08 Jul 08

Erick Lindgren is 'Player of the Year'

Erick Lindgren had a close finish against Barry Greenstein in the category 'Player of the Year' at the WSOP. With 245 POY points Lindgren only had 10 points more than his pursuer.

The Top Ten
Amongst the Top Ten for the 'Player of the Year Award' this year are only the really big names of the poker scene: All the way on top are Erick Lindgren, Barry Greenstein and Jacobo Fernandez. The Main Event and a few other tournaments (e.g. Ladies, Seniors, Casino Employees) aren't included in the POY evaluation and thus the rankings have already been fixed now.

Erick Lindgren
Erick Lindgren convinced with five cashes. He won the $5,000 Mixed Hold'em (Limit/No-Limit) tournament (Event 4). His 3rd place in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship then tipped the balance. Furthermore, Lindgren finished fourth in the $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball w/ReBuys tournament (Event 18). His tourney winnings at this year's WSOP sum up to $1,348,528.

J.C. Tran
J.C. Tran even cashed seven times and won the 49th event, a $1,500 NLH tourney. His tournament winnings of $896,392 are quite a bit less than Lindgren's though. With 210 POY points Tran finished 6th in the overall ranking.

Barry Greenstein
Barry Greenstein is on rank 2 in the ranking. With 235 points he's only ten points behind Lindgren. Greenstein won the $1,500 Seven Card Razz tournament (Event 26) and cashed five more times. Amongst others he finished sixth in the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship.

Jacobo Fernandez
Jacobo Fernandez is only three points behind Greenstein. The pro from Hollywood finished seven times in the money at this year's WSOP. He had a fourth place finish in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em tournament (Event 21), a third place in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha W/ReBuys tournament (Event 34) and a second place in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em tournament (Event 3). For a bracelet it wasn't enough this time. His overall winnings sum up to $658,100.

John Phan
John Phan was the only player this year who was able to win two events: the $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em tournament (Event 29) and the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball Limit tournament (Event 40). Phan cashed three more times and thus won $608,464 overall. With 220 points he finished on rank 4.

David Benyamine
On fifth place is David Benyamine: He has the same amount of points as Phan, cashed five times, but "only" has one win. Benyamine won the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship (Event 37). In the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha W/Rebuys tournament (Event 28) he finished third. At the $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball w/ReBuys tournament (Event 18) he reached the seventh place. Overall the Frenchman raked in a winnings sum of $941,651.

Also top-ranked
Also in the top places are Farzad Rouhani (195 points) on rank 7, Daniel Negreanu (190) on rank 8, Chris Ferguson (165) on rank 9 and David Singer (165) on rank 10.

Blair and Grant Hinkle: First Bracelet
The two brothers managed something unique. They both won their first bracelet at this year's Series. For now, only two other brothers, Puggy and J.C. Pearson, were able to do this, but theirs were 21 years apart (1973 and 1994). Blair Hinkle won the $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em tournament (Event 23). His brother Grant prevailed in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em tournament (Event 2), the tourney which also broke the record number of participants for a non-Main Event this year. 3,929 players squashed in the Rio's Amazon Room.

Bloch and Matusow
Andy 'The Rock' Bloch and Mike 'The Mouth' Matusow both finished with 155 POY points. Bloch had a 2nd place finish in the first event of this year's WSOP, the $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Hold'em tournament, and a 7th place in the $10,000 World Championship Limit Hold'em tournament (Event 30). He also had three more cashes.

Matusow won his third WSOP bracelet in the $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball w/ReBuys (Event 18) and finished fifth in the $10,000 World Championship Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better (Event 37).

Scotty Ngyuen biggest winner

Scotty Ngyuen "only" cashed twice at this year's Series, but he still gathered the most money in non-Main Event tourneys this year. He finished seventh in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed tournament (Event 31) and won the $50,000 World Championship H.O.R.S.E. tournament (Event 45). This was enough for him to earn $2,039,628. Yeah, baby!

Jens Vörtmann best German

Jens Vörtmann called attention to himself with his win in the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E tournament (Event 22) and a 19th place in the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. tournament (Event 51). His tourney winnings amount to $304,939. With 110 points he's on rank 50 and thus the best German in the ranking.

Sebastian Ruthenberg
Sebastian Ruthenberg (105 points) and Martin Kläser (100) are very close behind their fellow countryman. Ruthenberg won the $5,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship (Event 33). In the heads-up he defeated none other than Chris Ferguson - who finished 9th in the ranking after all. Sebastian gathered tournament winnings of $333,411 at this Series.

Martin Kläser and Jan von Halle
Martin Kläser won the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low Split-8 or Better tournament (Event 43). His winnings amount to $216,249.
Jan von Halle got 85 points and cashed four times. In the $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em tournament (Event 38) he finished fourth.

Prominent Neighbourhood
The four Germans are also in very good company in the ranking: Similarly placed are Phil Hellmuth (105 points), John Juanda (105), Kenny Tran (105), Dario Minieri (100), Blair Hinkle (100) and Grant Hinkle (100), David Sklansky (80), Johnny Chan (75), Phil Ivey (60), Markus Golser (55), Sam Farha (55) and Patrik Antonius (50).