With the end-of-season tournaments on the European Poker Tour and the World Poker Tour lurking on the horizon, there has been a complete reshuffle of the major Player of the Year races in the poker world. That reshuffle has brought out new contenders for the major awards and perhaps offer some insight into who could make some noise during this year’s World Series of Poker.
After sitting in second place behind Mike McDonald in February, Dominik Panka has been able to pass ‘Timex’ to take over the lead on the Bluff Magazine POY rankings. Using two final table finishes at EPT preliminary events, Panka has put together 667.04 points, good enough to pass McDonald (646.00) for the first place slot. Behind these two gentlemen, the cast of characters has completely changed but those contenders aren’t drawing any closer.
The champion of the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star, James Carroll went on a week later to finish on the final table at the Wynn Classic Main Event, garnering 467.60 points for third place. Mike Leah earned two WSOP Circuit victories in two days in March to push his total up to 443.55, while Ami Barer continues to ride high off his Aussie Millions championship in fifth place (401.73). Rounding out the Top Ten are Eugene Katchalov (401.40), James Calderaro (371.00), Dylan Wilkerson (365.05), Jacob Schindler (364.20) and Fabian Quoss (359.10).
Panka and McDonald are 1-2 (with 3515 and 3200 points, respectively) on the CardPlayer Magazine POY, but it is Wilkerson who has stormed into the POY picture. After not being ranked in the Top Ten in February Wilkerson, who finished runner-up in two WPT events (the Fallsview Poker Classic and the Bay 101), pops up as the third ranked player on the CardPlayer ladder with 2520 points. Katchalov (2480) and Mustapha Kanit (2934) round out the Top Five in the CardPlayer rankings.
Carroll makes his appearance on the CardPlayer leaderboard in sixth place with 2372 points, while a new name shows up in seventh. Although he hasn’t had a cash since February, Sorel Mizzi has earned enough points (2170) to hold down the seventh place slot. Chris Moorman (2100), Barer (2100) and EPT Vienna champion Oleksii Khoroshenin (1864) are the final three men who make up the CardPlayer Magazine POY Top Ten.
There’s a bit of a surprise on the Global Poker Index POY rankings in that neither Panka nor McDonald are on the top of the board. That honor goes to Keven Stammen, who has used a blistering March (five cashes, one win at a preliminary event on the L. A. Poker Classic schedule) to accrue 583.20 points, besting Panka (544.01) for the top slot. Another player who is racking up cash finishes in the early part of 2014 is Dan Heimiller, who has twelve cashes to this point in the year. Those finishes have allowed Heimiller (with 516.30 points) to slip past McDonald (513.95) for third place as Jason Mercier lurks in fifth (489.04).
Barer takes up the sixth slot on the GPI POY with his 433.46 points as another new name enters the fray. Ronit Chamani won a preliminary event at the Bay 101 and, along with a deep finish in the WPT championship event at that casino, pulls into the seventh place slot with 431.81 points. Another name not found on any of the other POY leaderboards is the United Kingdom’s Tom Hall, who has 417.86 points for eighth place after some success at the EPT Vienna. Calderaro (408.38) and Alex Bilokur (408.07) are in a razor-thin fight for the final two slots on the GPI POY countdown.
As the end of the EPT/WPT seasons occur in April, there is a significant potential for movement on all of these POY boards. The WPT has two events left on its Season XII schedule, the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown and the WPT World Championship, while the EPT finishes their Season Ten roster of events with stops in San Remo and Monte Carlo for its Grand Final. The 2014 Deepstack Extravaganza will be ongoing through the month of April and there are several events on the “smaller” circuits which could have an impact on the POY races. Although there are over 30 events scheduled for the month of May, the start of the WSOP on May 27th is the target date that everyone is looking towards and where the real contenders for the various POY awards will make their mark.
