Card Player Announces Changes For 2012 Player of the Year Formula

The Card Player Player of the Year award was started in 1997 and has since turned into one of poker’s highest honors. Past notable winners include T.J. Cloutier, Men Nguyen, Daniel Negreanu, Michael Mizrachi, David Pham, Eric Baldwin, Tom Marchese, Tony Ma, John Phan and most recently, Ben Lamb.

That being said, Card Player recognizes that the poker tournament landscape changed dramatically in 2011 thanks to a surge in international events. Just five years ago in 2006, the POY race featured just three non-American players in the top 25. This year, that number jumped to 11 and included representatives from countries such as England, the Ukraine, Russia, Germany, Italy, Romania, Sweden and France.

These developments have pushed Card Player to make adjustments to the Player of the Year formula in order to more accurately reflect the evolving international tournament circuit. The 2012 Card Player Player of the Year race sponsored by Lock Poker will be the first to implement the new criteria.

The Major Changes

1. The minimum buy-in has been increased from $300 to $500. Buy-ins are calculated with the entry fee, meaning that an event listed as $450+$50 will still qualify.

2. There are new multipliers for tournaments with larger buy-ins. Previously, there was no distinction between a $25,000 and a $100,000 tournament.

3. The minimum field size has been decreased from 60 to 50 entrants. Tournaments that generate a prize pool of over $250,000 will automatically qualify regardless of field size.

4. Everyone at the final table that finishes in the money will receive POY points. Field sizes of over 2,500 players will award POY points to the final three tables.

For a full breakdown of the 2012 formula, visit the Card Player Player of the Year rules page.

The End Result

Below, you’ll find a side-by-side comparison for the top 20 players in 2011 using both the old and new POY formula. As you can see, there is no change in the top two spots. Regardless of how you break it down, Ben Lamb was the clear winner in 2011.

You do begin to see some changes, however, when you take a look at the players who excelled in high roller events this season such as Erik Seidel, Sam Trickett and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier. A total of five events were played this year with buy-ins of at least $100,000. One event in Australia even boasted a $250,000 buy-in. Furthermore, high roller events continued to run on nearly every European stop, usually costing the players around €25,000 to enter.

Card Player is committed to ensuring that the best tournament players are recognized for their accomplishments year after year and we feel that the recent tweaks to the Player of the Year formula will more accurately produce a winner that is worthy of that honor.

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