Dan Smith Wins 2012 Global Poker Index Player of the Year

SLIEMA, Malta, January 9, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

With final results in from the 2012 tournament poker season, Dan Smith has officially won the inaugural Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year race. Smith had a career year in 2012 winning a total of six events and finishing in the money in another twelve. Highlights of his amazing year include winning the No Limit Hold'em A$100,000 Challenge at the Aussie Millions Poker Championship, winning in three straight events at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, and finishing on top at the €50,000 No Limit Hold'em Super High Roller event at the EPT Barcelona.

Finishing as a close runner up and taking National Player of the Year honors for Germany is Marvin Rettenmaier. Rettenmaier also had a career year in 2012, but could not quite capture the lead from Smith. National Player of the Year honors for France goes to Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier. Jonathan Duhamel takes the National Player of the Year title for Canada, after beginning 2012 with a strong start at the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure. The United Kingdom National Player of the Year honors go to Roberto Romanello.

Other notable National Player of the Year titles for the 2012 season belong to Dermot Blain for Ireland, Cesar Garcia for Spain, Andrea Dato for Italy, Martin Jacobson for Sweden, Alex Bilokur for Russia, Eugene Katchalov for Ukraine, Ilan Boujenah for Israel, and Juha Helppi for Finland.

In the five months since its acquisition by Zokay Entertainment, the GPI has been solidified as the live tournament poker ranking authority worldwide. Zokay plans to continue developing the GPI as the premiere tool and ranking system for the poker industry, with the expectation of making a significant investment in promoting poker and the GPI across the globe in an effort to establish industry standards for the multi-billion dollar live poker industry. In addition to announcing the winners of the prestigious GPI European Poker Awards on the 22^nd of January, expect many more exciting announcements from Zokay Entertainment and the Global Poker Index in the months to come.

About Zokay Entertainment

Zokay Entertainment is the new entertainment and poker company established by Alexandre Dreyfus, founder of the Chiligaming group. The company, whose motto is 'Connect players™', is based in Malta and the United States and currently has 15 employees. Zokay Entertainment acquired the Global Poker Index (GPI) in August, 2012 and has already turned it into the premier reference tool for worldwide poker rankings with the goal of developing it as a bridge between offline and online poker and poker in a social gaming environment.

For more information, contact Alexandre Dreyfus:
Mobile : +356-99-99-78-78
Email:alex@zokay.com
http://www.globalpokerindex.com