Card Player Player of the Year Weekly Update

The most notable news on the tournament trail this week was once again made by none other than David “The Dragon” Pham and Men “The Master” Nguyen. These two players continued their red-hot campaign for Card Player Player of the Year in early 2008 by each making another final table. The Dragon made his fourth final table of the year when he finished eighth in a $2,500 no-limit hold’em event at the L.A. Poker Classic and won $10,840. More importantly, Pham claimed 90 POY points for his victory, which allowed him to make a large jump on the leader board. Pham jumped from eighth place to fifth place with the win, and he surpassed David Tran, Andreas Gulunay, and Hafiz Khan in the process. Roy Winston also cashed at the final table of event No. 22, finishing in fourth place to win $30,710 and 270 POY points.

Jordan Rich continued to have a strong preliminary run at the LAPC when he won event No. 25, which was a $1,000 seven-card stud event. Rich grabbed $32,260 and 216 POY points for the win and adds this win to the one he recorded last Friday with Craig Gray by winning the $500 no-limit hold’em tag-team event. Also making some noise at this final table was Nguyen. He increased his grasp on second place, and came away 54 POY points closer to taking the top spot from Michael McDonald, when he finished in seventh place. The Master only took home $3,760, but he made his seventh final table of the year in the eighth week of the year. Just imagine if he could sustain that average all year long.

After two weeks, which saw players slugging it out at preliminary events, next week will see the distribution of some major titles and a ton of POY points. The champion at the European Poker Tour Scandinavian Open will be decided tomorrow, Feb. 23, and the champion of the World Poker Tour championship event at the LAPC will be crowned next Thursday, Feb. 28. In addition to these two titles, the champion of the World Series of Poker circuit event in Council Bluffs, Iowa, will be decided on Wednesday, Feb. 27. Check back in next Friday to catch an update on the busy week ahead.

POY Weekly Update — Quick Hits:

• Jimmy Tran made his first final table of the year this past week when he finished third in the $500 no-limit hold’em, event No. 26 at the LAPC. Tran took home $28,760 for the win, as well as 320 POY points.
• While most of the poker world was in Los Angeles, Shawn Rice took care of business in Las Vegas by placing second in the $500 no-limit hold’em, event No. 12, at the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza. Rice won $26,316 and walked away with 300 POY points thanks to his first cash in 2008.

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