Global Poker Index names top players by country for 2021
January 6, 2022
Tournaments & Cash Games
The GPI, which ranks the “global” in the Global Poker Index, awarded players from 56 countries around the world the Player of the Year award based on their performance in various poker tournaments in 2021.
Daniel Negreanu is GPIs Player of the Year for Canada (Image: Mark Gorman / PokerCentral)
There are a few names that rose to the top in 2021 that shouldn’t surprise poker fans anywhere. Daniel Negreanu is the POY 2021 for Canada, although he has been a US citizen since 2016. He finished third in this year’s WSOP POY overall competition after four final tables and 18 cashes.
Chance Kornuth from Las Vegas, who finished second in the overall POY Ali Imsirovic from GPI, collected enough points to surpass all American players. Shannon Shorr finished the US POY race just 88.66 points behind Kornuth. Imsirovic was also named POY for Bosnia and Herzegovina, although he moved to Vancouver, Washington at a young age.
Stephen Chidwick, who reached three WSOP final tables this fall, is the UK POY, while this year’s WSOP Main Event Champion, Koray Aldemir, is the German POY. The Main Event win earned him 824.26 points of the 1,777.15 points he earned in tournaments in 2021. The $ 8 million grand prize drove him above the $ 20 million lifetime cash mark, according to GPI’s partner The Hendon Mob.
David Mzareulov, who won GPI’s first ever mid-stakes POY for players playing tournaments with buy-ins of less than $ 2,500, also won the POY for Azerbaijan. Born in the Eastern European country, he now lives in Texas.
GPI uses a points formula that takes into account the cost of buy-ins and the number of participants an event draws to determine how many points players will receive for their placements.
| country | player | Points |
 Argentina |
Ezequiel Waigel |
2,416.58 |
 Australia |
Lewis Murray | 1,813.42 |
 Austria |
Daniel Rezaei | 2,295.00 |
 Azerbaijan |
David Mzareulov | 2,583.34 |
 Belarus |
Raman Afanasenka | 1,754.10 |
 Belgium |
Thomas Boivin | 2,545.92 |
 Bosnia Herzegovina |
Ali Imsirovic | 3,478.55 |
 Brazil |
Yuri Martins Dzivielevski | 1,566.08 |
 Bulgaria |
Boris Kolev | 2,845.12 |
 Canada |
Daniel Negreanu | 2,917.94 |
 Chile |
Nick Yunis | 1,512.62 |
 China |
Do you | 1,486.61 |
 Colombia |
Farid Jattin | 1,372.62 |
 Croatia |
Ivan Zufic | 2,194.39 |
 Cyprus |
Yiannis Liperis | 1,734.27 |
 Czech Republic |
Jan Bednar | 1,428.57 |
 Denmark |
Martin Stausholm | 1,353.21 |
 Finland |
Joni Jouhkimainen | 1,651.61 |
 France |
Johan Guilbert | 3,020.66 |
 Georgia |
Giorgiy Skhuluhiya | 2,471.43 |
 Germany |
Koray Aldemir | 1,777.15 |
 Greece |
Georgios Sotiropoulos | 1,526.79 |
 Hong Kong |
Chan Lok Ming | 1,080.80 |
 Hungary |
Tamas Lendvai | 1,062.49 |
 India |
Abhinav Iyer | 1,646.17 |
 Ireland |
Alex Kulev | 1,642.05 |
 Israel |
Uri Reichenstein | 3,138.32 |
 Italy |
Michael Rossitto | 2,694.69 |
 Japan |
June Obara | 1,801.09 |
 Kazakhstan |
Darkhan Botabayev | 1,235.08 |
 Lithuania |
Matas Cimbolas | 2,698.40 |
 Moldova |
Pavel Plesuv | 1,357.63 |
 Morocco |
Badr Imejjane | 1,876.85 |
 Netherlands |
Zhong Chen | 1,672.41 |
 Philippines |
Mike Takayama | 1,120.71 |
 Portugal |
João Vieira | 2,131.81 |
 Puerto Rico |
Fernando Rodriguez Vazquez | 1,919.65 |
 Romania |
Vlad Darie | 2,116.44 |
 Russia |
Artur Martirosyan | 2,417.32 |
 Serbia |
Damjan Radanov | 2,096.71 |
 Singapore |
Feng Zhao | 1,012.17 |
 Slovenia |
Rok Gostisa | 2,371.92 |
 South Korea |
Sung Joo Hyun | 2,921.24 |
 Spain |
Sergio Aido | 3,090.55 |
 Sweden |
Tomas Söderström | 2,366.94 |
 Switzerland |
Emil Bise | 1,305.25 |
Taiwan |
Eric Ting Yi Tsai | 2,113.44 |
 Thailand |
Punnat Punsri | 1,148.52 |
 Tunisia |
Moncef Karoui | 1,256.47 |
 Turkey |
Saladin Badr | 2,188.95 |
 Ukraine |
Yuriy Kozinskiy | 1,418.83 |
 United Kingdom |
Stephen Chidwick | 2,926.50 |
 United States |
Chance Kornuth | 3,225.11 |
 Uruguay |
Brian Barros Vazquez | 1,010.46 |
 Venezuela |
Dorian Alejandro Rios Pavon | 2,220.64 |
 Vietnam |
Tony Tran | 1,713.89 |
The GPI Awards will be held on February 18 at PokerGo’s Las Vegas studio on Aria, where 26 poker players and industry members will be recognized for their 2021 performance.
Written by
Bob Pajich
Bob Pajich is a poker news reporter, creative writer, and poker player who has never met suited connectors that he disliked.
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