Player of the Year

Carter Phillips Becomes Newest Player of the Year Candidate
Now that the PokerStars EPT Barcelona tournament is officially in the books, it’s time to survey its effect upon the Card Player 2009 Player of the Year (POY) race.

Surprisingly, it wasn’t just the main event that affected the standings. Before rising up to capture the championship, Carter Phillips also finished third in event No. 1 of the tournament. That score was good for just $23,000 of the $1,235,000 that he banked in total, but the POY points were enough to boost Phillips into 16th place overall. It’s going to take a lot more overseas success for Phillips to compete, however, inasmuch as he’s only 20 years old.

That same preliminary event was chopped heads up by Jason Mercier and Dag Martin Mikkelsen. Mercier picked up 320 points and continued his climb up the leader board, settling in 39th place overall.

The biggest movement from anyone in the top 10 came from L.A. Poker Classic champion Cornel Andrew Cimpan. The Texan made a deep run in the championship event, just missing the final table with a 10th-place finish. Had he made the top four, he once again would have taken the POY lead. Instead, he’ll have to settle for third place overall.

Marc Goodwin’s second-place finish to Phillips was his second runner-up performance in a main event this year. The first was at the PartyPoker.com European Open V, where he earned $100,000. This year alone, Goodwin has won more than $860,000 and is now 35th in the POY standings.

Elsewhere, the Partouche Poker Tour took a page from the World Series of Poker and decided to postpone its final table until late November. Actual “November Nine” member Antoine Saout went deep and was a threat to make his second delayed final table, but he was ultimately busted by current chip leader and Full Tilt pro Michael Tureniac.

At the WPT Merit Cyprus Classic, a stacked final table was shaping up, headlined by Layne Flack, Jonathan Little, Huck Seed, and Nenad Medic. Instead, all four players missed the final six spots, allowing tournament pro Rep Porter and rising newcomer Steven Fung to take the spotlight.

A total of 19 POY-eligible tournaments are scheduled to take place from now until the end of the year, and more than a few of them will feature million-dollar prize pools.

Be sure to catch all of the live-tournament action coming down the homestretch on CardPlayer.com.

Look Out: Jens Kyllonen
Jens Kyllonen broke onto the poker scene when he won the 2009 PokerStars European Poker Tour Copenhagen main event. The young Finn was awarded €878,057 in prize money, which was a long way from where his bankroll began. When asked about his start in the game, Kyllonen admitted that he started playing for the lowest stakes possible. “I started with freerolls when I was 17, and built a big enough bankroll to jump into cash games.”

He now plays high-stakes no-limit hold’em cash games online, and has begun to mix in some pot-limit Omaha, as well. Although he plays primarily online, Kyllonen has accumulated $1,220,330 in lifetime winnings in less than a year of playing live-tournament poker.

He enjoys playing in live tournaments occasionally, mainly to work on his reads. “I just play by my reads. Some of the people are weak-tight, and some of them are really loose. I avoid playing with the good players, and attack just the weaker players. I do play really loose at the beginning to try to build a big stack,” he said.

His success in live events in a short period of time speaks for itself. In addition to his EPT win, Kyllonen cashed in the World Poker Tour Venice main event in May, and most recently made a deep run in the season-six EPT Barcelona main event. He finished 12th out of 479 players to take home €40,000. He has 2,040 Card Player 2009 Player of the Year points, which puts him in 45th place in the current standings.

His latest success also has helped the young Scandinavian’s confidence grow. “Of course, a win helps, in a way. When you win one, no one believes, as they think you just got lucky, but when you go deep in another, it vindicates the win,” said Kyllonen.