Player of the Year Update — Joseph Cheong Into Top Ten

The European fall swing wrapped up this past week with the conclusion of the European Poker Tour San Remo which made a notable impact on the 2012 Card Player Player of the Year race sponsored by Lock Poker. Here’s a look at the events at how the race has changed in the past week:

EPT San Remo €10,000 High Roller

Germany’s Benny Spindler won the European Poker Tour San Remo €10,000 no-limit hold’em high roller for €253,000 ($327,357), defeating American Keven Stammen in a lengthy back-and-forth heads-up battle to earn his eighth career tournament title.

In accordance with a deal made during heads-up play, Stammen earned €200,000 ($258,780) for his runner-up finish, after having won a €2,100 no-limit hold’em turbo side event just days earlier for $119,950.

A total of 84 players posted the buy-in to build a €823,200 ($1,065,138) prize pool. Plenty of big names turned out, but only 10 players made the money.

Joseph Cheong, fresh off of his final-table berth in the World Series of Poker Europe main event, finished fourth for $95,878. This was Cheong’s fifth final table of 2012, bringing his year-to-date earnings to $825,030. Cheong also earned 240 POY points, which propelled him into ninth place in the overall rankings with 2,810 points.

EPT San Remo Main Event

A total of 797 players turned out for the 2012 EPT San Remo €5,300 no-limit hold’em main event. In the end, the last player standing was France’s Ludovic Lacay, who earned €744,910 ($963,020). As a result of his first major win, Lacay now has lifetime tournament earnings of nearly $2.9 million. This was his fifth six-figure score, with his largest prior cash being $500,557 for finishing 16th in the 2009 World Series of Poker main event.

Lacay also scored 1,824 POY points for his first major title, which was enough to catapult him into 35th place in the overall POY standings when combined with his sixth-place finish in a $5,000 pot-limit Omaha event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure earlier this year.

Runner-up Jason Lavallee took home €538,089 ($695,641) and 1,520 points, climbing to 49th place in the POY standings. Lavallee has one prior final-table finish in 2012, a fifth-place showing in the $2,500 WSOP deuce-to-seven triple draw lowball event.

Here is a look at the current top twenty in the Player of the Year race: