A Look At The Final Top Ten In The 2014 Card Player Player of the Year RaceHow The Rest Of The Year's Top Achievers Made Their Way Into The Top Ten |
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Daniel Colman may have put together a historic run on the tournament circuit in 2014 to secure this year’s Card Player Player of the Year award, sponsored by Carbon Poker, but he was far from the only player to have an incredible year. The top ten of this year’s POY featured a number of the game’s journeymen transitioning from the wings onto the big stage and plenty of young new stars making their impact felt on the circuit. Here is a look at the second through tenth place finishers in the 2014 race and how they made their way to the top.
2. Ami Barer
Total Points: 5,042
POY Earnings: $2,363,903
Titles: 1
Final Tables: 8
Canadian poker pro Ami Barer was in the mix in the POY race throughout the year by virtue of winning one of the first major titles of 2014, the Aussie Millions $10,600 no-limit hold’em main event. Barer defeated Sorel Mizzi heads-up after navigating a field of 688 players to win $1,432,800 and 2,100 POY points.
The 23-year-old from Vancouver, British Colombia was far from done, though. In the spring he made three final tables in prelim events at the European Poker Tour Vienna and EPT Grand Final series to keep him in the running in the POY race. He next finished sixth in the $1 million guaranteed $5,000 Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III main event for $72,060 and 400 points in July.
In August, Barer made the second largest score of his 2014 run when he finished fourth in the €10,300 no-limit hold’em high roller for $364,726 and 750 points. Barer rounded off his consistent and impressive year at the Asia Championship of Poker in Macau, finishing third in a $25,000 HKD ($3,225 USD) event for $76,323 and 432 points and then fourth in the $100,000 HKD ($12,902 USD) high roller event for $261,290 and 570.
3. Mike Leah
Total Points: 4,830
POY Earnings: $2,054,400
Titles: 4
Final Tables: 9
Innisfil, Ontario’s Mike “GoLeafsGoEh” Leah has long been a well respected online and tournament pro, but up until 2014 he had yet to really make a mark on the game’s biggest live events. That changed this year, with Leah making the biggest score of his career and winning his first WSOP gold bracelet in addition to showing incredible consistency, with four titles won and nine POY-qualified final table finishes this year.
Leah started his year off right with a win in a $5,000 turbo no-limit hold’em event at the EPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $119,770 and 432 points and continued to prove his skills as a closer with a win in a $1,000 CAD event at the Fallsview Poker Classic for another $107,084 and 840 points. At the WSOP Circuit event at the Bicycle Casino he won two back-to-back circuit rings, although only one of the two counted towards his POY ranking due to buy-in requirements.
Leah also made a final table at the WSOP in Las Vegas, finishing seventh in the $2,500 seven card stud eight-or-better / Omaha eight-or-better split event. He next came runner-up in the $1 million guaranteed $1,100 buy-in at the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III for $189,474 and 900 points. He made one other small final table before his two key scores of the year. First he finished runner-up to Daniel Colman in the $10,000,000 guaranteed $5,300 SHR Poker Open main event for $1,047,638 and 1,600 POY points. This was Leah’s first ever seven-figure score and it secured his status as a POY contender in 2014.
Leah essentially closed out his impressive year by winning his first gold bracelet, taking down the $25,000 AUD no-limit high roller at the WSOP Asia Pacific to earn $527,500 and 504 points. Leah went on to make one more small final table to round out his best year ever on the live tournament circuit.
4. Mustapha Kanit
Total Points: 4,514
POY Earnings: $1,234,776
Titles: 2
Final Tables: 8
Italy’s Mustapha Kanit started 2014 with an impressive January performance and then just kept making more final tables. At the the EPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure he finished fourth in the $25,000 no-limit hold’em high roller for $492,600 and 714 POY points, the largest score of his career.
He then made his way to the Aussie Millions where he won back-to-back $1,100 AUD prelim events, first in the full ring game no-limit hold’em event for $172,000 and 960 points and then in the six-max tournament for another $91,416 and 720 points.
Kanit would go on to make five more final tables, including a fifth-place finish for $128,862 and 700 POY points. Kanit’s consistency throughout the year kept him near the top of the leader board. He should be one to keep an eye on in years to come.
5. Martin Jacobson
Total Points: 4,148
POY Earnings: $10,677,589
Titles: 2
Final Tables: 5
There are only a few events each year that sport large enough buy-ins and field sizes to consistently award enough points to single-handedly make their eventual champions POY contenders. The World Series of Poker $10,000 main event is of course one of them, and in fact is the event that awards the single largest amount of POY points of the year to the winner: 3,300 points.
