Player of the Year

When the 40th-annual World Series of Poker began on May 28, Poorya Nazari led the Card Player 2009 Player of the Year (POY) race with 3,000 points. Nazari is now seventh in the standings, and he and Jude Ainsworth (eighth place) are the only two players who remain in the top 10 from the day when the $40,000 no-limit hold’em tournament kicked off the WSOP in Las Vegas.

New Leader (Vitaly Lunkin): This rising Russian star won the $40,000 no-limit hold’em tournament, banking $1,891,012 in prize money, the biggest score of his career. He also was awarded 1,440 POY points, which, combined with the 1,008 points he earned from his victory in the Russian Poker Tour event in Moscow, gave him a base of 2,448 points from which to make his move on the POY lead. He then went on to book one of the most impressive performances of the WSOP. He cashed four times in all and made three final tables while earning $2,696,306. He finished runner-up in the $10,000 pot-limit Omaha world championship to win $419,832 and 1,500 points, and then just missed winning his second prestigious title of the summer when he finished in fourth place in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. world championship (360 points).

Lunkin now has won more money playing tournament poker in 2009 than any other player in the world. His cashes amount to $3,140,037. He has a total of 4,337 POY points, which leads second-place contender Eric Baldwin by 277 points.

New Challengers: In addition to the aforementioned Baldwin, there are several intriguing challengers in the POY top 10 at this point. While it remains unclear if Angel Guillen (third) and Cornel Cimpan (fourth) will play in enough tournaments during the remainder of the year to challenge, it’s a sure bet that double-bracelet winner Brock Parker and triple-bracelet winner Jeffrey Lisandro will play in many high-stakes tournaments around the globe. Lisandro also has the internal inspiration provided by his lack of having a sponsorship deal to prove that he is one of the best players on the planet. Motivation during the course of the year has proven itself to be a strong ally during the closing months of the POY battle.

Nazari and Ainsworth are still in the hunt for the POY title, but may have remained stagnant in the standings for too long to get anything going now. Rounding out the top 10 are Jon Turner (ninth) and James Van Alstyne (10th). Each of them is fewer than 1,600 points behind the current leader, and one large score would make either of them a worthy challenger for the lead. Van Alstyne has been a contender in the POY race well into the year once before, as he finished in ninth place in 2007. Experience has proven to be as important a factor as motivation during the final months of the race.