Yeah baby! Nguyen is position to claim Casino City WSOP Player of the Year title
With just 36 players remaining in the Main Event of the World Series of Poker, Scotty Nguyen, who entered the Main Event third on the Casino City World Series of Poker Player of the Year leaderboard, is still alive and can claim the title if he makes it into the top-15 today.
Nguyen will pass Michael Binger no matter where he finishes at this point, even if he is the first to be eliminated today. Meanwhile, Alexander Kravchenko is the only player who can catch Nguyen, and he'll need Nguyen to bust out very early today at least a final table finish himself.
Daniel Alaei, who was in contention for the title but needed a win to pass Michael Binger, will not be able to catch Nguyen, though he is still in the field.
Nguyen, who will have just five cashes in the Series compared to eight for Michael Binger, will finish ahead of Binger on the leaderboard in larger part because of his performance in World Championship events, which received some added weight in our scoring system.
Nguyen was the runner-up in the $3,000 World Championship Seven-Card Stud Hi-ow tournament, 15th in the $10,000 World Championship Pot Limit Omaha tournament and advanced to the Round of 32 in the $5,000 World Championship Heads-Up No Limit Hold'em tournament. He added a 10th-place finish in a $2,500 Seven-Card Stud Hi-ow event.
Kravchenko won a WSOP bracelet in a $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low event. He added a ninth in the $5,000 H.O.R.S.E. event, a 27th in the $5,000 World Championship Pot Limit Hold'em event, and a 43rd in a $1,000 S.H.O.E. event.
Play will resume today at noon PST and continue until a final table is determined.
Player | Hometown | Day 5 Chip Count | Place Needed* |
---|---|---|---|
Scotty Nguyen | Las Vegas, Nev. | $1,960,000 | 49th |
Alexander Kravchenko | Moscow, Russia | $1,555,000 | 9th |
* Note: Place needed in the Main Event win Casino City WSOP POTY honors, assuming no other players on the leaderboard finish in the top 50.
Casino City WSOP Player of the Year Standings
Place | Name | Hometown | Points |
---|---|---|---|
1. | Michael Binger | Las Vegas, Nev. | 281.0 |
2. | Thor Hansen | El Segundo, Calif. | 269.0 |
3. | Scotty Nguyen | Las Vegas, Nev. | 266.0 |
4. | Robert Mizrachi | Sunny Isles Beach, Fla. | 262.5 |
5. | Alex Bolotin | Brooklyn, N.Y. | 256.4 |
6. | Jeffrey Lisandro | Salerno, Italy | 235.4 |
7. | Greg Mueller | White Rock, B.C. | 234.9 |
8. | Chad Brown | Los Angeles, Calif. | 222.2 |
9. | Humberto Brenes | San Jose, Costa Rica | 218.7 |
10. | Chris Bjorin | London, U.K. | 213.2 |
(Updated 7/6/07; includes Events 1-54)

NOTE: The Casino City Editorial Team has devised a top-secret formula for its Player of the Year selection. The formula was created using legal pads, cell phone calculators and a great deal of shoulder shrugging. We tested it against last year's winners and despite our fears and obvious lack of math skills, it did quite well.
Without giving away too much information, the formula rewards top-50 finishers in each bracelet event, weights performance based on buy-ins and participation numbers and awards bonus points to players who make final tables, win a bracelets and do well in World Championship events.