2016 Card Player Player of the Year -- World Series of Poker Main Event Champion To Earn 3,300 Points

The World Series of Poker summer festival has come to an end, but as the 2016 Card Player Player of the Year race prepares for the second third of the year we are here to take a look at how the largest tournament of the year, the WSOP main event, could effect the POY race as well as recap the Bellagio Cup XII main event and how it changed the leaderboard.

2015 World Series of Poker $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event

A total of 6,737 players posted the $10,000 buy-in in the 2016 WSOP main event, a total prize pool of $63,327,800. This year’s will be awarded the title of poker’s world champion, the special main event bracelet and the $8,000,000 first-place prize.

But in addition to the money and the glory in 2016 the final nine will also battling over the largest amount of Card Player Player of the Year points awarded in any one tournament this year. Here is a look at what will be at stake when the final table competitors return to play down to a champion this fall.

Given the current standings in the POY race, if the main event final table was held today the winner would at least climb to ninth place in the overall standings even if they had no prior POY qualified scores this year. Despite the final table being primarily composed of professional poker players, none of them has put together really any POY-qualified scores before making the final table of the main event.

In fact, only one of the nine have any 2016 POY points to their name, with Vojtech Ruzicka having only 120 points he earned for a fourth-place finish in a €1,650 EPT Dublin eight-max event.

Here is a look at the November Nine and their current POY standing for 2016:

The takeaway form all of this is that none of the final nine in this year’s WSOP main event could take the lead from Fedor Holz with a win this fall without also making an additional massive POY score. Holz has accumulated 5,738 points already, with five titles and $14,517,350 in earnings so far. In short, the German poker pro doesn’t have any immediate threats to his top spot among the WSOP final tablists.

2016 Bellagio Cup XII $10,400 Main Event

As the WSOP main event narrowed the field down to the final nine the Bellagio poker room hosted another big tournament of it’s own. The 2016 Bellagio Cup XII $10,400 no-limit hold’em main event drew 268 entries to build a total prize pool of $2,599,600.

In the end Kuljinder Sidhu came out on top, taking home the $599,440 first-place prize and 1,080 POY points. Sidhu has now made three final table finishes in 2016, including a third-place score in the EPT Dublin €5,300 no-limit hold’em main event. Sidhu now sits in 24th place in the overall standings with 2,480 points and $984,415 in year-to-date earnings.

Chance Kornuth placed third for $285,956 and 720 points. Kornuth has made eight final tables in 2016, including a win in a €10,300 high roller at the EPT Grand Final and another title run in a $25,000 AUD high roller at the Aussie Millions. As a result of this latest deep run Kornuth has moved into sixth place in the POY rankings with 3,730 and $1,954,541 in year-to-date earnings.

Finishing seventh in the event was David Peters, who was at his 12th final table of the year. Peters earned $88,386 and 270 points for his latest score. He has won two titles along the way, including his first WSOP gold bracelet in a $1,500 no-limit hold’em event for $412,557 and 1,080 points. With $4,791,478 in cashes so far this year and 4,331 points Peters has climbed to third place on the POY leaderboard.

Here is a look at the current top 20 in the POY standings:

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