Tulsa, Oklahoma native Ben BenbaLamb (pictured), a member of the 2011 WSOP November Nine, edged out decorated PocketFiver Chris moorman1Moorman for CardPlayer’s 2011 Player of the Year title. CardPlayer posted the results on Monday showing that Lamb ended up with 6,036 points, about 150 ahead of Moorman’s 5,875. Lamb recorded $5.3 million in tracked earnings in 2011, $4 million of which came after a third place finish in the WSOP Main Event.

Lamb, who was also the WSOP Player of the Year, turned in a truly remarkable performance at this year’s running of the annual tournament series. He took second in a $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha tournament for $259,000 after falling heads-up to his Omaha protégé, Sam Stein. Lamb actually taught Stein how to play Omaha and entered heads-up play against his former student as a 2:1 dog. Nevertheless, the finish was worth 1,200 points towards CardPlayer’s Player of the Year standings.

Lamb’s Pot Limit Omaha carnage wasn’t done there, however. Eleven events later, he took down a bracelet in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship and banked $814,000. In the end, Lamb defeated Sami Kelopuro heads-up and claimed his very first gold bracelet. “The Year of Benba” was on and he amassed another 2,160 CardPlayer Player of the Year points for the victory.

In Event #46 of the 2011 WSOP, the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max Championship, Lamb bowed out when two tables remained; his 12th place finish was worth $56,000. Moorman, the runner-up in the 2011 CardPlayer Player of the Year standings, placed second in the same tournament for $716,000, while the bracelet and over a million bucks went to Joe ender555 Ebanks.

The $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship was the next major splash for Lamb. The tournament attracted 128 players and marked one of three runner-up finishes for 11-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth. Lamb exited in eighth place, added another $201,000 to his 2011 WSOP coffer, and received face-time on ESPN, which aired the all-No Limit Hold’em final table.

Then there was the Main Event. Lamb recorded his fourth final table of the 2011 WSOP in the “Big One” and survived to see the final day of play. He went out in a blaze of glory after getting Martin Staszko‘s (pictured) chips all-in on the very first pot of three-handed play. When the cards were shown, Lamb held K-J against pocket sevens. Many in the industry questioned Lamb’s 4bet shove as well as Staszko’s all-in call with the wired pair, which eventually held on for the double up. Lamb went out three hands later in third place and banked just over $4 million.

Amazingly, halfway through June, Lamb had zero CardPlayer Player of the Year points. He took third in Bluff Magazine’s 2011 Player of the Year race behind PokerStarspros Eugene Katchalov and Bertrand ElkY Grospellier. Moorman finished eighth in Bluff’s rankings.

Moorman (pictured) is the most successful player in the history of PocketFives and is the only member of the community to log over $7.5 million in tracked cashes. To boot, he has a record-setting 11 Triple Crowns, an award that requires players to take down three $10,000 prize pool tournaments across three sites tracked for the PocketFives Rankings in seven days.

Up until last year, the knock on Moorman was that he lacked any signature live scores. That all changed in 2011, however, when he went on a tear during the WSOP. Aside from his aforementioned $716,000 haul for taking second in the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max Championship, Moorman pocketed $271,000 for finishing third in a $2,500 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max event. That tournament drew nearly 1,400 players and went down as Moorman’s very first WSOP final table.

Once WSOP Europe in Cannes rolled around, Moorman was up to his winning ways once again. This time, he took second in the Main Event to New Yorker Elio Fox in a tournament that appeared on ESPN last month. Moorman fell just shy of his first bracelet, but still managed to pull out an €800,000 payday. He’s up to over $2.2 million in career WSOP earnings.

Lamb joins an esteemed list of former CardPlayer Player of the Year winners and becomes just the 10th recipient of the award ever:

1997: Men Nguyen
1998: T.J. Cloutier
1999: Tony Ma
2000: David Pham
2001: Men Nguyen
2002: T.J. Cloutier
2003: Men Nguyen
2004: Daniel Negreanu
2005: Men Nguyen
2006: Michael Mizrachi
2007: David Pham
2008: John Phan
2009: Eric basebaldy Baldwin
2010: Tom Kingsofcards Marchese
2011: Ben Benba Lamb

Congratulations to Lamb on his 2011 CardPlayer Player of the Year honors.