2015 Card Player Player of the Year Update — Harwood and Brin Win

A number of exciting poker events wrapped up this week, awarding plenty of prize money and Card Player Player of the Year points. Here is a look at the tournaments that made the biggest impact on the 2015 POY race over the past seven days:

2015 WSOP National Championship

Loni Harwood has won the 2015 World Series of Poker National Championship at Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina. The 25-year-old poker pro from Staten Island, NY earned her second WSOP gold bracelet and the $341,599 first-place prize for the win. Harwood was also awarded 660 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was her second final table finish of the year, and as a result she has climbed to 176th place in the overall standings with 1,056 total points.

In order to come out on top Harwood had to overcome a tough final table that included the likes of all-time tournament earnings leader and six-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu, WSOP Circuit Palm Beach Kennel Club main event champ Darryll Fish and eight-time WSOP Circuit event winner Alexandru Masek.

Harwood won her first bracelet in a $1,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em event in 2013, topping a 2,541-player field. This event was a lot smaller, as it featured only a 122-player field. The tournament has a very unique format. One hundred players gained entry as a result of their success on the WSOP Circuit this past season, with WSOP Circuit main event winners and casino champions at each stop qualifying. The remaining free seats went to the players at the top of the points leaderboard. There _WSOP posted the guaranteed prize pool of $1,000,000 while the remainder of the $1,220,000 prize pool came from 22 players who posted a $10,000 buy-in, which they were invited to do as a result of finishing in the top 100 on the WSOP Player of the Year points over the past two years.

2015 WPT Choctaw Main Event

The inaugural World Poker Tour Choctaw $3,700 no-limit hold’em main event featured a $2 million guaranteed prize pool, which was easily surpassed when 1,175 entries were made to build a final prize pool of $3,989,125.

In the end the lion’s share of that was awarded to Jason Brin, a 42-year-old carpet store owner from De Soto, KS. For the win he earned his first WPT title, the $682,975 first-place prize and 1,440 POY points in the first WPT event he ever played. This was his first final table finish of the year, but this win alone was enough to move him into 83rd place in the POY rankings.

Brin topped a star studded final table, defeating 2013 WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open main event champion Andy Hwang heads-up for the title. Hwang earned $468,105 as the runner up, bringing his career live tournament earnings to just shy of $1.5 million.

Two-time WPT champion Darren Elias finished third for $303,593 at his fourth WPT final table. He now has more than $3.2 million in live tournament earnings, with $1.5 coming in WPT events alone.

2014 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $25,000 high roller champ Jake Schindler finished
fourth for $224,913. Mina Greco fell just short in her quest to become the first open-event female WPT champion, finishing fifth for $167,691.

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