Friday, March 21, 2008

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Cantu rides recent success into POY race

By Earl Burton

After two more exciting weeks of tournament poker action, the PokerListings Player of the Year race welcomes some new members into the Top 10.

Although the top three names on the list remain the same as at the start of March (Men "The Master" Nguyen, Mike McDonald and Phil Ivey), our newest player had a great couple of weeks of play, propelling him into fourth place.

Brandon Cantu, who had an excellent showing in the preliminary events at the Wynn Classic before winning the championship at the World Poker Tour's Bay 101 Shooting Star, demonstrated why he's being touted as an upcoming star of the game.

With 1,854 points so far this year, along with three final tables, Cantu is primed for taking a shot at the top as the year moves along.

Bertrand Grospellier broke out of the logjam of players who have won a top-tier event this year by making a final table during the Wynn Classic. Even with those newfound points, however, Grospellier actually dropped to fifth in the POY standings.

Cantu's success over the past two weeks is the reason for Grospellier's fall, but we can expect that "ElkY" will be a factor in the POY race for the entire year.

Another new name in the Top 10 this week is a bit more surprising. While he hasn't been out of the top 50 of the POY race yet this year, William Blanda's name is still little-known.

The Texan got off to a great start in January by making two final tables at the Borgata Winter Poker Open (including one win) and has now followed it up with another title in a preliminary event at the Wynn Classic. The points he earned for those finishes push him into the Top 10 for the first time this year, in sixth place.

The remainder of the Top 10 is occupied by players who have been there since the start of 2008. Alexander Kostritsyn, Gavin Griffin, Tim Vance and Howard Lederer hold down seventh through 10th on this week's rundown.

Player	Country	Points	FTA	2008 Earnings
1. Men Nguyen	United States	2,436	7	$514,426
2. Mike McDonald	Canada	2,140	3	$1,487,214
3. Phil Ivey	United States	2,000	1	$1,721,000
4. Brandon Cantu	United States	1,854	3	$1,034,514
5. Bertrand Grospellier	France	1,740	2	$2,011,097
6. William Blanda	United States	1,640	2	$315,115
7. Alexander Kostritsyn	Russia	1,600	1	$1,452,000
8. Gavin Griffin	United States	1,600	1	$1,401,109
9. Tim Vance	United States	1,600	1	$1,210,699
10. Howard Lederer	United States	1,600	1	$1,100,000

Completed qualifying events: 2008 Wynn Classic (Events 1-4, 6, 8-10, 12-13, 15-16 and the Championship Event), 2008 Majestic Star Deep Stack Poker Championship Main Event, WSOPC Caesars Atlantic City, GUKPT Leg 3-Victoria, 2008 Heartland Poker Tour Tama, WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star, EPT Polish Open, 2008 Canadian Open Poker Championship, 2008 Spring Poker Festival Austria (€1,500 event and Championship Event).

There are threats bubbling up underneath the Top 10 players. Two more champions from the past couple of weeks find themselves in the second 10 on the POY rankings. Michael Schulze (the champion at the EPT Polish Open) and Eric "Sheets" Haber (the victor at the WSOPC Caesars Atlantic City) both have the same number of points (1,600), but Schulze's earnings give him the tiebreaker between the two. Schulze sits in 11th place currently; Haber is only two spots back in 13th.

Another dangerous professional player joins in the mix as well, just behind Schulze and Haber. After making four final tables this year (but without a championship yet), 2007 WSOP Championship Event final-table finisher Lee Watkinson is in 17th place, in position to take a run at the mountaintop.

With two of his final-table finishes being at WPT and WSOPC main events (he barely missed a third at the Bay 101 event, where he finished ninth), it could only be a matter of time before Watkinson is in the Top 10.

Harman's Bay 101 run lands her in Ladies POY race

Jennifer Harman works her way into the Ladies POY ranks.

After her strong finish at the WPT's Bay 101 Shooting Star, top poker professional Jennifer Harman has powered her way into the PokerListings Ladies Player of the Year race.

Harman's third-place finish gave her 550 points, good enough to pass everyone on the list except for Marisol Banuelos, who took over the Ladies POY lead earlier this month.

While Diane Nguyen (third) and Vanessa Selbst (fourth) each fall a position on the leaderboard, Jennifer Golin is joined in a tie for fifth by strong East Coast player Karen Harris. A Connecticut resident, Harris plays in many of the ladies tournaments on the East Coast and, with a win at the WSOPC Ladies Event at Caesars in Atlantic City, moves up to tie with Golin for fifth place.

With these changes, the Ladies POY race currently looks like this:

Place	Name	Points
1.	Marisol Banuelos	640
2.	Jennifer Harman	550
3.	Diane Nguyen	410
4.	Vanessa Selbst	347
5.	Jennifer Golin	326
	Karen Harris
7.	Lorraine Bane	320
	Regette Bechara
	Marga G. Dominguez
	GiGi Dong
	Christy King
	Irina Liepina
	Van Tuyet Nguyen
	Louise Rocchio

Numerous tournaments will affect both Player of the Year races over the next couple of weeks. The WPT's final event in Reno is currently being played, and its stop at Foxwoods and its season-ending WPT Championship both loom on the horizon.

In addition, the WSOPC has Caesars Indiana on the schedule in the next couple of weeks, and the European Poker Tour will visit Italy for the first time late this month. Factor in some of the smaller tournaments from around the world and the PokerListings Player of the Year races could have an entirely different look a few weeks from now.

Related Articles:

• Phil Ivey Creeps Up POY Standings
• The Master Surges to PokerListings POY Lead
• EPT Win Puts McDonald Atop POY Standings
• Player of the Year Race Begins at PokerListings.com

 

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