Player of the Year Race Defining ItselfJ.C. Tran Is More Than 750 Points Ahead of Field |
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The prestigious Card Player Magazine Player of the Year Award is still up for grabs, but after four months, players are beginning to pull away from the rest of the pack.
Sitting atop the list is J.C. Tran. He has been unstoppable. Since the beginning of 2007, he has accumulated 3,504 points and a little more than $2 million in winnings. He began the year with a sixth-place finish at the World Poker Tour World Poker Open championship event in January. In March, Tran picked up almost $1.2 million for second in the WPT L.A Poker Classic main event. It seems as though Tran is a magnet for final table finishes in WPT events, because at the end of March, he took first in a no-limit event at the WPT World Poker Challenge.
Although James Van Alstyne has the third-lowest amount of winnings compared to the rest of the 11 that make up the top players, he is second in points. Since the beginning of the year, he's made four final tables, cashed in seven major tournaments, and has 2,848 points. His wins include a first-place finish in a no-limit event at the WPT L.A. Poker Classic and a recent fourth-place finish at the Bay 101 Shooting Star championship event for $250,000.
The European Poker Tour's Grand Final in Monte Carlo is responsible for the third- and fourth-ranked players of the year. On April 2, Gavin Griffin and Marc Karam went heads up for the EPT championship title. Griffin emerged victorious and won the title along with more than $2.4 million. Karma took home more than $1.4 million. Both players had player of the year points, each from one cash earlier in the year, but their one-two finish in this event shot them straight into their current positions. Griffin is third with 3,504 points while Karma is not far behind with 2,080.
Fifth-ranked David Pham has the least amount of tournament winnings so far this year, but has made the most final tables out of the top 11. Two of these final tables resulted in wins, both at the Winnin O' the Green series. Along with Van Alstyne, Pham has seven major cashes. He has won $345,765 since the beginning of January, but Pham has been a poker professional for many years and is not unfamiliar to winning big money. He has nearly $4.7 in lifetime winnings and two World Series of Poker bracelets
J.C. Alvarado is having a breakout year. He began cashing in major tournaments last year, but his first cash in 2007, a second-place finish in a no-limit hold'em event at the L.A. Poker Classic, made him twice as much money as he won during all of 2006. Alvarado also finished second in another no-limit event at the WPT World Poker Challenge. He is in sixth place with 1,986 points.
Poker pro Bill Edler warmed up this year with cashes in a WPT Winter Poker Open preliminary event and in the main event. Next, he won the first Heads-Up Championship for $215,000. Then, within two-and-a-half weeks' time, he made two WPT final tables at the $10,000 Bay 101 Shooting Star and L.A. Poker Classic championship events. Edler is in seventh place with 1,963 points.
The always-dangerous Ted Forrest is right behind Edler, in eighth place with 1,925 points. Forrest finished ninth in two heads-up championship events and took first in the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament for $1.1 million.
Three players are tied for ninth with 1,920 points each because each of these players finished first in a $10,000 event. Eric Hershler won the WPT L.A. Poker Classic for more than $2.4 million, John Hennigan took home more than $1.6 million for his win at the Winter Poker Open, and Raj Patel took first in the Foxwoods Poker Classic championship event for nearly $1.3 million.
With nearly 8 months left in the year, the CP Player of the Year race is well within striking distance for many players. Click here to see the entire list.
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