There is a new front runner in the 2014 Card Player Player of the Year race, sponsored by CarbonPoker. Here is a look at what went down this week on the tournament circuit to change up the top of the leader board:
2014 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open $10 Million Guaranteed Main Event
It only seems fitting that the only player with eight-figures in live tournament earnings in 2014 should be in the lead in the Player of the Year race. With his third massive title run of the year Dan Colman has made that a reality. With just under $21 million in live tournament earnings since this April, Colman went from an unremarkable tournament career to surpassing Phil Ivey on the all time live tournament earnings list, moving into third position behind Daniel Negreanu and Antonio Esfandiari.
Colman’s latest win came in the 2014 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open $10 Million Guaranteed Main Event, where he topped a 1,499-entry field to win $1,446,710 (his fourth seven-figure score of the year) and 1,920 Player of the Year points.
This was the 23-year-old poker pro from Holden, Massachusetts sixth final table finish. He started this legendary run off by winning the 2014 European Poker Tour Grand Final €100,000 super high roller for more than $2.1 million. He followed that up by winning the second running of the $1 million buy-in Big One For One Drop, defeating 2013 POY winner Daniel Negreanu heads-up to win $15.3 million. He also made the semi-finals of the WSOP $10,000 heads-up no-limit hold’em championship, finished runner-up in the €50,000 high roller at the EPT Barcelona and third at a $100,000 super high roller held at Aria in July. As a result of all of this Colman has been catapulted into the outright lead in the POY standings with 4,770 points and $20,980,768 in year-to-date earnings.
Colman may have beaten a larger field in this event than in his previous wins in super high roller events, but that does not mean that the final table opponents was any less stacked. In fact he had to outlast the likes of Joe Kuether (5th – $424,044), 2010 November Niner John Dolan (4th – $548,763), WPT champ Shawn Cunix (3rd – $748,313) and eventual runner-up Mike Leah.
For his second-place finish Leah earned the first seven-figure score of his career and 1,600 POY points. This was his sixth POY-qualified final table finish of the year. The Canadian pro kicked his year off with a win in a $5,300 no-limit hold’em event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and followed that up with another win in a $1,000 prelim at the Fallsview Poker Classic. His third POY title came in a $580 prelim at the WSOP Circuit at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. Leah made two final tables during the summer, finishing seventh in a $2,500 Omaha/stud eight-or-better event at the WSOP and second in a $1,100 event at the Venetian.
Now with this most recent score Leah has moved into third place in the overall Player of the Year rankings as a result of this latest score. His point total for the year is 4,174 with $1,512,026 in earnings so far in 2014.
Here is a look at the current top twenty in the 2014 POY standings:
| Rank | Player | POY Points | Earnings |
| 1 | Daniel Colman | 4,770 | $20,980,768 |
| 2 | Mustapha Kanit | 4,514 | $1,234,776 |
| 3 | Mike Leah | 4,174 | $1,512,026 |
| 4 | Jake Schindler | 3,700 | $2,156,184 |
| 5 | Ami Barer | 3,580 | $1,930,121 |
| 6 | Dylan Wilkerson | 3,316 | $1,076,307 |
| 7 | Dominik Panka | 3,315 | $1,840,936 |
| 8 | Mike McDonald | 3,312 | $4,357,089 |
| 9 | Keven Stammen | 3,262 | $1,655,439 |
| 10 | Dan Smith | 3,110 | $2,627,723 |
| 11 | Jason Mercier | 3,106 | $2,778,584 |
| 12 | Doug Polk | 3,010 | $3,503,603 |
| 13 | Brandon Shack-Harris | 2,890 | $1,405,740 |
| 14 | Kevin Eyster | 2,874 | $899,019 |
| 15 | Joseph Mckeehen | 2,780 | $1,155,984 |
| 16 | Davidi Kitai | 2,588 | $1,377,077 |
| 17 | Mukul Pahuja | 2,514 | $1,060,582 |
| 18 | Isaac Baron | 2,500 | $1,508,968 |
| 19 | Sorel Mizzi | 2,495 | $1,151,301 |
| 20 | Eugene Katchalov | 2,480 | $725,061 |
