Jason Mercier is yet again at the top of the Global Poker Index leaderboard after its latest update. The player has accumulated 4,248.27 points since the beginning of 2015. Mercier is followed by Byron Kaverman with a total of 4,075.59 points and Anthony Zinno with 4,006.18 points. In other words, this week’s GPI top 3 remained unchanged.
GPI’s latest update saw Colorado-based poker pro Pratyush Buddiga returning to top 20 of the leaderboard. The player is currently taking 15th place with 3,437.93 points collected since January. He is also 111th in the GPI Player of the Year ranking with 1,847.12 points.
Over the past two years, Buddiga has achieved quite a lot in the world of poker. The poker pro learned playing the game in high school but started taking his poker career more seriously while in college. At the age of 26, Buddiga has collected $3,965,418 in live tournament earnings and has appeared at the tables of some of the world’s most prestigious poker events.
The player’s cash history dates back to June 2010 but his first major achievement came a little bit later. In 2012, he finished 8th in the EPT Season 8 Berlin €5,300 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event for a payout of €72,000 ($94,127).
One year later, Buddiga cashed in the GuangDong Asia Millions Macau HK$1,000,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event. He finished 8th there to collect a total of HK$6,000,000 ($772,8700). Last year, he topped the field of the 2014 Fallsview Poker Classic C$2,500 No-Limit Hold’em and scooped C$243,714 ($222,172) for his triumph.
A 3rd place in the APPT 2014 Asia Championship of Poker HK$500,000 Super High Roller secured him with HK$6,550,000 ($844,571) – his best live cash so far. In December 2014, Buddiga won an Aria $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller for $543,683.
In 2015, the Colorado resident cashed in a total of 9 events. He emerged victorious in an EPT Season 11 Malta No-Limit Hold’em event for €65,650 ($71,380), finished 7th in the PCA $10,000 Main Event for a payout of $203,420, and collected A$335,000 ($270,967) for finishing 3rd in the 2015 Aussie Millions Poker Championship A$25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Challenge.
The player ranks 2nd in the Colorado all-time money list, 123rd in the US one, and 197th in the general all-time money list.
It is also interesting to note that Buddiga is a former spelling bee champion. In 2002, he won the Scripps National Spelling Bee for spelling the word prospicience correctly.
