China and Bulgaria on the rise in "Global Battle" rankings

The PokerOrg “Global Battle” was introduced two weeks ago to track how countries are fairing in the WSOP based on results. There have been a lot of bracelets given out since then and the standings have undergone a lot of change. 

Here is a reminder on how the scoring works:

PokerOrg Global Battle Points System

Cash – 1 point  (15%-5% cashes only counted for $1,000 buy-in events and above)
Top 5% finish – 2 points
Top 1% finish – 10 points
Top 0.5% finish – 20 points (only for events with 3,000 or more entries)
Final Table – 50 points
3rd place finish – 75 points
Runner-Up finish – 100 points
Bracelet win – 200 points  (bonus 25 points for bracelet win in 10k events and above)

Source: WSOP official results (Cases where the flag of a player is clearly incorrect in the results page have been accounted for and corrected for these calculations)

Without further ado here is a look at the updated standings through 50 events played.

Top five

The top five have a large gap on the rest of the field. These are the countries you would expect to have the best chances to finish in the medal positions.

Canada, 2095 points - Canada remains at #1 despite just two bracelet winners thanks in large part to their depth of how many players from Canada have made deep runs. Their lead at the top is still a significant one, but smaller than at the previous update.

UK, 1688 points - The UK has closed the gap on Canada thanks largely to Benny Glaser’s bracelet win in Event #38: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship as well as several final tables in more recent events.

China, 1214 points - This is the first time since COVID that China has sent a significant amount of players back to the WSOP and they are the big movers from last time as they were not in the top ten before. The four bracelets won by Chinese players (Renji Mao pictured and Qiang Xu in graphic) is the most of any country in this WSOP outside of the USA and has launched them into #3. They still lag behind the top two because of far fewer final tables outside of the four bracelets wins.

France, 1,050 - France remains without a bracelet yet in this WSOP which is holding them back from being a challenger at the top. However their depth in results had been enough to keep them in the top five despite no bracelets yet.

Brazil, 936 - points - Brazil is nipping on the heels of France and China with two bracelet wins, one most recently from Yuri Dzivielevski and a few other final tables. 

High risers

Bulgaria sits way up in 7th place. A very impressive showing so far as they would be #1 by far in a per capita rating system in a country of less than 7 million people. A bracelet win by Valentino Konakchiev and five other final table appearances from Bulgarian players have made for an great WSOP for them. 

Netherlands is up to 8th place with Jans Arends big win in the $100,000 High Roller event which was good for the bracelet and bonus points.

South Africa is above 100 points now after not having a single point last time thanks to a final table and two other top 0.5% runs.

Underperforming so far

On the other end of the spectrum there are some countries who have not had the results you would expect so far. 

Germany has risen to 11th place but that is mainly because of Leon Sturm’s High Roller win for nearly 1/3rd of all of the points for Germany so far. They need some more final tables and deep runs to claw back into the top contenders area. 

Spain is in 16th place after being top 10 last time. They have a 2nd and 3rd place but no other final tables beyond that and the lack of depth in cashing is what has bogged them down.

Italy is outside the top 25 in 27th with only 124 points and just one final table appearance so far. Never count Italy out though as they have several players capable of making deep runs and taking down bracelets to quickly rise back up this list.

Full Standings