Player of the Year - Player of the Year Top 10 Features a Collection of Pros and Fresh Faces

The early part of the tournament year has produced a Player of the Year (POY) top 10 that features both big-name professionals and new names. The leader and runner-up come from the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event early in January. Leader Galen Hall has 3,000 Player of the Year points, and Chris Oliver is second with 2,500. Two other players in the top 10, Anton Ionel (2,000 points) and Sam Stein (1,500 points), also earned their points at the PCA, but the other six players in the top 10 landed their positions with fine performances in other tournaments in January.

The Aussie Millions tournament series dominated the second half of January. The $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia, attracted 721 players and created a prize pool in excess of $7 million. David Gorr won the tournament and $2 million AUD. The Victoria, Australia, resident also captured 2,400 POY points, and is in third place in the standings. James Keys was the runner-up in that main event, and was awarded 2,000 points, which puts him in a tie for fourth place. Australian Jeffrey Rossiter snagged third place in the main event, which was good for 1,600 points and a tie for seventh place in the standings.

Another player made the top 10 of the POY standings as a result of his total body of work during January. Erik Seidel became the 2011 leading money winner ($3,457,267) when he won the $250,000 super high-roller event at the Aussie Millions. His first tournament win of the year came at his fourth final table. Just four days before this win, Seidel took third place in the $100,000 Challenge. His two other final tables came at the PCA, where he finished fourth in the $25,000 high-roller event and third in the $5,000 pot-limit Omaha championship. He has 1,452 points, which is good for 10th place in the standings.

Here is a look at the 2011 Aussie Millions main-event final-table results:

The European Poker Tour hosted its first tournament in late January in Deauville, France. The €5,000 no-limit hold’em main event attracted a record field of 891 players. Frenchman Lucien Cohen won the tournament, $1.2 million in prize money, and 1,920 POY points. That puts him in sixth place in the standings. Swedish professional Martin Jacobson was the runner-up, which was good for $762,185 and 1,600 points. That puts him in a tie for seventh place in the standings with Rossiter.

Here are the 2011 EPT Deauville main-event final-table results: