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Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2008

EPT win puts McDonald atop POY race

A win in Dortmund propels Mike McDonald to the top of the POY leaderboard.

By Earl Burton

With his victory at the European Poker Tour stop in Dortmund this weekend, Canada's Mike McDonald sits atop the PokerListings.com Player of the Year race.

McDonald's world travels in January alone have earned him 2,140 points and three final tables. The 18-year-old from Waterloo, Ontario, started the month off in Australia at the Aussie Millions, where he earned a runner-up finish in Event 1 and also cashed in the Heads-Up Championship.

With those results and his EPT Germany victory, "Timex" has been able to distinguish himself from the crowd of champions that has amassed behind him.

There is a logjam for second place, where champions from the World Poker Tour, the World Series of Poker Circuit, the EPT and the Aussie Millions have gathered.

Brett Faustman (WPT World Poker Open in Tunica), Gavin Griffin (WPT Borgata Winter Open), Bertrand Grospellier (EPT PCA), Alexander Kostritsyn (Aussie Millions Main Event), Howard Lederer (Aussie Millions $100k champion) and Bart Tichelman (WSOPC Tunica) are all jostling for this spot on the leaderboard.

Any of these six could have a good chance of passing McDonald at some point; because of his youthful age, McDonald won't be able to play in American tournaments such as the WPT, the WSOPC and this summer's World Series, which will hurt his chances of retaining the top spot.

Following up these men are Mike Sowers in eighth, who won the $5,000 buy-in event at the Borgata Winter Open; Tom "durr" Dwan in ninth, who was the runner-up to Sowers and also had a runner-up finish at the Aussie Millions; and veteran poker professional Men "The Master" Nguyen in 10th, who has been tearing up tournaments across the United States, garnering three final-table finishes.

Here's the breakdown of the Top 10 by the numbers:

Place	Name	Country	Points
1st	Mike McDonald	Canada	2,140
2nd	Brett Faustman	United States	1,600
	Gavin Griffin	United States
	Bertrand Grospellier	France
	Alexander Kostritsyn	Russia
	Howard Lederer	United States
	Bart Tichelman	United States
8th	Mike Sowers	United States	1,280
9th	Tom Dwan	United States	1,260
10th	Men "The Master" Nguyen	United States	1,100

Qualifying tournaments completed:

2008 Aussie Millions
WPT World Poker Open
WSOPC Tunica
2008 Mo's Deepstack Championship Event
Dom Classic
Casino Austria Winter Challenge
GUKPT Brighton
WPT Borgata Winter Open
Foxwoods Mega Stack Challenge
EPT German Open

Qualifying tournaments in progress:

WPT L.A. Poker Classic (through Event 9)
WSOPC Rincon (through Event 10)

There are several more familiar names hovering under the Top Ten. 2007 WSOP final table participant Lee Watkinson is just behind Nguyen in 11th place and others such as Hoyt Corkins, Erik Seidel and Mark Teltscher (all tied for 15th place) are only a final table away from breaking into the Top Ten.

It is still early in the race for the PokerListings Player of the Year and there is no clear contender for the prize at this point.

Nguyen uses big finish to pass Golin for top ladies player

In the PokerListings Ladies Player of the Year race, Diane Nguyen has taken over the first-place position.

Nguyen's third-place finish in Event 4 at the L.A. Poker Classic gave her enough points to pass Jennifer Golin, who followed up her victory at the WPT Tunica's ladies tournament by earning a cash at the inaugural WPT Ladies tournament at the Borgata.

The two players are only separated by four points, though, and there are a host of women behind them looking to take the top spot.

Vanessa sneaks into the Top 10 ladies list.

Newcomers to the Ladies POY race are the two women who have won the first of the WPT Ladies tournaments. Regette Bechara and professional Vanessa Selbst (who won the WPT Ladies event at the L.A. Poker Classic) are sitting in prime position to challenge the ladies ahead of them and pro Erica Schoenberg's runner-up finish to Selbst puts her in the Top 10 as well.

Here's a look at the Top 10 in the Ladies POY:

Place	Name	Points
1st	Diane Nguyen	330
2nd	Jennifer Golin	326
3rd	Regette Bechara	320
	Christy King
	Vanessa Selbst
6th	Kerry Small	222
7th	Helen Ellis	212
8th	Shelia Carwile	210
	Diane Grippo
	Christina Krems
	Erica Schoenberg

There are several tournaments over the next month that will mix up both PokerListings.com POY races and, as the tournament poker circuit continues play around the world, a host of new names will no doubt top the charts in a couple of weeks.

PokerListings.com will continue to tabulate the results and we'll see who the leaders are in a couple of weeks.