This Week in Poker -- July 10 – 16

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

The Card Player Player of the Year Race is brought to you by Bodog

1: Thomas Marchese — 4,442
2: Sorel Mizzi — 3,862
3: Jeffrey Papola — 3,420
4: Dwyte Pilgrim — 3,376
5: Mike Beasley — 3,320
6: Frank Kassela — 3,264
7: Valdemar Kwaysser — 3,190
7: Miguel Proulx — 3,190
9: Tomer Berda — 3,072 (pictured right)
10: Allan Baekke — 3,000
10: Harrison Gimbel — 3,000

This Week in Poker

With all of the preliminary event bracelets awarded at the World Series of Poker, and the main event still playing down to the November Nine at press time, the World Poker Tour Bellagio Cup VI was the only game in town awarding major Card Player Player of the Year points in mid-July.

The event attracted a total of 353 players, which represented a 31.7 percent increase from last year’s field at the Bellagio’s summer stop. It was a promising turnout for the first event on the season IX schedule for the WPT.

The final table featured one of the biggest names in poker. Phil Ivey made a record ninth WPT final table, but in the end he fell short and busted in third place. He was awarded 1,400 points for his efforts, which gives him 2,840 on the year and puts him in 15th place overall. This also put Ivey 32 points ahead of the 2,808 he scored in the 2009 POY race, and he has now scored at least 2,800 points in each of the last three years.

The other headliner that made the Bellagio final table was Justin Smith, who finished in third place in the same event last year. This time around Smith improved upon his previous performance and finished runner-up, good for 1,750 points. Smith now holds 1,813 points for the year.

The young German Moritz Kranich (pictured above right) won his second major tournament title with the win at Bellagio. Kranich previously won the PokerStars European Poker Tour Deauville main event in 2009 for $1.1 million (€851,400). The 2,100 points he was awarded are the first in his 2010 campaign, but it is a nice nest egg that puts him in a tie for 35th place with Bay 101 Shooting Star champion Mclean Karr.

Here is the break down of the prize money and POY points awarded at the Bellagio Cup VI final table:

1: Moritz Kranich — $875,150 (2,100 points)
2: Justin Smith — $594,755 (1,750 points)
3: Phil Ivey — $363,650 (1,400 points)
4: John Caridad — $237,902 (1,050 points)
5: Rob Akery — $169,930 (875 points)
6: Eric Afriat — $118,950 (700 points)

Headlines:

WSOP Main Event — Day 6
Moritz Kranich Wins WPT Bellagio Cup VI
2010-11 WSOP Circuit Schedule Released
WPT: Season IX Changes Announced at Press Conference

Looking Ahead

PokerStars ANZPT Queenstown

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Summer Pot of Gold

Event Schedule

Larry Flynt’s Grand Slam of Poker

Event Schedule

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