2016 Card Player Player of the Year Race Update -- Bryan Piccioli Into Sixth Place

The major tours are wrapping up as the poker world begins preparations for the upcoming World Series of Poker, which is now just a month away. This week the World Poker Tour closed out it’s 14th season with a number of big events which made their impact felt on the top twenty of the Card Player Player of the Year leader board. Here is a look back at the biggest events of the last seven days:

World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Poker Finale

The 2016 World Poker tour Seminole Hard Rock Poker Finale $10,000 buy-in main event attracted a field of 342 entries, building a $3,249,000 prize pool that easily surpassed the $2 million guarantee.

In the end Chino Rheem emerged victorious, defeating Aditya Prasetyo heads-up to capture his third WPT main event title. Rheem was only the fourth player ever to achieve that feat, joining the likes of Carlos Mortensen, Gus Hansen and Anthony Zinno as a result of this massive win.

Rheem also earned $705,885 and 1,200 POY points for the victory, enough to move him into a four-way tie for 42nd place in the standings on it’s own.

Sixth-place finisher Bryan Piccioli was at his fourth final table of 2016. The WPT L.A. Poker Classic third-place finisher has accumulated $740,345 in live tournament earnings and 2,216 points so far this year, enough to move him into sixth place in the overall standings.

Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown $1,100

The Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown festival played host to a gigantic slate of tournaments this year and some of the preliminary events shaking up the POY top twenty despite being a lot smaller than the massive marquee events.

A $1,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em event with a $100,000 guarantee, for example, drew 261 players and was eventually won by Ryan Olisar for $61,180 and 432 points.

What makes the event notable for the POY race, though, is the fact that 2016 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star main event champion Stefan Schillhabel finished sixth for another $12,659 and 144 points.

The German pro topped a field of 753 in the $7,500 main event up in Northern California back in March, earning $1,298,000 and 1,824 points. With these two scores Schillhabel has climbed into ninth place in the standings with 1,968 total points and $1,310,659 in year-to-date earnings.

WSOP Circuit Harrah’s Cherokee $1,675 Main Event

Just two weeks after taking down the World Series of Poker Circuit Horseshoe Council Bluffs main event Maurice Hawkins stormed to victory again, topping a massive field of 1,008 entries to win the 2016 WSOP Circuit Harrah’s Cherokee $1,675 no-limit hold’em main event for $279,722 and his seventh circuit gold ring.

Hawkins’ win was historic in that it made him the first player in the 12-year history of the WSOP Circuit to ever win consecutive main event titles. He has had an incredible run on the circuit this April, winning three titles, making four final tables and cashing for $431,561.

Only two of those scores came in events that met the minimum buy-in requirement to be POY eligible, but the two WSOP Circuit main event win were enough on their own to catapult Hawkins into a tie for 27th place in rankings with 1,440 total points and year-to-date POY earnings of $392,874.

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

Bryan Piccioli photograph courtesy of WPT / Joe Giron.

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