Player of the Year Update

With only a few months remaining in the year, the Card Player Player of the Year race is really heating up. One player having an incredible 2011 on the international poker circuit is German pro Marvin Rettenmaier. He won $332,470 for taking down the France Poker Series’s main event, a €2,000 buy-in that drew 567 players. He also outlasted a 235-player field at the Golden Nugget’s $1,080 Grand Poker Series championship event.

More than any single victory, it has been consistency that has defined Rettenmaier’s year. He has cashed 18 times so far, making nine final tables. He has year-to-date earnings of $625,693 with with only one six-figure score and twelve five-figure paydays. He may not be the biggest earner of the year, but Rettenmaier is tied for the most final tables with Erik Seidel.

While Seidel is clearly having an incredible year, cashing for $6.275 million, he has done so in the highest buy-in events with small, elite fields. The average field size that Rettenmaier has cashed in is 887 players, more than four times Seidel’s average field size of 221 in events in which he cashed. Seidel’s tournament earnings are roughly ten times more than Rettenmaier’s, but he has also invested substantially more in buy-ins. In the events they’ve cashed in, Seidel’s average buy-in was $37,747.25, while Rettenmaier’s was just $2,883.38.

France, WPT POY Factors

In 2010, the Partouche Poker Tour main event was a massive event with big POY implications. Vanessa Selbst took home $1.8 million, the title and 2400 POY points for her win. This year promises to be just as crucial to this year’s POY race. 570 players registered for the €8,500 buy-in main event, but now only nine remain. In an homage to the World Series of Poker’s November Nine, this final table will also be delayed until November 12th. Big payouts and a lot of points are on the line, with some key Player of the Year contenders making the final table.

Here are the final table payouts and POY points that will be awarded:

1st €1,000,000 2,400 POY points
2nd €600,000 2,000 POY points
3rd €379,760 1,600 POY points
4th €300,000 1,200 POY points
5th €230,000 1,000 POY points
6th €190,000 800 POY points
7th €160,000 600 POY points
8th €130,000 400 POY points
9th €100,000 200 POY points

When play resumes in November, British pro Sam Trickett will be the chip leader with 2.6 million in chips. Trickett has had an impressive 2011 so far, cashing for $3,127,499 in POY qualifying events this year, and has earned 1,136 points. This is only good enough for 247th place in the POY race currently, but he stands to move as high as 12th with a victory in November.

Ukrainian Oleksil Kovalchuk is also in a great position to move up in the POY standings as a result of making this final table. Kovalchuk enters the final table in seventh position with 1.6 million in chips. He currently sits in eighth place in the Player of the Year race, with three titles won and $1,044,496 in winnings in 2011. Kovalchuk has a great shot at a lot more money and POY points come November 12th.

The World Poker Tour also crowned two new champions in the past weeks. The 2011 WPT Borgata Poker Open set a record for the tour, with a huge turnout of 1,313 entrants putting up the $3,500 buy-in. The massive field created a $4,332,900 prize pool and a $922,441 first place prize, which was captured by Bobby Oboodi, along with 1,800 POY points.

As part of continuing expansion on the World Poker Tour, the inaugural WPT Malta was unveiled this year at the Portomaso Casino. The €3,300 event attracted a 240 player field, building a $965,388 prize pool. The eventual champion was none other than November Niner Matt Giannetti, who won this title just over a month before play resumes at the 2011 World Series of Poker main event. For his victory Giannetti earned $276,457 and 864 POY points, which is good for 423rd place overall, but with at least 300 more points guaranteed for his finish in the WSOP main event and as many as 3,600 points within his reach, Giannetti could become a big threat in the 2011 POY race. ♠