As we pull into the final quarter of the tournament poker year, poker professional Anthony Zinno has continued to dominate the different Player of the Year races in the tournament poker world. In fact, unless someone goes on a major heater before December 31, Zinno probably should have these titles sewn up. (Due to the closure of their magazine and website, the Bluff Magazine Player of the Year standings have not been updated and, as such, have been dropped from our review.)
Zinno’s year to date has been nothing short of outstanding. On the CardPlayer Magazine Player of the Year race, Zinno has used 20 cashes, 11 final tables and five tournament wins to compile 6632 points. For comparison’s sake, last year’s POY victor on the CardPlayer charts, Dan Colman, had a similarly dominating year but only compiled 5498 points for the entire year. With three more months left in 2015, Zinno would jot his name in the annals of poker history with one of the most dominant performances ever.
There are those that would like the shot at taking Zinno down, however. 2015 World Series of Poker bracelet winner Nick Petrangelo picked up a final table finish during the European Poker Tour’s inaugural stop for its Season 12 schedule in Barcelona to add 1400 points to his resume, pushing him to the second place spot with 5134 points. In September, Joe Kuether was quite the busy player as he racked up four cashes, including two final tables and a third place finish at the World Poker Tour’s Borgata Poker Open, adding 1080 points to his successful 2015 season. Kuether, with 4858 points, is in third place ahead of Jason Mercier (4294) and Byron Kaverman (3777).
At one point in the 2015 season, Dzmitry Urbanovich was in a strong second place on the CardPlayer leaderboard but, due to his youthful age (19), he couldn’t participate in the 2015 WSOP in Las Vegas. Because of that lack of action, Urbanovich went from May to August without picking up any POY points. In August, though, Urbanovich got back on the felt at the EPT Barcelona and put together four final tables and 1125 points, bringing him back into the CardPlayer POY race in sixth place with 3723 points.
Someone who has snuck up on many in the tournament poker world is Argentina’s Ivan Luca. Although he did win a bracelet at the 2015 WSOP, few could have recited the success he had had previously in Europe and South America in 2015, earning 20 cashes, 8 final tables and two titles. Luca is hot on Urbanovich’s heels in seventh place with his 3493 points, while Paul Volpe (eighth, 3275 points), EPT Barcelona €10,000 High Roller winner Mustapha Kanit (ninth, 3260) and Taylor Paur (3144, tenth) round out the CardPlayer Top Ten.
On the Global Poker Index Player of the Year race, Zinno is also in the lead but not nearly as dominant as with the CardPlayer charts. In total, Zinno has been able to hold the #1 slot on the GPI POY leaderboard for exactly one-quarter of a year (13 weeks) in 2015, as powerful a statement as any as to the season that Zinno has had. Because of the differences with the GPI rankings (the GPI takes a player’s top 13 performances for points, not every finish), Zinno’s last four cashes haven’t added any points to his GPI POY-leading 4461.20 points, but it will be tough to catch him this late in the year.
Kaverman is the pursuer on the GPI ladder, earning 781.87 points during the month of August to thrust him into the second place slot with his 4292.41 points. Petrangelo is also knocking at the door, holding down third place with 4076.11, and Urbanovich is lurking in the pack with his 3955.62 points in fourth place. Rounding out the Top Five on the GPI board is a new name, Connor Drinan, who had a strong start to the 2015 tournament poker season to earn him 3771.11 points.
The second half of the GPI Top Ten features a couple of other new names. Scott Seiver (sixth, 3762.46 points) has been a bit quiet since his runner-up finish at the $500,000 Super High Roller Bowl back in July, but he’s a threat to make a charge up the standings. Mercier has put together a decent season in his own right, holding down the seventh place slot with his 3751.99 points. Volpe (eighth, 3651.76 points), Kuether (3473.3 points) and the other new name, Stephen Chidwick (tenth, 3473.17 points) finish off the GPI Top Ten.
On the GPI front, it is going to be difficult for someone to make a big move. Because of the way the points are totaled – and the usage of only the top 13 finishes from a player – there may not be enough “big” events left in the year to make for significant movement. Zinno will perhaps face his biggest challenges from Kaverman and Petrangelo, but they would have to win a couple big events to make up the difference to Zinno.
On the CardPlayer standings, Zinno big lead is going to force someone in the Top Ten to win a major EPT, WPT or WSOP Europe tournament to surge up the board (as many as 1400 points can be given for a win, depending on field size and buy-in). With this in mind, the contenders looking to take down Zinno will probably have to win two as no one is within that 1400 point circle. Petrangelo’s the closest at 1498 points behind, while Kuether and Mercier are almost two victories behind. Even if Urbanovich would win an EPT Main Event and a WSOP Europe bracelet (and earned 1400 points for each win), he would still not earn enough points to pass Zinno – and this is allowing for the fact that Zinno doesn’t score another point this year.
Up next for tournament poker’s best is the WSOP Europe, heading to Berlin, Germany beginning October 8. The 10-event schedule is expected to draw a sizeable contingent of players looking to take a WSOP bracelet or earn some points towards the WSOP Player of the Year race. Following the conclusion of the WSOP Europe on October 24, the EPT and the WPT will resume their normal schedules with several large events between now and the end of 2015. Will those tournaments have any effect on the POY standings or has Anthony Zinno sewn them up?
