Player of the Year Update

Some recognizable names booked big wins on the tournament circuit as summer came to an end, making big gains in the 2011 Card Player Player of the Year race.

At the Bicycle Casino’s World Poker Tour Legends of Poker main event, one of poker’s standout characters booked his biggest win to date. Will Failla, known as “The Thrill” at the tables for his talkative and energetic presence, had built up more than $2 million in lifetime earnings heading into the $3,700 buy-in event. Despite his years of experience on the tournament circuit, he lacked a marquee win.

All of that changed when he took down this massive WPT title for a career-best $758,085. Failla topped the 757-player field and a final table that featured World Series of Poker bracelet-winners Ken Aldrige and Owais Ahmed. Notable pros Ray Henson, James Carroll, and David Daneshgar also made deep runs, but fell just short of the six-handed final table. After the win, Failla jumped into 15th place in Card Player’s 2011 Player of the Year race with 3,046 points. So far this year, Failla has made five final tables, cashing for $1,117,295. Ahmed also climbed the leader board as a result of his sixth-place finish, adding to an already stellar year that included a World Series of Poker bracelet-win this summer in a $2,500 Omaha eight-or-better/seven-card stud eight-or-better event and a fourth-place finish in the $50,000 Players Championship. He now sits in 25th place with 2,412 POY points and $816,154 in earnings for the year.

Here are the final-table results and POY points awarded:

While Failla was winning in Los Angeles, the European Poker Tour Barcelona main event set the record for the largest poker tournament in Spain with 811 players putting up the €5,300 buy-in. With a €4,055,000 prize pool and tons of POY points up for grabs, plenty of big names turned out. Martin Schleich was the eventual champion, earning himself 1,920 POY points in addition to the trophy, the title, and the first prize of €850,000. The win catapulted him into 57th place on the POY leader board.

The next-biggest story, behind the record-setting field and the eventual champion, undoubtedly was the third-place finish of one of 2011’s strongest performers, Eugene Katchalov.

The Ukrainian-born pro finished third, cashing for €315,000 and jumping from 22nd place on the POY leader board with 2,768 all the way up to third place, behind PokerStars Caribbean Adventure champ Galen Hall and current leader Sam Stein. Katchalov’s third-place finish was yet another great accomplishment in an already impressive year. He now has made six final tables in 2011, including wins in the PCA $100,000 super-high-roller event and in a World Series of Poker $1,500 seven-card stud event for his first gold bracelet. Heading into the Barcelona event, Katchalov already had cashed for an incredible $1,996,730 in 2011, and this finish brought his earnings for the year to just under $2.5 million.

Here are the final-table results and POY points awarded:

Here’s a look at the current POY standings.