The latest GPI Player of the Year update shows that it has been a quiet week in the world of poker as there was little movement in top 10 of the prestigious ranking. German Fedor Holz is still reigning with 3,389.32 points. He is followed by another young European player who has already achieved quite a lot in poker. Spaniard Adrian Mateos ranks 2nd in the leaderboard with 3,034.62 points. Chance Kornuth is 3rd with 3,016.86 points collected since the beginning of 2016.
More movement was seen in top 20 of the ranking. Samuel Panzica, a well-known and highly respected player in the poker community is now taking 15th place in the GPI Player of the Year with 2,550.22 points. Panzica has won four WSOP Circuit gold rings so far and a number of other titles. His live tournament winnings now amount to $1,479,044.
As for his performance since the beginning of the year, Panzica started 2016 with a sixth-place finish in a Lucky Hearts Poker Open and WPTDeepStacks No-Limit Hold’em event for a payout of $25,000 and 173.02 GPI PoY points.
A notable achievement this year was the player’s triumph in the EPT Season 12 Dublin €10,300 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller 8-Handed. He was paid the amount of €375,770 for his performance and added 457.34 points to his GPI Player of the Year score.
A second-place finish in a WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star $2,100 No-Limit Hold’em and an 11th place in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Championship secured Panzica with more than $130,000 in prize money and a total of 579.92 GPI PoY points.
The player was seen at the EPT Season 12 Grand Final in Monaco, where he cashed in two events, taking €40,000 in those and added more than 300 points to his GPI PoY score. He cashed in several more tournaments over the past few months.
As already mentioned, Panzica is not a stranger to the poker community. But apart from his achievements on the felt, he is also known for being imposed a lifetime ban from the World Series of Poker and all Caesars Entertainment properties. During the 2013 WSOP Main Event final table, the player was part of the rail of his friend Ryan Riess, who actually won the tournament that year. However, Panzica was thrown out of Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino for inappropriate behavior. Although he reached Caesars Entertainment officials to have his lifetime ban lifted, that did not happen.