This year Swedish poker pro Martin Jacobson topped a field of 6,683 players to win the aforementioned bounty of points and the $10,000,000 first-place prize. Jacobson may have been thrown into contention with this one major win, but he also made four other final tables including a win in a €2,150 no-limit hold’em prelim at the EPT Vienna and back-to-back final table showings in high roller events at the Aussie Millions.
6. Mukul Pahuja
Total Points: 4,146
POY Earnings: $1,395,891
Titles: 1
Final Tables: 6
Florida native Mukul Pahuja has put together an incredible run on the live poker tournament circuit over the past two years. In that span Pahuja has made nine final tables, cashing for more than $2.6 million along the way. In 2014 he made six final tables, with his lone title coming in the final weeks of the year. Pahuja took down the 2014 World Series of Poker Circuit Harrah’s Atlantic City $1,675 no-limit hold’em main event, outlasting a field of 460 entries to win his second WSOP Circuit gold ring and the $148,345 first-place prize.
The rest of Pahuja’s 2014 highlights include a runner-up finish in the World Poker Tour SHR Poker Showdown $5 million guaranteed event, a third-place finish in the WPT Montreal main event and a fourth-place finish in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star main event.
7. Dylan Wilkerson
Total Points: 4,096
POY Earnings: $1,287,851
Titles: 1
Final Tables: 6
Dylan Wilkerson put together an impressive run this year, finding particular success on the World Poker Tour.
He got things started this year with a runner-up finish in the WPT Fallsview main event for $205,925 and 1,000 points and then less than a month later placed second in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star main event for another $728,650 and 1,520 points. At his third WPT final table of the year he made it down to heads-up play again, but this time emerged victorious to capture the 2014 WPT Emperors Palace Poker Classic $3,500 no-limit hold’em main event title, the $147,509 first-place prize and 468 points.
Wilkerson also made three final tables outside of WPT main events, with his biggest score in that category being his third place finish in the $3,000 buy-in pot-limit Omaha eight-or-better event at the WSOP for $122,427 and 720 points.
8. Jake Schindler
Total Points: 3,955
POY Earnings: $2,217,434
Titles: 1
Final Tables: 6
Jake Schindler had a breakout year in 2014, starting his impressive run off by outlasting a 247-player field in the $25,500 no-limit hold’em high roller at the 2014 PCA. For the win the young poker pro from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania earned $1,192,624 and 1,428 points and just like that was a factor in the POY race.
Schindler accumulated over $2.2 million in POY qualified earnings this year, with several other six-figure scores at final tables including a third-place finish in a $3,000 no-limit hold’em event at the WSOP for $212,373 and 912 points. Schindler then scored two more third place finishes in a $100,000 super high roller at Aria for $549,450 and 400 points and the $5,000 Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III main event for $169,857 and 800 more points.
9. Davidi Kitai
Total Points: 3,829
POY Earnings: $2,176,343
Titles: 2
Final Tables: 10
Belgium’s Davidi Kitai has proven himself to be a consistent threat on the tournament scene in recent years, but 2014 will go down as his best year on the circuit to date with two titles won and ten total final table finishes.
The highlight of Kitai’s year has to be his win in a $3,000 no-limit hold’em six-max event at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. In that event he topped a field of 810 players to win 1,368 POY points, the $508,640 first-place prize and his third gold bracelet.
Other noteworthy scores from his long list of final tables in 2014 include a win in a $740 buy-in event at the Winimax Poker Open and a third-place finish in the €25,500 no-limit high roller at the EPT Grand Final for $730,098 and 840 points.
10. Simon Deadman
Total Points: 3,742
POY Earnings: $1,058,355
Titles: 1
Final Tables: 9
England’s Simon Deadman strung together an impressive year in 2014, making a total of nine final tables throughout the year. The majority of his success came in events around Europe, but the centerpiece of his resume this year was his win in the $500,000 guaranteed $2,500 buy-in Hollywood Poker Open Championship no-limit hold’em main event in Las Vegas.
Deadman topped a field 692 players in that event to win the first major live title and $351,097 and 1,260 points. As the year wound down Deadman just snuck into the top ten by finishing fourth in the €10,300 no-limit hold’em high roller at the EPT Prague for $293,134 for 600 points.
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