside of the U.S., while the DOJ would repay players in the U.S. How would GBT go about facilitating payback to players outside of the U.S.? Do those details need to be ironed out still?

I think the GBT is in the process of making those decisions, evaluating what the mechanism will be, and working through those details. That’s part of the diligence the GBT is taking, and I think that plan will develop over the next several weeks.

Does GBT still plan to reapply for a license with the Alderney Gaming Commission? If so, how long would that process take?

Yes, the plan would be to seek a license from the Alderney Gaming Commission and also from the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC). As you may know, Full Tilt has held licenses from both those regulatory authorities. Our expectation is that we will do the same.

I hope that the process would not take terribly long because Alderney is already familiar with the technology, the software, the gaming platform, and all of that, which is a large part of the process. The new component would be the people in the ownership and the management, so that will take a little bit of time of course, but we are optimistic it can be done quickly.

It’s been said that Full Tilt's existing owners may retain minority stakes, staying on as "passive" investors. Can you elaborate on what that means, who may exercise this option, and why they might want to do so?

The agreement with the DOJ contemplates that the GBT would retain majority and controlling interest in the company. The DOJ also prohibits Full Tilt members from retaining or acquiring any ownership interest in the new company, namely the directors are not permitted to have ownership interest going forward.

To the extent that any members decide they would like to participate in a minority stake in the company going forward, other than the ones who’ve been excluded, there would have to be negotiating and any interest would be entirely passive.

Laurent Tapie has stated that some players may be offered equity stakes in the new company as a form of repayment. Is this still the plan?

As I’ve said before, GBT is evaluating all of its options in terms of how it will go about compensating players. I’m not comfortable saying something will or will not be included because that process is ongoing.

What attracted you to the gambling and gaming areas of the law?

I came at this from a technology perspective. I started off as an export-trade lawyer specializing in high-technology issues. For example, I dealt with export of encryption software and things of that nature. Then, about 13 or 14 years ago, I started working with a payment processor company that had a variety of payments regulatory issues.

They also processed gaming and they asked me about pending gaming legislation. As you know, that issue was kicking around Congress for many years before the UIGEA passed in 2006. So at that time, a bill was pending that would have clarified the legal status of Internet gaming, and suddenly I started to work on their gaming issues [in the late 90s].
I was subsequently retained by what was then called Party Gaming to advise on gaming and related regulatory issues. So I’ve been involved for quite some time.

Read more: Poker News