This Week in Poker -- Nov. 6-13

Check out CardPlayer.com every Friday for a weekly wrap-up of the news from the live poker tournament trail.

Card Player Player of the Year Update

1: Eric Baldwin — 6,058
2: Cornel Cimpan — 5,670
3: Yevgeniy Timoshenko — 5,463
4: Vitaly Lunkin — 4,337
5: Soheil Shamseddin — 4,085
6: Brock Parker — 3,772
7: Jason Mercier — 3,764
8: Joseph Cada — 3,600
9: Mike Leah — 3,497
10: Angel Guillen — 3,492

This Week in Poker

The POY Top 10 Welcomes the World Champion Joseph Cada

The same final table delivers the most powerful punch every year during the Card Player Player of the Year race, and it comes as no surprise that it is the World Series of Poker main event. The world champion, Joseph Cada, won the single-largest cash prize in poker this year, taking home $8,546,435 in prize money, and he also claimed the single-largest POY prize as well, scoring 3,600 points. This is the first POY-eligible cash of the year for Cada, but it is so large that it has vaulted him to eighth place on the leader board instantly. The runner-up in the main event, Darvin Moon, had not scored POY points in 2009 either, but he took home enough points at the Rio (3,000) to jump into a tie for 16th place with PokerStars Caribbean Adventure winner Poorya Nazari.

Close behind Moon in the standings was the third-place finisher in the main event, Frenchman Antoine Saout, who scored 2,400 points for his impressive final-table performance. Saout now holds 2,895 points total to hold 20th place on the leader board. Saout grabbed his 495 other points when he finished in seventh place at the WSOP Europe main-event final table in October. The fourth November Nine player to score a spot in the top 30 after the main event final table was Phil Ivey, who finished in seventh place and took home 900 points. Ivey now holds 2,808 points and sits in 23rd place in the standings. Ivey’s overall total has more to do with the two bracelets he won during the summer. Ivey won event No. 8 ($2,500 no-limit deuce-to-seven lowball) to capture 540 points and event No. 25 ($2,500 Omaha eight-or-better/seven-card stud eight-or-better) to add another 1,368 points. Here is a full breakdown of the POY points awarded inside the Penn and Teller Theater:

1st: Joseph Cada — 3,600
2nd: Darvin Moon — 3,000
3rd: Antoine Saout — 2,400
4th: Eric Buchman — 1,800
5th: Jeff Shulman — 1,500
6th: Steven Begleiter — 1,200
7th: Phil Ivey — 900
8th: Kevin Schaffel — 600
9th: James Akenhead — 300

WPT World Poker Finals Vaults Two Players into the Top Five

The World Poker Tour World Poker Finals $10,000 no-limit hold’em championship held at Foxwoods Hotel and Casino in New England may not have gotten as much attention as the WSOP main-event final table in Las Vegas, but it was a major tournament in terms of the POY race. Cornel Cimpan won his second WPT title in 2009, topping a field of 353 players in Connecticut to win $910,058 in prize money and 2,100 points. He now holds 5,670 points for the year, which puts him in second place behind the current leader Eric Baldwin. Just 228 points separate the two contenders at this late stage in the year, setting up an exciting last dash to the finish. Cimpan captured his first WPT title back in February when he won the L.A. Poker Classic to take home 2,400 points. Other highlights from Cimpan’s breakout year include his fist WSOP final-table finish (fourth place in a $2,500 pot-limit hold’em/Omaha event — 720 points), and a deep run at the European Poker Tour Barcelona main event (10th place — 120 points). Cimpan is also closing in on $3 million in tournament poker winnings in 2009; he has booked $2,931,202 so far. He is just one of nine players who have won more than $2 million in poker tournaments this year.

Finishing in second place at Foxwoods was professional Soheil Shamseddin, who was awarded $463,332 and 1,750 points. The POY score was the largest of the year for Shamseddin, but by no means was it his first. Shamseddin has booked POY winnings on nine different occasions during the year and thanks to that consistency he now holds 4,085 points total, which is good for fifth place in the standings. Shamseddin has now made appearances at seven final tables this year and he has won $915,562. Shamseddin’s biggest POY score before the World Poker Finals came at the WPT final table he made back in January. Shamseddin finished in third place at the Southern Poker Championship, winning 1,120 points.

Headlines:

Joseph Cada Wins the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event
Cornel Cimpan Wins WPT World Poker Finals

Looking Ahead

PokerStars EPT Vilamoura
Event Schedule

PokerStars APPT Philippines
Event Schedule
Event Preview

PokerStars LAPT Costa Rica
Event Schedule

WSOP Circuit – Harvey’s Lake Tahoe
Event Schedule

Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza IV
Event Schedule

L.A. Poker Open
Event Schedule

U.S. Poker Championship
Event Schedule

B.C. Poker Championships
Event Schedule

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