. What began with winning the inaugural WSOP Asia Pacific raised the stakes with cash payouts, WSOP gold bracelets, and honours among the top of poker ranking leaderboards in a triumphant season.
Many poker analysts consider Negreanu’s 2013 season one of the best of any elite poker player, and symbolized the rising number of Canadian players talented enough to make their own impressions on the game.
Three months into 2014 and Negreanu’s previous season is still far from forgotten. Negreanu was ranked as the player of the year in 2013 by prestigious poker publications such as Bluff Magazine or the Global Poker Index (GPI), which rank the top players in the world based on their annual performances. Three months into this year and nothing has changed.
The Canadian poker star is still the ranking player on the GPI and Bluff Magazine leaderboards, though competitors are narrowing the gap. Marvin Rettenmaier is only 250 points away from Negreanu on the Bluff leaderboard, and a win at one of the upcoming European Poker Tour or World Series of Poker tournaments could close that gap, perhaps enough to surpass Negreanu.
Nipping at the heels of Rettenmaier is Joe Kuether, who recently finished second in a $2,000 buy in on the World Poker Tour to reach third on the leaderboard. Kuether also secured a seat at another upcoming WPT event, which could very easily vault him into contention with Rettenmaier to challenge Negreanu for the top spot.
With the EPT and WSOP seasons about to ante up again, all three players will have opportunities to advance their rankings, or allow other players to take over their leads. But for Canadian poker fans, everything is all in on Negreanu leading the pack of Canadian poker stars to another fantastic season.
