2016 Card Player Player of the Year Update -- Steve O'Dwyer Into Second Place

January is always a very busy month in the Card Player Player of the year race. 2016 has begun much like the years before it, with several massive events quickly setting the stage for the year to come in the POY race. Here is a look at the tournaments that have most affected the overall standings this week:

2016 Aussie Millions $25,000 High Roller

The 2016 Aussie Millions is now in full swing at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia. The first major side event to wrap up down under was the $25,000 AUD buy-in no-limit hold’em high roller event. A total of 122 entries were made to build a prize pool worth $2,928,000 AUD or just over $2 million USD.

In the end American poker pro Chance Kornuth rose to the occasion, coming out on top to secure the title and the first-place prize of $790,560 AUD ($553,392 USD). He also earned 924 Player of the Year points for the win.

This was Kornuth’s second final table of the year, having finished seventh in the $25,000 high roller less than two weeks earlier at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. That score was worth an additional $192,780 USD and 336 POY points. As a result of these two strong showing Kornuth has climbed into sixth place in the overall standings, with 1,260 total points and $746,172 in year-to-date earnings.

Kornuth was far from the only player at this final table to make waves in the POY standings. Runner-up Igor Kurganov was also at his second final table of the year, having won a $5,300 six-max no-limit hold’em side event at the PCA earlier this month. The German pro now sits in 11th place in the rankings with 1,010 points and $465,006 in year-to-date earnings.

Steve O’Dwyer continued his domination of the high roller circuit with his third final table of the year, finishing fourth for $184,464 USD and 462 points.

This latest score came just two weeks after he took down the $50,0000 super high roller at the PCA for $945,495 and 816 points. That win was just five days after he finished fourth in the $200,000 WPT Philippines super high roller for $953,700 and 300 points. After this whirlwind world tour of high stakes destruction O’Dwyer has moved into second place on the POY leaderboard, with 1,578 total points and year-to-date earnings of $2,083,659.

O’Dwyer now has lifetime live tournament earnings of $14.1 million, making him 15th on the all-time money list.

2016 Borgata Winter Open $2 Million Guarantee

The 2016 Borgata Winter Poker Open kicked off last week as well, beginning with the $2 million guaranteed $565 buy-in no-limit hold’em kickoff event. The tournament drew as astonishing 5,101 entries to build a final prize pool of $2,550,500.

In the end the lion’s share of that was awarded to Jason Loehrs, an AMTRAK engineer from Pennsylvania. For the win he earned $383,431 and 660 POY points, climbing to 31st place as a result.

Asher Conniff, who’s two biggest career scores came from win at the Borgata last spring in the WPT Championship and another $560 buy-in event much like this one, finished seventh for $62,839 and 165 points.

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

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