Player of the Year

With no movement taking place at the top of the leader board in the weeks leading up to Nov. 9, the World Series of Poker main event made the largest impact on the Card Player 2008 Player of the Year (POY) leader board. Each member of the "November Nine" walked away with at least 350 points, and winner Peter Eastgate jumped up to sixth place on the leader board by claiming the most lucrative victory of the year, worth 4,200 points and $9,152,416. Eastgate now has 4,320 points, with 120 of them coming from his 18th-place finish at the EPT London event in October. Ivan Demidov may have finished runner-up in the main event, but he jumped ahead of Eastgate in the POY standings. Demidov has a total of 4,940 points in 2008, and currently sits in fourth place on the leader board. Demidov was awarded 3,500 points and $5,809,595 for finishing in second place in the second-largest poker tournament of all time, but it wasn't the only WSOP main-event final table of the year for him. He also made the final table of the £10,000 WSOP Europe main event in October, where he finished in third place to take home 1,440 points and £334,850 in prize money. Demidov is now 470 points behind Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, who is in second place, and 1,684 points behind the current leader, John Phan. Two other players who jumped into the POY fray after the conclusion of the world championship were Scott Montgomery, who finished in fifth place at the final table (1,750 points and $3,096,768) to jump up to 19th place, and Dennis Phillips, who finished in third place at the final table (2,800 points and $4,517,773) to move to 41st place.

"The Dragon" Remains on Fire

David Pham also rocketed up the POY standings by finishing third at the 2008 Foxwoods World Poker Finals and adding 1,200 points to his total. The 2007 Player of the Year victor, with his 10th final-table cash of the year, moved from seventh place into third. Had Pham won the event, which was captured by now two-time World Poker Tour champion Jonathan Little, he would have been only 282 points shy of first. Pham seemingly is always in the hunt for the POY crown. He finished runner-up to Daniel Negreanu in 2004, and 12th in 2006. With a strong late-season run, The Dragon could add a second POY crown to his trophy room.



Multiple Players Pick Up 1,000 Points

Six players picked up more than 1,000 points at the Caesars Palace Classic in Las Vegas and the EPT Hungarian Open in Budapest, Hungary, for finishing in the top three of those events. Those six players included Hevad Khan (first - 1,860), Michael Kamran (second - 1,550), and Gary Friedlander (third - 1,240) at Caesars Palace, and William Fry (first - 1,920), Ciprian Hrisca (second - 1,600), and Martin Jacobsen (third - 1,280) in Budapest.

While winning 1,000 points is a nice first step for each of these players, it is most likely too little and too late for them to catch leader John Phan and his 6,704 points. One player who does have a shot from this group is Khan, who brought his point total to 2,616 for the year, and currently sits in 47th place in the standings after the first major tournament win of his career. Khan has cashed 10 times in 2008 and has made three final-table appearances. His first tournament win of the year came when he took down a $2,000 no-limit hold'em preliminary event at the Foxwoods Poker Classic in late March. One more major-tournament win would put him in the top five.

Online Player of the Year



While Alex "AJKHoosier1" is still leading the race by a fairly wide margin, he now has an opponent gaining speed behind him. Steve "gboro780" Gross vaulted into second place on the leader board after having an incredible Sunday when he made the final table of three major events, two of which he took down. That night netted him 1,440 OPOY points (equivalent to a win in the PokerStars Sunday Million) and put him into contention for the title with a month to go. Nevertheless, Gross trails Kamberis by a daunting total of almost 2,000 points.

Look Out: Will Failla

The gregarious, boisterous, and, well … let's face it, loud Will "The Thrill" Failla has been a fan favorite on the tournament circuit for the last two years. He may not have an off button for his in-your-face persona, but it turns out that he can more than put his money where his mouth is.

In 2007, Failla finished 27th in Card Player's Player of the Year (POY) race, making six final tables and cashing for more than $600,000. This year, he has continued to put up impressive numbers, making eight final tables and vaulting himself over the $1 million mark in lifetime earnings.

"It was actually a big plateau for me because, generally speaking, a lot of these guys have been around for 10 to 15 years," said Failla. "I've been in the game for only three, two of them as a professional."

Failla recently topped the 128-player field at the Caesars Palace heads-up tournament to add to his POY points. "The biggest advantage I have in heads-up play is that I don't have to study nine other guys at the table," he said. "I can concentrate on one person at a time and change things up as needed. A big part of my game is sizing people up. I'm not really a numbers type of player. I mean, I know the numbers, having worked in real estate and the stock market all of my life, but that's not really the way I play cards. I can see when someone wants a call or wants me to go away, and I can use that to my advantage."

When asked how he would fare against NBC heads-up champion Chris "Jesus" Ferguson in a heads-up match, Failla half-jokingly responded, "He's got nothing on me. He's got no shot to beat me. My field was twice as big!"

Despite his million-dollar accomplishment, Failla looks forward to the day when he can boast about being the best. "You know, it's funny; last year at this time I was 11th in the world and I really got into it. I was running around the country, chasing POY points. The money is good, but it comes and goes. Winning Player of the Year is definitely a future goal of mine, because that would cement my name forever. Later in life, I'd like to be able to say to my son, Torre, 'Look at this. Twenty-five years ago, your father was … the man!' I guess it's that Italian ego coming out of me."