In fact, WPT Season 6 Player of the Year Jonathan Little will enter this week's Foxwoods Poker Classic within striking distance of a repeat performance here in Season 7.

Little sits tied for third on the World Poker Tour's Player of the Year leaderboard, his 1,000 POY points just behind John Phan (1,400) and Kathy Liebert (1,300) with only two events left on the schedule.

Players earn points for finishing in the top seven at WPT events, with seventh taking 200 points and first a cool 1,000.

"I'm well aware of [the standings] and getting a fourth-place or higher [finish] will put me in the lead," Little told PokerListings.com. "Hopefully I can make it happen. Winning Player of the Year back to back would be huge."

Little's 1,000 points, ironically, came with his win at Foxwoods' World Poker Finals this past November, a victory that earned the Pensacola, Fla. native a cash reward of $1,120,310.

It was another strong showing for Little, who with two WPT titles and nearly $4 million in career earnings, has cemented his reputation as one of the hottest young talents on the Tour.

"I'm very, very excited about this one," Little said in an interview with PokerListings following the win. "I wasn't really excited about the Mirage one [his first WPT victory], for some reason."

"I mean, I was excited, but this one confirms that I can actually do it again and it's not just a huge luckfest."

Full Tilt's Erik Seidel is actually the Foxwoods Poker Classic returning champ, but it's Little who returns to Connecticut this week with a chance to make history. And he likes his spot.

"Foxwoods is a great place to play poker," Little said. "They have a giant poker room and they always take care of their players."

And the opposition?

"In general, I think the players are worse than the players in Vegas," he said, before suggesting the same is true for every other casino in the world.

"I do think the players [at Foxwoods] are a little more stubborn than normal."

The main event at Foxwoods begins Friday, with the first and only Day 1 getting under way at noon Eastern Time.

Action will continue over the weekend and into next week, with the final table playing out on Wednesday, April 8.

For his part, Little remains realistic about his shot at double POY honors.

"I'm probably one in 50 to take the top four in Foxwoods and one in 100 to take the top five at Bellagio, so I'm probably around 3% to repeat," he said.

Tune in to the PokerListings Live Tournament section all week for a glimpse of FieryJustice in action.

 

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