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In one of the closest Player of the Year races in recent memory, Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov was able to outpace Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier for the 2011 BLUFF Magazine Player of the Year Award by a margin of less than 18 points.

Katchalov’s 2011 tournament campaign started with a big win at the 2011 PCA, where Katchalov captured the $100k Super-High-Roller title (and about $1.5 million in prize-money) after defeating Daniel Negreanu for the title.  From there Katchalov went on to win his first WSOP bracelet, final table a second WSOP tournament, final table the inaugural Epic Poker League Main Event, and finish 3^rd at the EPT Barcelona Main Event. In the process Eugene also surpassed the $7 million mark in career tournament earnings, good enough for 36^th place on the all-time money list according to thehendonmob.com.

Here is a look at the final standings for the 2011 BLUFF Magazine Player of the Year Award:

1. Eugene Katchalov – 1,089.28
2. Bertrand Grospellier – 1,071.67
3. Ben Lamb – 988.10
4. Matt Waxman – 968.20
5. Steve O’Dwyer – 964.77
6. Sam Trickett – 938.32
7. Marvin Rettenmaier – 935.14
8. Chris Moorman – 925.88
9. Elio Fox –  920.45
10. Pius Heinz – 892.75

For a look at the complete BLUFF Magazine leader-board you can visit www.bluffmagazine.com

BLUFF Magazine created their Player of the Year formula back in 2005, when Phil Ivey became the first recipient of the award, since then BLUFF POY Award winners have included Chad Brown (2006), Bill Edler (2007), John Phan (2008), Jason Mercier (2009), and Sorel Mizzi (2010).