Player of the Year

The same final table delivers the most powerful punch every year during the Card Player Player of the Year (POY) race, and it comes as no surprise that it’s the World Series of Poker main-event final table. World Champion Joseph Cada won the largest cash prize in poker this year, and he also claimed the largest number of POY points, 3,600.

This is the first POY cash of the year for Cada, but it is so large that it has vaulted him into eighth place on the leader board. The runner-up in the main event, Darvin Moon, had not scored any POY points in 2009, either, but he earned enough points at the Rio (3,000) to jump into a tie for 16th place with PokerStars Caribbean Adventure winner Poorya Nazari.

Close behind Moon in the standings is the third-place finisher in the main event, Frenchman Antoine Saout, who scored 2,400 points for his impressive final-table performance. Saout now has 2,895 points total, which is good for 20th place on the leader board. He grabbed his 495 other points when he finished seventh in the WSOP Europe main event in October.

The fourth “November Nine” player to capture a spot in the top 30 after the main-event final table was Phil Ivey, who finished in seventh place and earned 900 points. Ivey now has 2,808 points and is in 23rd place in the standings. His overall total has more to do with the two bracelets that he won during the summer. He won event No. 8 ($2,500 no-limit deuce-to-seven lowball) to capture 540 points, and event No. 25 ($2,500 Omaha eight-or-better/seven-card stud eight-or-better) for another 1,368 points.

WPT World Poker Finals Vaults Two Players Into the Top Five
The World Poker Tour World Poker Finals $10,000 no-limit hold’em championship at Foxwoods Resort Casino may not have gotten as much attention as the WSOP main-event final table, but it had major POY implications.

Cornel Cimpan captured his second 2009 WPT title, topping a field of 353 players to win $910,058 and 2,100 points. He now has 5,670 points and sits in second place behind current leader Eric Baldwin. Just 228 points separate the two contenders at this late stage of the year, setting up an exciting dash to the finish.

Cimpan captured his first WPT title back in February, when he won the L.A. Poker Classic to take home 2,400 points. Other highlights of his breakout year include his first WSOP final-table finish (fourth place in a $2,500 pot-limit hold’em/Omaha event – 720 points), and a deep run in the European Poker Tour Barcelona main event (10th place – 120 points). He is also closing in on $3 million in tournament winnings in 2009, and is one of just nine players who have won more than $2 million in tournaments this year.

Finishing in second place at Foxwoods was professional Soheil Shamseddin, who earned $463,332 and 1,750 points. This POY score was the largest of the year for Shamseddin, but not his first. He has booked POY winnings on nine different occasions during the year, and thanks to that consistency, he now has 4,085 points total, which is good for fifth place in the standings. His biggest POY score before the World Poker Finals came at the WPT final table that he made in January. He finished third in the Southern Poker Championship, for 1,120 points.

Look Out: Luke Vrabel
Poised to Dominate Live Tournaments After Three-Year Online Run
By Julio Rodriguez

Luke Vrabel, otherwise known by his online handles “Bdbeatslayer” and “magikstick8,” has been the most consistent player in the Card Player Online Player of the Year race since its inception in 2007. That year, he finished in seventh place, earning more than $540,000 from the comfort of his own home. In 2008, he finished in ninth place and picked up $555,000 in the process. So far in 2009, he sits in 30th place and has earned more than $546,000.

So, why the drop off in the standings? Well, Vrabel has spent the year venturing more and more outside of his home, playing big tournaments across the country and trying to make a name for himself on the live circuit.

The West Hartford, Connecticut, resident has done well in Las Vegas, scoring four cashes at the World Series of Poker and following that up with his first live-tournament victory at the Caesars Palace Classic. He took down event No. 14, a $1,000 no-limit hold’em tournament, and was awarded $24,792 for his efforts. A week later, he parlayed that success into a deep main-event run, where a coin flip gone awry saw him just miss the final table in 11th place.

Although he notoriously shies away from interviews, Vrabel is boisterous and hilarious at the tables, and no doubt enjoys his occasional time away from his mouse. With more than $1.8 million in tournament winnings, all on his own dime with no backers, it’s difficult to stamp the “up-and-comer” label on him, but with some more time spent on the live circuit, it’s easy to see why he will soon be a force in the Player of the Year standings.