With 7,000 in the pot and a board reading , a player in the small blind moved all in and put the pressure on Dan O'Brien, who was sitting with 4,000 on the button. O'Brien seemed perplexed by the bet and thought for awhile, oftentimes talking things out, before making the call.
The small blind then rolled over for a straight and O'Brien shook his head in disgust. "Good luck guys," he said as he collected his things and exited the tournament area.
The Player of the Year race is a heated affair here in Cannes. We'll let the WSOP Media Guide tell the story of the WSOP POY and just why it's a big deal here in France:
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) instituted a Player of the Year system in 2004, once Harrah’s (now Caesars) took over the tournament.
The system awards points based on finish for all open bracelet events. Anyone who cashes in a WSOP gold bracelet event is awarded points. And the player with the most overall points is the winner of the WSOP Player of the Year. Bluff Magazine created and powers the formula used to determine the WSOP POY.
Adding the WSOP Player of the Year to your resume is one of the highest honors a poker player can achieve.
Typically, the individual who wins this award has multiple in-the-money finishes and at least a WSOP gold bracelet among those cashes. In fact, no player has won the award without at least capturing a WSOP gold bracelet.
The WSOP Player of the Year includes the seven gold bracelets awarded at WSOP Europe. This year’s winner has 65 events to compete in to qualify for the WSOP Player of the Year: 58 open events at the WSOP, and the seven up for grabs in Cannes, France at WSOPE.
Technically, Phil Ivey, with five final table appearances and 568.70 points, leads the 2012 WSOP Player of the Year standings. However, Greg Merson, who is amongst the finalists of the WSOP Main Event, has 481.13 points, plus he will earn an additional 100-500 points depending on where he finishes in Las Vegas. So Merson, if he doesn’t cash in any events at WSOP Europe and finishes ninth in the Main Event, will have 581.13 points. In a best case scenario, he will have 981.13 points for winning the WSOP Main Event.
The current WSOP Player of the Year standings can be found here.
Last year, it took until the Final Table of the WSOP Main Event to determine the winner. Ben Lamb beat out Phil Hellmuth for the crown.
2012 WSOP Player of the Year Standings Prior to WSOPE
The numbers are in. Day 1b of Event #2: €1,100 No-Limit Hold'em has officially drawn 331 players, bringing the two-day total of entries up to 626. That has created a prize pool of €600,960 which will be distributed to the top 63 players as follows:
We didn't see Dan Shak's elimination, but Joe Kuether was kind enough to fill us in on some of the details. According to him, a three-way preflop raising war saw Shak get his stack of about 7,000 in with only to run into the and of his opponents. There would be no miracle for Shak and he last about a level and a half after late registering.
We decided to take a stroll through the tournament floor and see how many women were remaining in the field. Much to our surprise, of the approximately 84 players left, none of them are women. Given no women advanced from Day 1a, the only ladies left in the tournament are the .
After a player raised to 600 from middle position, a short-stacked Noah Schwartz moved all in from the big blind for 3,575. A call was made and the cards were turned up:
Showdown
Schwartz:
Opponent:
It was a race, but Schwartz needed to improve to stay alive. He didn't like what he saw on the flop and stood from his seat, which brought about the turn. "It always happens right before dinner," Schwartz said to the guy next to him. Sure enough, the blanked on the river and Schwartz was eliminated just 15 minutes shy of the dinner break.
Meanwhile, Jean Paul Pasqualini is gaining momentum over at Table 11 and has built his stack up to 18,000.
, a player in the small blind moved all in and put the pressure on Dan O'Brien, who was sitting with 4,000 on the button. O'Brien seemed perplexed by the bet and thought for awhile, oftentimes talking things out, before making the call.
for a straight and O'Brien shook his head in disgust. "Good luck guys," he said as he collected his things and exited the tournament area.
only to run into the 
.
turn. "It always happens right before dinner," Schwartz said to the guy next to him. Sure enough, the 
blanked on the river and Schwartz was eliminated just 15 minutes shy of the dinner break.