2016 GPI Female Player of the Year: Close Race at the Top

It’s been a while since we last took a look at the Player of the Year Ladies race. With the WSOP in the books and the launch of EPT season 13 in Barcelona, it’s time for a status update.

Even though we still have four months of poker tournaments ahead it’s safe to say, that the race is going to be extremely exciting this year. At the top of the rankings is Argentina’s Maria Constanza Lampropulos with 1,735 points. But only four points behind is Cate Hall with 1,731 points, which puts her in a great position to claim the top spot if she can continue the hot run she has enjoyed this year.

Maria Constanza Lampropulos takes the top spot after an impressive year that has seen her finish runner-up twice in major events. First she took second in WPT National Brussels for $75k, and then she played her boyfriend Ivan Luca heads-up in Eureka Rozvadov Main Event and took home $95k for her deep run. After a 4th place finish in a side event at EPT Monte Carlo ($60k), she min-cashed five times at the WSOP this summer.

Cate Hall’s year has been equally impressive with a number of deep runs in WPT events, incl. a 9th place finish in WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown for $65k. At the WSOP she picked up six cashes, and at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open in August she went deep in three events.

Loni Harwood is always a threat at the poker tables, and this year she is once again in contention for the no. 1 spot. Harwood is in third place with 1,530 points after a year with plenty of tournament cashes; most memorable her 6th place finish in the Crazy Eights Event at the WSOP for $127k, her 34th place finish in the Millionaire Maker for $32 and her runner-up finish in an event at Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open for $16k.

The players from #4 to #10 are all very close and just one or two deep tournament runs away from challenging the players up top. Natasha Barbour who made a WSOP final table and took third for $348k sits in 4th place, WSOP gold bracelet winner Safiya Umerova is 5th, poker veteran Kathy Liebert is 6th, mixed games specialist Esther Taylor-Brady (E-tay) is 7th, Liv Boeree 8th, Abbey Daniels 9th and Jamie Kerstetter in 10th place.

2016 GPI Female Player of the Year
1 Maria Constanza Lampropulos, 1,735 pts.
2 Cate Hall, 1,731 pts.
3 Loni Harwood, 1,530 pts.
4 Natasha Barbour, 1,386 pts.
5 Safiya Umerova, 1,365 pts.
6 Kathy Liebert, 1,327 pts.
7 Esther Taylor-Brady, 1,310 pts.
8 Liv Boeree, 1,300 points
9 Abbet Dabiels, 1,284 pts.
10 Jamie Kerstetter, 1,273 pts.

With the WPT Borgata and the Eureka in Hamburg, Germany, in the offing and the EPT Malta in October – just to name a few of the many events ahead – we are likely to see some changes in the rankings, so stay tuned to follow the race here at PokerWomenNews.