Back in May, poker professional Paul Volpe was atop the three major Player of the Year races in the poker world. After two months of Las Vegas tournaments – the World Series of Poker and other smaller events – those POY races have been completely changed over, with some new names ascending to the top of the table.
On the Bluff Magazine Player of the Year race, there has been a change atop the leaderboard, but it isn’t who you might think. Daniel Negreanu, who was in second back in May, is still there even after cashing in six tournaments and barely missing out on his sixth WSOP bracelet in finishing runner-up to Eli Elezra in the $2500 2-7 Triple Draw tournament. Negreanu was able to work his points total up to 804.86 points, but that wasn’t enough to put him in the lead.
Having arguably a better WSOP was another Canadian pro, Mike “SirWatts” Watson, who took over the number one slot on the Bluff POY. Cashing eight times during the run of the WSOP (including two final tables and a 589th place run in the $10,000 Championship Event), Watson was able to accrue enough points to push him into the pole position on the Bluff POY. The lead is a scant one, however, as he has 833.19 points, or roughly 29 points more than Negreanu.
Volpe has dropped (with his 674.44 points) behind Scott Seiver (715.49 points), with those two men holding down the third and fourth place slots. European Poker Tour Grand Final High Roller champion Steven Silverman earned points for his third place finish in the $3000 No Limit Shootout event at the WSOP, but it wasn’t enough to move him up the ladder as he falls to fifth place (652.86 points). Rounding out the Top Ten is current WSOP Player of the Year leader Matthew Ashton (638.65 points), Dimitar Danchev (610.45), Aaron Lim (606.65), Griffin Benger (594.93) and Blake Bohn (591.55).
On the CardPlayer Magazine POY, Volpe has also lost the lead but this time to Negreanu. “Kid Poker” has been able to bypass Volpe (3530 points) for the edge in the race with his 3768 points (Negreanu added over 600 points to his total just at the WSOP). In a bit of a surprise, EPT Grand Final Main Event champion Steve O’Dwyer was only able to make one cash at the WSOP, but it was enough to keep him in third place on the CardPlayer POY rankings with 2848 points.
Coming off an outstanding two month run, Erick Lindgren has put his name forth as a potential contender for the CardPlayer POY championship. Finishing as a runner-up to David “Chino” Rheem at the World Poker Tour World Championship in late May, Lindgren would go on to cash five times at the WSOP, including winning the $5000 Six Handed No Limit Hold’em event for his second WSOP bracelet. Not only did Lindgren win approximately $1.275 million in that span, he also boosted his CardPlayer POY points total to 2800 points.
Rounding out the Top Ten for CardPlayer are Watson (2724 points), Danchev (2676), David Vamplew (2620), Seth Berger (2536), Ashton (2475) and Bellagio Cup IX champion David Peters (2386) in fifth through tenth places, respectively.
The only ranking that still has Volpe as its leader is the Global Poker Index POY list, but it is a close fight. Volpe has 767.76 points (more than what he had back in May due to the expiration of past tournament results) on the GPI POY, which kept him in the lead over the hard charging Watson (753.37) and the lurking Negreanu (731.18). Seiver (692.20) and Silverman (670.01) are both within striking distance of Volpe with a big finish in a tournament (the entirety of the Top Five on the GPI POY are separated by less than 100 points).
A change could be coming on the GPI POY leaderboard, however. In a Twitter conversation on Sunday morning, Negreanu and GPI owner Alexandre Dreyfus were discussing Negreanu’s latest video blog in which Negreanu discussed the work the GPI was doing, among other things. Dreyfus cryptically Tweeted that Negreanu “(would) like what we are going to announce on Tuesday too,” indicating that the Canadian pro may be rising to the top of the GPI POY.
Rounding out the Top Ten on the GPI POY are five men that do not appear on either of the other two lists. Igor Kurganov (663.10 points), Chris Klodnicki (656.19), Ole Schemion (651.74), Bryn Kenney (633.02) and Olivier Busquet (617.32) aren’t currently among the contenders on the Bluff or CardPlayer listings, but their performance on the GPI POY formula has earned them the sixth through tenth places, respectively.
While poker players have been taking a bit of a break since the close of the WSOP, the tournament poker calendar has already been active since the “November Nine” was determined July 15. Beginning on July 28, the Legends of Poker kicks off at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, CA, with its traditional finale of the WPT Main Event beginning on August 29. The Season XII schedule of the WPT will actually began with the bwin WPT Merit Cyprus Classic on August 12, awarding the first title of the WPT’s twelfth season on August 21.
The EPT will kick off its Season 10 schedule on August 27 with their first of eight scheduled tour stops. The EPT settles into the Casino Barcelona in Spain for its first €5000 Main Event of Season 10 (as well as a host of side events) and, after concluding that tournament on September 7, will wait until October for the EPT London.
This doesn’t even begin to count the other “smaller” tournaments that will be on the schedule. The first event of the WPT Alpha8 (the new “High Roller” series) at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open, the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), the WSOP Circuit and the Heartland Poker Tour (among others) will all either open up or continue their seasons during the month of August, signaling the drive towards the finish for all of the Player of the Year races.
