Player of the Year

NAPT L.A. Bounty Shootout Event Increases the Lead for Marchese

The PokerStars North American Poker Tour Los Angeles $5,000 no-limit hold’em bounty shootout event attracted many of the biggest names in poker to its 81-player field recently, but it came down to a showdown between two friends to determine the winner. Reigning Card Player Player of the Year Eric Baldwin defeated Justin Young heads up to take home the top prize of $157,280 and 384 Player of the Year (POY) points. Young was awarded $26,000 and 320 points as the runner-up.

This tournament was important in the 2010 POY race because Thomas Marchese finished in fifth place to add 160 points to his point total. At the time of this writing, he had 6,486 points and led the race by 910 points over Dwyte Pilgrim (5,576) heading into the final month of the year.

The last major POY scoring opportunities in December included the $10,000 World Poker Tour Five-Diamond World Poker Classic, the €5,300 PokerStars European Poker Tour Prague main event, and the $10,000 World Series of Poker Circuit Eastern Regional Championship event.

EPT Barcelona Awards Thousands of POY Points Despite Thanksgiving Schedule

The 2010 PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona €5,300 no-limit hold’em main event was a testament to the international popularity of poker. Despite the majority of the tournament taking place during Thanksgiving weekend, which resulted in low attendance from U.S. players (38 participated), the tournament still attracted a large field of 758 players and created a prize pool of €3,790,000.

The champion was 22-year-old Swedish player Kent Lundmark. He banked the top prize of €825,000 and became the sixth Swedish player in history to win an EPT title. He also won 1,920 POY points, but it’s a little late in the game to make a run at the POY title, considering that the major contenders have more than 5,000 points. There were two other players who made four-figure POY scores in Spain — runner-up Jesus Cortes Lizano (1,600 points) and third-place finisher Konstantin Puchkov (1,280 points). ♠