2015 Card Player Player of the Year Update — Paul Volpe Joins Top 10

The World Series of Poker is now in full swing, and after only two weeks it has already had a gigantic impact on the 2015 Card Player Player of the Year race. Here’s a look at the biggest tournament results from the past seven days at the Series:

2015 WSOP $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em

A total of 128 players turned out for the $10,000 pot-limit hold’em championship at the series, building a total prize pool of $1,203,200. In the end the lion’s share of that was awarded to Shaun Deeb, who topped a stacked final table to win his first WSOP gold bracelet, the $318,857 first-place prize and 660 Player of the Year points.

This was Deeb’s first final table of the year, but that was far from the case for runner-up Paul Volpe. In fact, only two days prior Volpe finished runner-up in the $10,000 no-limit hold’em heads-up championship. Volpe has now made a total of six final tables this year, winning two titles along the way in a $2,200 prelim at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and a $1,600 bounty event at the L.A. Poker Classic.

Vople earned $206,620 and 600 points in the heads-up championship and $197,048 and 550 points in this event. As a result of these big scores he has climbed into tenth place in the overall POY standings, with 2,181 total points and $749,900 in year-to-date earnings.

Jason Les, who finished runner-up in the $3,000 no-limit hold’em shootout, place third in this event for $142,747 and 440 points. With 1,040 total POY points we now sits in 100th place in the rankings.

2015 WSOP $10,000 Razz

Phil Hellmuth won his historic 14th bracelet in the $10,000 WSOP Razz championship, defeating a field of 103 players to win $271,105 and 600 points.

While Hellmuth’s win rightfully monopolized the poker world’s attention, it is also worth noting that fourth-place finisher Mike Leah moved into 12th place in the overall POY standings after taking home $75,964 and 300 points.

This was his second final table finish of the year, having finisher runner-up in the huge World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic $10,000 main event for $701,350 and 1,750. After this most recent score his point total grew to 2,050 and he increased his year-to-date earnings to $777,314.

In 2014 Leah finished third in the Player of the Year race, making nine final tables and winning four POY-qualified final tables along the way. With the year still less than half-way over, Leah looks like he has put himself in a position to compete for the Player of the Year award again this year.

2015 WSOP ‘Millionaire Maker’

This year’s ‘Millionaire Maker’ tournaments, a $1,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament with $1 million guaranteed for the champion, drew 7,275 entries to make it the sixth largest live poker tournament in the game’s history.

In the end 27-year-old electrical engineer Adrian Buckley emerge victorious to capture his first bracelet, the $1,277,193 first-place prize and 1,320 POY points. Not only was this his first score of the year, it was his first ever WSOP cash.

Buckley defeated a stacked final table that featured the likes of Mike Sexton, Erick Lindgren and Olivier Busquet, but in the end he had to overcome Javier Zarco heads-up for the title. Zarco earned $791,690 and 1,100 points as the runner up. This was his third final table of the year, with his best prior finish being a second-place showing in the WSOP Circuit Lumiere Place main event for $84,629 and 600 points.

With this latest deep run Zarco moved into 18th place in the overall standings with 1,880 points and $899,319 in year-to-date earnings.

Here is a look at the current top 20 in the POY standings:

For more coverage from the summer series, visit the 2015 WSOP landing page complete with a full schedule, news, player interviews and event recaps.