After seeing one player or another dominate the major Player of the Year races in the poker world over the last twelve months, the final few tournaments of 2012 shook up the standings. Approximately a month ago, Dan Smith was atop the ladder in two of the three POY races, but late season charges have led to three different players being crowned the champions of the respective POY polls.
On the Bluff Magazine POY race, Smith held the edge over defending World Champion Greg Merson and Marvin Rettenmaier, with 154 points separating the three men. Although he was able to add some more points to his score by winning a preliminary event at the European Poker Tour stop in Prague, Smith was caught not by Merson but by Rettenmaier. He had three finishes from mid-November on that bumped up his point total: a 27th place finish at the World Poker Tour stop in Montreal, a twelfth place finish at a Five Diamond World Poker Classic preliminary event at the Bellagio and a winning turn in the €10,000 High Roller tournament in Prague.
With those finishes, Rettenmaier pushed his points total to 1348.52, good enough to pass Smith (1261.01) to take the Bluff Magazine POY honors. Merson, who hasn’t cashed in a poker tournament since October (but that was the World Series of Poker Championship Event’s “Octo-Nine”!), dropped down to third place with 1157.55 points. These were the only three players who were able to crack the 1000 point mark on the Bluff board.
Joseph Cheong completed an outstanding 2012 tournament poker season by landing in fourth place on the Bluff POY and Phil Hellmuth’s own exemplary play was good enough to score him the fifth place slot. Rounding out the Bluff POY Top Ten were Phil Ivey, Michael Mizrachi, Ole Schemion, Antonio Esfandiari and Jonathan Duhamel in sixth through tenth places, respectively.
On the CardPlayer Magazine POY standings, Merson was able to use his two WSOP bracelet wins to barely hold on to the top slot. His 5100 points were impressive, but Smith nearly caught him when the final totals were rung up. Smith finished the year with 5040 points, losing out by a slim 60 point margin, while Rettenmaier’s late season run could only push him up to third place (4130) on the CardPlayer rankings.
A name that dropped off the Bluff Magazine roster is Kyle Julius, who will take down the fourth place slot on the CardPlayer POY. Although he hasn’t cashed in a tournament since October, he was still able to put together 3752 points, while Schemion ends 2012 in fifth (3676) on the CardPlayer standings. Cheong, Esfandiari, Hellmuth, 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure champion John Dibella and Aussie Millions victor Oliver Speidel took the sixth through tenth place spots on the board.
On the Global Poker Index’s POY race, Smith held strong in the first place slot, where he had been since the fall. Racking up 1158.27 points, Smith held on to deny Rettenmaier (1077.09) a second POY award. One of the surprises on the GPI POY is Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, who was able to earn four cashes in November and December to move into the third place slot with 913.35 points.
Julius also earned the fourth place slot on the GPI POY (906.02), while another surprise popped into the Top Five. Andrew Lichtenberger’s fifth place finish at the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic Championship Event was able to catapult him into the fifth place rung on the ladder with 889.57 points. Finishing off the GPI POY for 2012 were Cheong, Hellmuth, Duhamel, Jason Mercier and Stephen O’Dwyer, with the last two men not even ranking in the Top Ten on the Bluff or CardPlayer boards.
On a sidelight, the GPI also ranks the top women players for 2012, with Vanessa Selbst earning the women’s POY award. She was followed by Lucille Cailly, Liv Boeree, Melanie Weisner, Gaelle Baumann, Amanda Musumeci, Ana Marquez, Carla Solinas, Xuan Liu and Maria Ho in the Top Ten.
With the tournament poker season essentially done for 2012, we’re presented with the same problem that the game of poker has…who was the best player this year? With three different champions over the major boards, there isn’t a consensus on that question. But, with the slate wiped clean for 2013, all players can make their run for being the Player of the Year in the coming twelve months.
