Player of the Year

A multitude of Player of the Year (POY) points were awarded at the various large events that took place in London early in October. Here is a quick overview of their ramifications on the Card Player 2009 Player of the Year race.

The World Series of Poker Europe main-event final table was one of the most exciting final tables of the year, and it awarded a ton of POY points. The 1,920 points for first place went to the eventual champion, Card Player Publisher Barry Shulman. That gives Shulman 2,535 points for the year, which puts him in 27th place in the current standings. Shulman picked up the other large chunk of his points when he finished fifth in event No. 14 ($2,500 six-handed no-limit hold’em) of the 2009 WSOP, for 555 points.

Daniel Negreanu finished runner-up to Shulman in London, which was good for 1,650 points. Negreanu made a huge leap up the leader board with the cash, moving in to seventh position with 3,342 points. He accumulated 1,692 points this summer at the WSOP, where he cashed three times and made two final tables. Negreanu won the Player of the Year award in 2004, and he will become the fourth repeat winner if he prevails in 2009, joining Men “The Master” Ngyuen, T.J. Cloutier, and David “The Dragon” Pham in that exclusive club.

Jason Mercier continued his impressive 2009 by using a fourth-place finish in the WSOP Europe main event to climb up the standings. He was awarded 990 points there, which took his total to 3,171. Just four days later, he made another score when he won a no-limit hold’em preliminary event at the PokerStars European Poker Tour London. With this victory, he won an additional 540 points and jumped into fourth position on the leader board with 3,711 points. It was the eighth time in 2009 that Mercier has captured POY points; his largest single score prior to London came when he won event No. 5 ($1,500 pot-limit Omaha) of the WSOP, for 960 points.

Erik Cajelais performed well in London by finishing runner-up in the EPT London high-roller event. He was awarded 480 points, which brings his total to 1,056 for the year. He previously won event No. 2 of the WSOP Europe, for 576 points and his first gold bracelet. Matt Glantz won the high-roller event to capture 576 points and grow his 2009 total to 1,070. Glantz has quietly put together an impressive display of consistency in 2009 at the largest events in poker. He cashed in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, the World Poker Tour Championship, the $40,000 no-limit hold’em event at the WSOP, and two $10,000 world championship events at the WSOP.

The biggest winner at the EPT London was the champion of the no-limit
hold’em main event, Aaron Gustavson. He was awarded 1,920 points and $1,354,042 in prize money after defeating WSOP Champion Peter Eastgate heads up for the title. Gustavson climbed to 35th place (2,358) in the standings with the win, but Eastgate climbed even higher; he is now in 14th place in the standings with 2,896 points. Eastgate’s other large score came early in 2009 when he won a preliminary no-limit hold’em event at the PCA, for 1,296 points.

Even with the abundance of movement that took place in London recently, everyone is still chasing the man at the top, Yevgeniy Timoshenko. The current POY leader had a fair showing in London, as well, as he added to his lead by finishing 25th in the WSOP Europe main event. Timoshenko now has 5,463 points and has won $3,944,513. Both amounts lead all poker players in 2009, thus far.

Look Out: J.P. Kelly
John Paul Kelly has made two final tables in 2009, and each time, he walked away with a World Series of Poker gold bracelet. He made his first final table of the year this summer in Las Vegas, where he emerged from a field of 633 players to win event No. 20 ($1,500 pot-limit Omaha) of the WSOP, $194,434 in prize money, and 960 Card Player 2009 Player of the Year points. It was the first major live-tournament win for Kelly, who has been cashing in live and online tournaments since 2006.

The 23-year-old English professional poker player captured his second win of 2009 a little closer to home. He won the first event of the WSOP Europe in late September, for his second gold bracelet, topping a field of 608 players to win $225,535 and another 960 points. Kelly made history with his second bracelet win, becoming the first British player to win a bracelet at the WSOP Europe. He has a total of 1,920 POY points for the year, and currently sits in 71st place in the standings.

Kelly is also a force in the online world, where he plays under the screen name “MavFish.” He has cashed a dozen times online this year; his biggest win came in February, when he won a $150,000-guaranteed no-limit hold’em event on Absolute Poker, for $53,560 and 480 Card Player Online Player of the Year (OPOY) points. Kelly has a total of 1,532 OPOY points for the year, and if history is an indicator, he is not done racking up online winnings and points in 2009. He has cashed more than 30 times online during his career.