Player of the Year

The Card Player 2009 Player of the Year (POY) race is so close that just the smallest of cashes can have far-reaching effects. Recent weeks are a prime example of that, with a new leader emerging without the luxury of a major victory.

Eric Baldwin played in a few of the preliminary tournaments at the Legends of Poker in August, and he made the final table of a $1,000 no-limit hold’em event. It was his eighth final table of the year, and he finished in third place. He was awarded $16,120 and, more importantly, 288 POY points. Those points were enough to thrust him into first place on the POY leader board.

Major POY Points Awarded on Three Continents

Three of the largest poker tours on the tournament circuit awarded more than 1,000 points to champions recently. The Asian Poker Tour main event in Macau was won by Frenchman Adrien Allain, who took home $391,603 and 1,188 POY points.

The PokerStars European Poker Tour main event in Kiev was won by Maxim Lykov, who captured $473,088 and 1,440 points. He is in a good position to make a run at the POY top 10, as he now holds 2,336 points and sits in 31st place. He picked up the other chunk of his points when he finished in third place in event No. 41 (the $5,000 no-limit hold’em shootout) at the World Series of Poker.

The World Poker Tour Legends of Poker championship event was won by Prahlad Friedman, who was awarded $1,009,000 and 1,690 points, and he jumped to 80th place in the standings. It was the second tournament cash of the year for Friedman, who finished in 64th place in the WSOP main event. He now holds both a WSOP bracelet and a WPT title.

The Legends of Poker tournament was also a boon to many other players in the POY race, helping them to move up in the standings. “November Nine” member Kevin Schaffel was awarded 1,400 points for his second-place finish, and he could emerge as a major contender if he wins or finishes in the top three in the WSOP main event in early November.

Todd Terry finished in third place and took home 1,120 points. That took his points total to 2,716 for the year, putting him in 13th place. Terry’s first big cash of the year came all the way back in January, when he was the runner-up in the Borgata Winter Open championship event and picked up 1,500 points. Peter Rho captured a small number of points (42) for his 24th-place finish in L.A., but they were enough for him to secure 16th place in the standings with 2,642 points on the year. Most of Rho’s points came from runner-up finishes in the Aussie Millions main event (1,600) and event No. 11 ($2,000 no-limit hold’em) of the WSOP (1,000).