Through the conclusion of Event #17, or about one-third of the way through the marathon tournament series known as the World Series of Poker, there have definitely been a bevy of positives coming out of the Rio.  For one thing, the overall attendance and prize money figures are up, which is great for the future of live tournament poker.  I for one have been a firm believer that live tournaments may be on the decline, but being proven wrong in this case is a real positive.  As for our real topic for the day, the Player of the Year race, that too has been and will continue to be a hard-fought battle right down to the end.  After two full weeks of play, the difference between 1st and 10th place is a mere 60 points, and that margin can only get tighter as more bracelet winners populate the top of the leader board.  Let’s take a look at some of the early leaders and contenders:

Amir Lehavot (1st place, 330 pts): He already has taken down the $10K Pot-Limit Hold em title, and finished 21st in a NLHE shootout as well.  A few more cashes, and maybe one more deep final table/title run will keep Lehavot near or on top of the lead the rest of the way.  What will affect him the most is how other people fare relative to him in the other $10K/$50K events.

Jake Cody (3rd place, 300 pts):  Another early bracelet winner, Cody will have a similar plight to Lehavot in that he will have to continue making deep runs and getting some separation between himself and the regulars who will show up for every $10K event.  The way the POY race is structured, extra points are awarded for running deep or winning higher buy-in events, so you have to be able to compete at multiple buy-in levels to really make it happen.  Cody can do that, and it will not be surprising to see his name in contention for the rest of the summer.

Bertrand Grospellier (4th place, 299 pts):  If I had to pick a winner at this juncture, it would be Grospellier hands down, simply because he has already won a $10K bracelet in Stud Hi, a game he’s not exactly known for excelling in, and he still has plenty of bankroll, confidence, and ability left for a host of NLHE events, plus several $10K Championships and the $50K Players Championship.  I would keep an eye on him as that $50K event draws closer, because I think he will be primed to run super deep in that event, and I would not be surprised in the least to see him win it & grab the POY title right there.

Other Players to Watch:

John Juanda (10th): He will be looking to follow-up his 2-7 Lowball title with other final tables and titles, don’t be surprised to see his name in the headlines again within a week.

Yevgeny Timoshenko (17th): This prodigious talent will play in a wide variety of events and will probably try to take the route of 6 or 7 deep runs to rack up points.  He can do exactly that, too.

Phil Helmuth (23rd):  After finishing runner-up to Juanda in the 2-7 Championship, I said almost immediately to my wife that this could go one of two ways for Hellmuth.  He either comes out of that tournament full of confidence and looking for blood in the NLHE events, makes a deep run or two and stays in this race, OR he throws a series of television-camera-induced tirades and whines his way out of contention in event after event, and we don’t hear much more about him this WSOP.  My guess is that the older and wiser Phil Hellmuth will go for option #1, and I’m expecting him to work his way up this list, not down it, in the weeks to come.

Good Luck to everyone who has already made this year’s WSOP a resounding success in every measurable way, and best of luck to everyone who is still playing!!