I don’t think there’s much of a doubt that most of the poker world feels that Ben Lamb was one of the best players in the world this past year. Lamb was absolutely incredible at the 2011 World Series of Poker, and for his efforts across the board, he has taken down not one, but TWO player of the year awards. What’s even more impressive about this though? Try the fact that Lamb is now only the second player in history to win both the World Series of Poker Player of the Year Awards, AND the Card Player Magazine Player of the Year Award. Lamb made poker look easy at the WSOP this year, and you can bet that this won’t be the last time that we hear his name come up in the talks for Player of the Year.
There were obviously quite a few things that make winning these awards so impressive, but part of it is the fact that Lamb’s efforts at the WSOP were definitely enough to win the WSOP POY Award, but the Card Player Magazine POY Award is based on many different events throughout the year. Lamb’s cashes this past year came over a span of three weeks at the World Series, but they were so impressive that it locked him in for both awards. The WSOP Award is over a span of the 55+ Events, which Lamb pulled in results that were almost numbing to read.
For starters, let’s look at his cashes in WSOP Events. The first came on the 17th of June with a 2nd place, $259,918 payday in a $3k event. After that he entered two $10k events in the Pot Limit Omaha Championship, and the No Limit Hold’em Six Handed tournament; he went on to win the PLO event to take home $814,436, and finished in 12th in the NLHE for $56,140. After that came the month of July, in which Lamb pulled in a total of around $4.2 million in winnings, thanks to an 8th place finish in the $50k Players Championship, and his third place finish worth $4 million alone in the Main Event.
For those fans out there who are curious, the only other player to pull off this feat is the great Daniel Negreanu, and this was back in 2004. Keep an eye out for Lamb in the coming years, as he’s definitely one of the best players in the game today.