The WSOP has expanded into a truly massive event complete with 58 tournaments that span 50 days. Oddly enough, not even 58 tourneys will be enough to decide the 2011 WSOP Player of the Year race.
Now right now, Ben Lamb is the clear favorite to walk away with the 2011 POY title since he’s officially second in the standings (659) behind Phil Hellmuth (710), but poised to take over with the massive influx of points he’s set to get from making the Main Event final table. However, even with the mystery points boost that Lamb is do, the Main Event winner will certainly be in the running since they’re going to get 500 points in the POY standings.
So essentially, some bum who finished 15th in a $1k buy-in event and 32nd in another low profile WSOP tournament could swoop in, and take the Player of the Year title by winning the Main Event.
Granted, the Main Event is the ultimate in terms of poker prestige and popularity; however, you also have to consider that past champions include Jerry Yang, Jamie Gold and Robert Varkonyi – a.k.a. three donks who support Congress’ argument that poker is not a game of skill. So does anybody like this deserve a shot at the WSOP Player of the Year title?
To sum things up, the POY award will now largely be comprised of people who had solid pre-Main Event WSOP’s, then had an excellent run in the Main Event (and possibly WSOPE because that’s included too). Lamb is an anomaly of what’s to come since he has played excellent throughout the 2011 WSOP. But be aware of what’s to come.
