2015 Card Player Player of the Year -- Zamani, O'Dwyer and McKeehen Make Moves Inside Top Ten

Last week was yet another one of the busiest of the year in terms of movement in the Card Player Player of the Year race. Here is a look at the many tournaments that made the biggest impact on the POY standings over the action-packed past seven days:

2015 World Series of Poker Main Event

The World Series of Poker no-limit hold’em main event consistently awards the most Player of the Year points of any tournament each year. With a huge field (6,420 players this year) and a large buy-in of $10,000 this event awards the single largest POY bounty of the year to the eventual champion: 3,300 points, which is enough currently to move a player inside the top 20 even if they had no other final table scores.

This year Joseph McKeehen emerged victorious, taking home the aforementioned 3,300 points, the championship bracelet and the first-place prize of $7,683,346.

McKeehen has made three final tables this year, with another title run coming in the Wynn Fall Classic main event just weeks before returning to play out the WSOP main event final table. He took home $90,125 and 432 points for that win.

As a result McKeehen has climbed into ninth place in the overall rankings with 3,748 total POY points and $7,774,650 in year-to-date earnings.

Runner-up Joshua Beckley scored $4,470,896 and 2,750 POY points at his second final table of the year. He was catapulted into 19th place in the rankings with 2,990 total points and $4,504,828 in earnings.

2015 World Poker Tour bestbet Bounty Scramble

The 2015 World Poker Tour bestbet Bounty Scramble attracted 412 entries for it’s $5,000 no-limit hold’em main event to Jacksonville. In the end Tyler Patterson emerged victorious, taking home $375,270 and 1,440 Player of the Year points for the win.

Patterson defeated Benjamin Zamani heads-up for the title. Zamani has now made seven final tables this year, including a win in a WSOP $1,500 no-limit hold’em event this summer.

For his most recent score he earned $252,267 and 1,200 POY points. As a result he climbed into fifth place on the leaderboard with 4,561 points and $1,095,924 in year-to-date earnings.

Third place finisher Stan Jablonski was awarded $162,210 and 960 points at his fifth final table, enough to move into 44th place in the standings.

2015 ACOP Super High Roller

The $500,000 HKD ($64,501 USD) buy-in super high roller at the Asia Championship of Poker festival in Macau drew a total of 51 entries (including rebuys). That built a total prize pool equivalent to $3,137,987 USD.

Andy Andrejevic turned a $5,100 USD satellite entry into $1,134,250 USD and 510 points when he emerged victorious, defeating recent Poker Hall of Fame inductee John Juanda heads up to capture the title.

This was only Juanda’s second final table finish of the year, but his first was a win in the massive EPT Barcelona main event, in which he topped a field of 1,694 entries in a €5,300 buy-in tournament to win $1,186,208 USD and 2,160 points. With this most recent score Juanda has moved into 35th place in the POY rankings.

Juanda was far from the only player to make a big move on the Player of the Year leaderbaord as a result of this final table. Third place finisher Bryn Kenney earned $472,550USD and 340 points at his eighth final table of the year and now sits in 25th place.

Steve O’Dwyer continued his incredible 2015 run with a fourth-place showing in this event for $346,580 and 255 points. This was O’Dwyer’s ninth final table of the year. He has won three title in 2015, the largest of which was the $100,000 super high roller at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $1,872,580 and 720 points. O’Dwyer’s 3,890 points are enough to see him climb to seventh place in the POY standings with $3,733,359 in year-to-date earnings.

The last player to earn key POY points in this event is Erik Seidel. He squeaked into the money, finishing sixth for $220,506 and 170 points. This was his 11th final table of the year. With $4,912,079 in year-to-date earnings and 3,130 points Seidel currently occupies the 17th-place position on the POY leader board.

Here is a look at the current top 20 in the POY standings:

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