Player of the Year

Eric Baldwin Passes 6,000-Point Mark While Four Contenders Nip at His Heels
Eric Baldwin became the only player to have at least 6,000 points in the Card Player 2009 Player of the Year (POY) race when he finished in third place in a $1,000 no-limit hold’em event at the World Poker Finals recently and won 160 POY points. His 15th final-table appearance of the year (the most of any poker player in 2009) gave him 6,058 points total. Cornel Cimpan is close behind with 5,670 points, and Yevgeniy Timoshenko is within striking distance with 5,463.

With just 595 points separating the top three players in the race, there is still enough time for anything to happen among them, and nothing is decided just yet.

Two other players who are still a threat, although they will need a major-tournament victory to jump into first place, are Vitaly Lunkin and Soheil Shamseddin. December will be a busy month for all of these top contenders, considering their proximity in the standings. Baldwin is still the player to beat, but he will probably sleep a little easier if he can book another cash or two and move his point total closer to the 6,704 points that John Phan accumulated last year to win the 2008 POY title.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t notice when any of those guys go out of these big tournaments,” said Baldwin. “There are so many amazing players that a couple big scores could put them in front of me. I’m trying to fade that.”

Last Chance for Large POY Scores
The last half of December will be crunch time for the top five players in the POY standings. Whoever is leading the race in late December will be waiting for the final POY contender to bust out of the World Poker Tour Five-Diamond World Poker Classic, so that he can finally exhale and enjoy his hard-fought victory. Here is a look at the remaining tournaments of the year that will have a large number of POY points available:

Dec. 11-15 PokerStars UK and Ireland Poker Tour Irish Poker Championship €2,000 no-limit hold’em
Dec. 12 Grand Sierra Resort Winter Pot of Gold $1,000 no-limit hold’em
Dec. 13-15 World Series of Poker Circuit, Harrah’s Atlantic City $5,000 no-limit hold’em
Dec. 14-19 World Poker Tour Five-Diamond World Poker Classic $15,000 no-limit hold’em

Look Out:Joseph Serock
Joseph Serock has had a pretty good year in tournaments in 2009. He has cashed in 11 live events, earning 2,350 Player of the Year points in the process. He has had a good year online, as well, where he has cashed 12 times under the screen name “floes.” He has earned 2,046 Card Player Online Player of the Year points, which puts him in a pretty exclusive 2,000-2,000 club, and makes him a dangerous threat in both the live and online arenas.

Serock made a splash at the World Series of Poker this summer, where he racked up $439,675 in tournament winnings. He cashed five times at the Rio, including a 145th-place finish in the $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event. His highest finish came when he busted out in the runner-up position behind Brock Parker in event No. 19 ($2,500 six-handed no-limit hold’em). He took home $341,783 for that performance, the largest score of his career.

After the World Series, Serock went on to cash four more times in the live-tournament arena, including three more final-table appearances. He has now made five final tables in 2009, and it wouldn’t be a surprise to see his first live-tournament title come in 2010. He already has accomplished that feat online. He won the PokerStars Sunday 500 in July 2009. He topped a field of 1,092 players to bank the top prize of $98,820, his largest cash online.