David “The Dragon” Pham was named the Card Player Player of the Year for 2000 as well as 2007, and he isn’t wasting any time gaining points for the 2008 race. With his most recent second-place finish at the L.A. Poker Classic in event No. 11, a $1,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament, Pham cracked the top 10 in the POY standings.
The event boasted a field of 265 players, making the prize pool more than $257,000. Pham won nearly $43,000 for second place. The winner was Thu Nguyen of 
who received the $72,000 first-place prize.
The 540 POY points Pham earned boosted him into ninth place. This is his second final table so far this year. The first one came at the PokerStars.net Caribbean Adventure, where he finished fourth in the main event, which was worth $600,000 and 1,200 POY points. Find updated POY standings by clicking here.
