With just one month left of the year, it is down to the wire in the GPI Player of the Year Ladies race. When we looked at the rankings in September, only four points separated Argentina’s Maria Constanza Lampropulos, who had 1,735 points at the time, and Cate Hall. Since then Hall has continued to go deep on several occasions, and she now leads the race with 2,227 points; nearly 500 points more than Lampropulos.
Winning the race seems more and more like a lock for Cate Hall. In October she secured herself valuable points finishing in 13th place of the IPT Main Event in Malta and in 11th place of the 8-handed High Roller at the same venue. In November Hall went on to take 5th place in the High Roller event at WPT Montreal, which equals 147 points that is not yet registered, and which brings Hall even more ahead of Lampropulos.
Even though Lampropulos has not collected any points in the last couple of months, she still sits in second place of the rankings. But maybe not for long. With 1,655 points Maria Ho has moved up in top three after a 6th place finish in a side event at IPT-EPT Malta and a 3rd place finish in the High Roller event at WPT Johannesburg. Loni Harwood has dropped one spot, and Esther Taylor-Brady climbed from 7th to 5th.
Anna Antimony is new in 6th place due to her impressive runner-up finish in a deep stack Togel event at Borgata Fall Poker Open, worth $123,146. Jamie Kerstetter (12th), Liv Boeree (15th), and Kathy Liebert (11th) are no longer in top 10. Bracelet winner Safiya Umerova (7th), WPT finalist Mina Greco (8th), newlywed Natasha Barbour Mercier (9th) and Kitty Kuo (10th) roundup top 10.
1 Cate Hall, 2,227 pts.
2 Maria Constanza Lampropulos, 1,735 pts.
3 Maria Ho, 1,655 pts.
4 Loni Harwood, 1,602 pts.
5 Esther Taylor-Brady, 1,474 pts.
6 Anna Antomony, 1,400 pts.
7 Safiya Umerova, 1,392 pts.
8 Mina Greco, 1,387 pts.
9 Natasha Barbour Mercier, 1,386 pts.
10 Kitty Kuo, 1,362 pts.
With EPT Prague running December 8-19 and the WPT Five Diamonds on Monday, we are likely to see some changes in the rankings, and I would not be surprised to see Liv Boeree re-entered top 10. But Female Player of the Year 2016! The title goes to Cate Hall.
