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After a monster start to his 2012 tournament campaign, former World Series of Poker Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel has claimed the lead in two of the three Player of the Year races, the BLUFF Magazine POY Race and the PokerNews/Global Poker Index POY Race –Duhamel is currently in 5^th place on the Card Player Magazine Player of the Year Race.

On the BLUFF leader-board Duhamel has a 32 point lead over 2012 Aussie Millions winner Oliver Speidel, with John Dibella, Ruben Visser, and Faraz Jaka rounding out the Top 5 –Phil Ivey is sitting in 6^th place.

On the Global Poker Index (GPI) Duhamel has a huge lead over his nearest challenger, Jason Koon, leading Koon by nearly 200 points: 465.55 points to 284.24 points. Rounding out the Top 5 on the GPI are Ruben Visser, Sam Chartier, and Faraz Jaka.

Thus far it would seem that Duhamel is the 2012 version of Erik Seidel, who was right in the thick of the POY races despite not winning any of the usual major tournaments. Here is a look at how Duhamel has amassed his Player of the Year points thus far:

• 4^th place in the $100k Super-High-Roller tournament at the 2012 PCA — $313,600
• 5^th place in the $5k NLHE 8-Max Turbo tournament at the 2012 PCA — $17,990
• 1^st place in the $5k NLHE 8-Max tournament at the 2012 PCA — $239,830
• 2^nd place in the $25k NLHE 8-Max High-Roller tournament at the 2012 PCA — $634,550
• 8^th place in the €2k NLHE tournament at the EPT Deauville — $18,281