Updated POY: Ficek wins Grand Stack; Hayes tallies 5th cash

Geoff Hayes II

Jeremy Dresch still sits squarely atop of the Minnesota Poker Magazine Player of the Year Standings, fresh off his $36,000 MSPT victory at Grand Casino Mille Lacs last weekend, but plenty of other players are doing some serious grinding as well.

Geoff Hayes II, Superior, WI, who took 2nd place in a Grand Series event during MSPT week in Mille Lacs, won the $100 buy-in POY event at Grand Casino Hinckley on February 20th — his 5th POY cash already in 2010. With the $1,000 victory, Hayes now moves into the top 15.

Darren Ficek, from Inver Grove Heights, MN,  won the GC Hinckley $300 Grand Stack event on Sunday for $4,800. With the victory, Ficek now has four POY cashes in 2010.

I actually had a chance to chat with Darren for a while during MSPT week at Grand Casino Mille Lacs. Cool dude.

“Poker was a fun recreational thing I was doing with friends for the most part until last year, 2009,” Ficek told me earlier today.

“2009 was the year I really started to get serious about my game and work on making it better. I found I did really well playing online sit n go tourneys. That is mainly what I am doing now online.

“I was really pumped about the Grand Stack win. I just started playing these live tourneys (recently), and to have a win already makes me feel very blessed. The tournament had a good structure which allowed for a decent amount of play.”

For a list of POY-eligible tournaments, click here.