Player of the Year

World Series Influences Player of the Year Race

There was no significant movement in the Card Player 2010 Player of the Year (POY) top 10 since the last issue, but Sirous Jamshidi advanced to 17th place in the standings and Neil Channing jumped up to 18th place. Jamshidi made the final table of the $10,000 seven-card stud world championship at the World Series of Poker. He finished in eighth place and won 150 points at his fifth final table of the year, which gives him a total of 2,090 points on the year.

Channing finished second in the $5,000 no-limit hold’em shootout at the WSOP and was awarded 1,440 POY points. When combined with the 640 points that he won earlier in the year in the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour main event in London, he now has 2,080 points and is just behind Jamshidi. Joshua Tieman captured 1,728 points for his victory over Channing in the $5,000 no-limit hold’em shootout, but trails the Irishman in the POY standings in 32nd place.

Praz Bansi picked up his second WSOP bracelet with a $1,500 no-limit hold’em event victory, which was good for 1,440 POY points, moving him into a tie for 49th place. WSOP event No. 3 ($1,000 no-limit hold’em) winner Aadam Daya also bagged 1,440 POY points with his victory. He now has 1,860 points for the year, thanks to a previous final-table appearance at the Fallsview Poker Classic in January; he currently holds down the 29th position in the standings.

A few days before this issue went to press, Pascal LeFrancois became the third 1,440-point winner at the WSOP when he topped 2,340 opponents to take home $568,974 along with his POY bounty. LeFrancois is now in a tie for 49th place in the POY standings.

WSOP Bracelet Winner POY Breakdown

Look Out: Mike Beasley

Mike Beasley, who lives in Hollywood, Florida, has been playing live-tournament poker since 2005. During his first five years on the felt, Beasley accumulated $209,251 in tournament earnings while cashing four times at the World Series of Poker and once on the World Poker Tour.

In 2010, the 46-year-old poker player has taken his career to the next level. His first tournament cash of the year was also his first tournament victory. He topped 451 opponents to take home $125,482 in a $1,000 no-limit hold’em event at the Borgata Winter Open. The win gave him 960 Card Player 2010 Player of the Year (POY) points, as well.

He logged a handful of cashes during the next two months, including a 91st-place finish in the PokerStars North American Poker Tour’s Venetian main event, before he made another big splash. In the NAPT Mohegan Sun main event, he advanced to the penultimate day of the tournament under the radar. He then stole the chip lead from Vanessa Selbst on the final hand of the night, and was the chip leader heading to the final table.

Selbst prevailed in the end, but Beasley was awarded $428,000 and 1,600 POY points for his runner-up finish; that cash is the biggest of his career. He continued his strong year after that with two more cashes at the Borgata Spring Poker Open in April.

He then traveled to New Orleans in May and played in the final WSOP Circuit event before the summer. He made another final table at the Bayou Poker Challenge, eventually capturing another second-place finish. He added $119,296 to his career tournament earnings, and won 640 POY points.

Beasley now has won $672,778 in 2010, and his 3,200 POY points put him in third place on the leader board. He is one of only five players who have accumulated 3,000 or more POY points during the first five months of the year, and if he can continue this early success at the WSOP, he will be a major POY contender for the rest of the year.

OPOY Spotlight: Mark “dipthrong” Herm

By Julio Rodriguez

The Card Player Online Player of the Year (OPOY) award honors the best tournament player across the major online sites in a given calendar year. Here, we take a look at one of the current top contenders.

In 2008, Mark “dipthrong” Herm had his breakout year, earning $596,596 and accumulating 6,934 OPOY (Online Player of the Year) points en route to an eighth-place finish overall. Given that success, it’s easy to understand why he was so disappointed with his 2009 campaign, in which he finished 232nd.

After 12 frustrating months on the virtual felt, he is now back in the winner’s circle and is once again contending for OPOY honors. Although we still have more than six months of play left in the competition, he already has racked up 4,410 points and earned $374,248 in OPOY-qualifying events.

Herm credits his success to his fearlessness at the table and his ability to continue to apply pressure. “I’m not worried too much about my tournament life,” he said. “People play scared when there is a lot of money up for grabs. I try to use that fear to abuse the various bubbles and put people in awkward spots for all of their chips.”

With that kind of mindset, it’s no wonder that Herm is challenging the world’s best for the top spot in the standings.

You can check out more about the 2010 OPOY race and leader board by visiting http://www.CardPlayer.com/poker-players/online-player-of-the-year.