Player of the Year Update -- Shawn Cunix and Christopher Bonn Win Big

The 2012 Card Player Player of the Year race sponsored by Lock Poker had another busy week, with massive payouts and tons of POY points awarded. Here are the most significant results from the past week:

World Poker Tour Jacksonville BestBet Open

After a roller coaster final table, Shawn Cunix emerged as the last player standing in the 2012 World Poker Tour Jacksonville BestBet Open main event, earning the title, the $400,000 first-place prize and 672 POY points.

The $5,000 buy-in WPT main event attracted 320 players, building a prize pool of $1.5 million.

Cunix had to deal with a stacked final table, including prior WPT winner and Player of the Year contender Will “The Thrill” Failla. “The Thrill” entered the final six in third chip position, but after losing some big pots, including folding two pair to a massive bluff from Cunix, Failla was ultimately eliminated in sixth place, earning $54,704 and 224 POY points for his strong showing.

This was Failla’s fifth final table finish so far this year, and as a result he has moved into 19th place in the overall standings with 1,610 points and year-to-date earnings of $465,170. Failla now has lifetime tournaments earnings in excess of $3.5 million.

Other notables at the final table include runner-up James Caleraro, Darren Elias, Daniel Buzgon and Tony Dunst, who works as an analyst for the WPT doing segments for their television broadcasts and the commentary during their live-streaming broadcasts of their final tables. This marked the first time since taking up the role of commentator that Dunst was unable to fulfill his duties as a result of making the final table. Unable to find any traction, Dunst ultimately finished in fifth place for $66,532 and 280 points.

World Series of Poker Circhuit Chester Main Event

Christopher Bonn has won the 2012 World Series of Poker Circuit Chester main event, earning his first gold ring, the $109,760 first prize and 480 POY points.

A total of 321 players posted the $1,600 buy-in for this main event, building a $467,055 total prize pool.

Bonn entered the final table as one of the shorter stacks, but was able to hang around long enough to get heads-up with Ken Silverstein holding a slight lead. He expanded the lead steadily, until the final hand arose.

Bonn raised to 200,000 from the button and Silverstein moved all in for roughly 1.5 million. Bonn made the call with the K 9 only to see that he was dominated by the A 9 of Silverstein. Bonn wouldn’t remain behind in the hand for long however, as he quickly hit top pair on the K 10 2 flop. The 2 on the turn and the 3 on the river changed nothing, and the pot was shipped to Bonn while Silverstein was sent to the rail in second place.

Here is a look at the Player of the Year leaderboard:

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