Tournament: Top Players Claim Multiple Cashes at This Year’s WSOP

A quick look at the current WSOP leaderboard shows that a single big win just won’t cut it this year. Instead, the top ten points leaders currently boast anywhere from two to five major cashes. Eight of those ten have won bracelets in this year’s competition, and John Brock Parker and the legendary Phil Ivey have both claimed two bracelets only halfway into the 2009 World Series of Poker events.

At the top of the board is Finnish sensation Ville Wahlbeck. Prior to this year’s tournament, Wahlbeck’s total WSOP earnings were a collective $25,389 from four cash finishes in 2006 and 2007. His best placing had been 20th in the 2007 World Championship Seven Card Stud event. Wahlbeck’s performance at the 2009 WSOP has been nothing short of a meteoric rise to fame. He has thus far had four cash finishes, three final table finishes, and took the bracelet in the World Championship Mixed Event. His 2009 WSOP earnings are currently at $849,785 and his consistently high placings have earned him 255 points, putting him 35 points ahead of Parker and Ivey who are tied for second with 220 points and five and three cashes respectively.

Vitaly Lunkin’s bracelet win in the $40,000 buy-in No Limit Holdem event earned him $1,891,012 and made him an early leader for total cash winnings, and he has since posted a second cash finish in the World Championship Mixed Event, but with only 110 points for his two cashes he is still sitting just outside the top ten on the WSOP POY leaderboard.

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