2016 Card Player Player of the Year -- Cary Katz, Sam Soverel and Jake Schindler Climb

There were several movers and shakers this week in the top twenty of the 2016 Card Player Player of the Year race, all as a result of a trio of high roller events held at the Aria Poker Room. Here is a look at those events that most impacted the standings:

October Aria High Rollers

Many of the top contenders in the 2016 POY race turned up to the Aria Poker Room last week for their latest batch of Aria High Roller events.

Things kicked off with the Aria High Roller 42 $25,000 no-limit hold’em tournament. A total of 47 entries built a sizable $1,128,000 prize pool, with the top seven finishers making the money. In the end Jake Schindler emerged victorious, defeating Erik Seidel heads-up to secure his third title of the year, the first-place prize of $306,687 and 420 POY points.

Schindler followed his win up with a fifth-place finish in the second high roller of the weekend the following day for another $56,160 and 175 points. This was his tenth POY-qualified final table finish of 2016. Incredibly all but one of his cashes have come in high roller events held at Aria, with the odd tournament out being a sixth-place finish in the WSOP Circuit Planet Hollywood $1,675 no-limit hold’em main event. With 3,048 points and $1,673,213 in year-to-date earnings Schindler has climbed to 19th place in the overall POY rankings.

Like Schindler Cary Katz cashed in both high roller events. He started off with a fourth-place finish for $90,240 and 210 points in the Aria high Roller 42 and then place second in the Aria High Roller 43_ for $224,640 and 350 more points. Katz navigated a field of 39 entries in the second event to make it to heads-up against Brian Rast, who eventually came out on top. Katz has made 15 final tables this year, more than any other player on the live tournament circuit. he has cashed for $2,328,953 along the way and accumulated 3,930 POY points so far this year, enough to shoot him up the leaderboard and into eighth place.

Current POY race second-place occupant David Peters finished fourth in this event for $82,240 and 210 points, ever so slightly bridging the gap between him and current leader Fedor Holz. Peters now has 5,101 points while Holz has 6,758.

Sam Soverel also made two final tables at the Aria, starting with a sixth-place finish in the Aria High Roller 43 for $46,800 and 140 points. The very next day he placed fourth in the Aria Super High Roller 11 $50,000 no-limit hold’em event for $103,680 and 255 points. The tournament drew 27 total entries to create a $1,296,000 prize pool, with Brandon Steven coming out on top in the end for $648,000 and 510 points.

This was Soverel’s eighth final table finish of the year with two titles captured along the way. One came in a high roller event at Aria in January with the second being his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet in the $1,000 pot-limit Omaha event this summer. With 3,815 points and $1,266,394 in year-to-date earnings Soverel has jumped to ninth in the rankings.

WSOP Circuit South Indiana

The 2016 World Series of Poker Circuit South Indiana $1,675 no-limit hold’em main event drew 432 entrants to build a prize pool of $648,000.

Robert Hankins emerged victorious to capture his second WSOPC gold ring of the series and the sixth of his career. For the win he was awarded $142,560 and 720 POY points. This was his second POY-qualified final table of the year, having finished third in the WSOP $1,500 six-max no-limit hold’em event for $148,885 and 640 points in June.

With 1,360 points and $291,445 in year-to-date earnings he now sits in 157th place in the POY standings.

Earlier in the week he also took down a $365 pot-limit Omaha event for $28,230. The event’s buy-in was too low to qualify for POY points.

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

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