Player of the Year

Bellagio Cup V Awards Thousands of Player of the Year Points
Alexandre Gomes Vaults Into the Top 10

Two players walked away from the $15,000 World Poker Tour no-limit hold’em championship event at the Bellagio Cup V with at least 1,000 Player of the Year (POY) points each, and each player who made the final table received hundreds at the final big buy-in tournament of the summer in Las Vegas. The Bellagio Cup V attracted 268 players, creating a prize pool of $3,899,400. The first-place prize was $1,187,670, and there were 1,350 POY points up for grabs for first place.

Alexandre Gomes won the event (his first WPT title) and the 1,350 points; his total for 2009 now stands at 2,850. He is currently in ninth place on the POY leader board, just 10 points ahead of Jude Ainsworth and 150 points behind 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) winner Poorya Nazari. Gomes’ other points, 1,500, came from the PCA final table, where he finished in fourth place to kick-start his strong year. Nazari has made two final tables, earned $1,937,670, and won one tournament on the year. Gomes now also holds the distinction of winning both World Series of Poker and WPT titles.

Faraz Jaka racked up 1,080 points for his runner-up finish at Bellagio, and now has 2,360 points, which is good for 27th place. He picked up his other points in event No. 56 ($5,000 six-handed no-limit hold’em) at the WSOP, where he was awarded $400,526 and 1,280 points for finishing in third place. He has tournament winnings of $1,175,396 in 2009.

Here is a full breakdown of the POY points awarded from the Bellagio Cup V final table:
1. Alexandre Gomes – 1,350
2. Faraz Jaka – 1,080
3. Justin Smith – 810
4. Alec Torelli – 675
5. Christopher Sonesson – 540
6. Erik Seidel – 405

Eric Baldwin Closes in on Player of the Year Lead
Eric Baldwin made the final table of the $1,000 no-limit hold’em championship at the Mega Stack Series at Caesars Palace. He finished in seventh place and took home $23,935 in prize money. He also was awarded 240 points, bringing his second-place total up to 4,300. He now sits just 37 points behind the leader, Vitaly Lunkin. Baldwin has won $1,053,827 in POY events in 2009, and has made four final tables.

Baldwin won the bulk of his points with three separate 1,000-point scores, dating back to April. His first came at The Venetian’s Deep-Stack Extravaganza II, where he won a $2,500 no-limit hold’em event, which was good for 1,008 points. The other two came at the World Series of Poker, where he captured his first gold bracelet and 1,440 points for winning event No. 34 ($1,500 no-limit hold’em), and then finished in third place in event No. 45 ($10,000 pot-limit hold’em world championship), for another 1,120 points. Baldwin also has had a successful year on the virtual felt in 2009, where he has totaled 1,602 points in the Card Player Online Player of the Year race.

Mike Leah Jumps Back Into the Top 10
Mike Leah re-emerged in the top 10 after an absence of a few weeks. He won a $1,000 no-limit hold’em event at The Venetian’s Deep-Stack Extravaganza III, for $119,956 in prize money and 960 points. That win put him in sixth place in the POY standings (3,052 points), and was a nice way to end a relatively quiet summer. Leah now has two tournament titles on the year (his other win was in the Borgata’s $500,000-guaranteed no-limit hold’em event in March), and has made six final tables. He has won $647,749 in prize money in POY events in 2009.