The Most Consistent Tournament Poker Players Of The Past DecadeA Look At 22 Players Who Have Made The Card Player Player of the Year Top 200 Five Years Or More Over The Past Ten Years |
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The Card Player Player of the Year race is all about consistency. Winning any one poker tournament is hard enough, but putting together 12 months of results strong enough to make it near the top of the POY leader board is a demonstration of true skill, steadiness and commitment to grinding it out on the increasingly global live tournament circuit.
With the 2016 POY race just getting underway we thought it would be a good time to look back over the past decade’s Player of the Year results to see who was best able to demonstrate that consistency year after year. Looking at the top 200 finishers each year from 2006 through 2015, we found that 22 players finished in the top 200 at least five times, with six players making the top 200 seven or more times!
Here is a look at the cream of the crop when it comes to consistency on the live tournament scene:
Eight-Time Top 200 Finishers
Only two players managed to finish inside the top 200 eight out of the past ten years: Will “The Thrill” Failla and Justin Bonomo.
Failla’s highest finish in the POY standings was 23rd in 2012, the year that he won three titles and made ten final tables, cashing for $599,888 that year. Failla has $5,085,578 in career live tournament earnings, with 18 total titles and 183 cashes. By far the biggest score of his career came when he topped a field of 757 players to win the 2011 World Poker Tour Legends of Poker main event at The Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. He earned his lone major title and $758,085 for that win.
The only other player to make the POY top 200 80 percent of the time this decade was Justin Bonomo. His highest finish in the standings came in 2013, when he made five huge final tables including finishing runner-up in the $10,000,000 guaranteed Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open for $1,163,500 and making the semi-finals of the WSOP $10,000 heads-up no-limit hold’em championship. Over the eight years that he finished inside the top 200 he cashed for $7.9 million dollars, winning his first WSOP bracelet along the way in a $1,500 six-max no-limit hold’em event.
Seven-Time Top 200 Finishers
Four players finished inside the top 200 seven times in the last decade. Three of them are some of the biggest and most recognizable names in the game, while the fourth is more of a pros-pro who has consistently put up great numbers without quite making the leap from star to superstar.
First up among the seven-timers is all time live tournament earnings money leader Daniel Negreanu. In the last decade he has finished inside the top 50 in the POY rankings four times, with his top finish being when he won this title for the second time in his career in 2013 (having first won in 2004.) In the seven years he made the top 200 the Canadian superstar cashed for more than $19 million dollars.
Like Negreanu, Phil Ivey is one of the game’s most well known players, and both have earned their reputation as the game’s best with continued dominance throughout the years. Ivey’s highest year-end finish over the past decade was 21st place in 2012. He has found considerable success playing high buy-in events on the growing and evolving super high roller circuit. In the seven years he finished in the top 200 he cashed for seven figures five times, earning more than $3 million in a single year twice along the way.
Jason Mercier burst onto the scene in 2008, with his first recorded live tournament result being his win in the European Poker Tour San Remo main event for $1,364,330. Although he missed all of 2006 and 2007, he still found a way to make the top 200 every year since 2008 except 2010, when he finished 234th. Mercier has accumulated $16,226,715 in live earnings since his debut in Italy and quickly cemented himself as one of the game’s top players. He has finished inside the top ten three times and fell just short of a fourth by finishing 11th in 2014, with his highest year-end rank being fifth in 2015.
Rounding out the seven-timers club is Scott Clements. In 2007 he had his best POY run, finishing fourth in the standings after cashing for $2,182,586 and winning three titles, including the WPT North American Poker Championships and a $1,500 pot-limit Omaha bracelet at the WSOP. Six of his seven years on the top 200 list he made the top 100 as well.
Six-Time Top 200 Finishers
The six-time top 200 finishers list reads like a who’s-who of poker’s greatest established tournament destroyers and the cream of the crop of the next generation.
All-time WSOP bracelet leader Phil Hellmuth has finished as high as eighth in the standings and remained consistent despite not following the international circuit as much as many other top pros. JC Tran put up incredible numbers in 2006 and 2007, finishing in second place in the standings in the former and following it up with a third-place showing the very next year. Michael Mizrachi was the only player among the six-timers to win the Player of the Year award, coming out on top in 2006 after an incredible year that saw him make 10 final tables and win four titles.
Then there were the younger pros who’ve made names for themselves this decade. Vanessa Selbst has been a dominant force on the live tournament scene in recent years, making her debut on the scene in 2008 and making the top 200 six out of the 8 years that followed, with an average finish of 30th place when she did. Her highest finish was third place in 2013.
Scott Seiver has cashed for seven figures four times in his six top-200 runs, including earning $7.6 million in 2015. Mike McDonald has finished in the top 50 four times out of six top 200 finishes, while Chris Klodnicki never made the top 50 but was still incredibly consistent. Mike Watson’s highest finish was 15th in 2013, but the current second-place occupant in the 2016 race is off to a good start to improve on that best finish this year. Rounding out the six-timers in Jeff Madsen, who came out of nowhere in 2006 to finish fourth in the POY rankings. With five other top 200 finishes this decade he has proven to be anything but a one-hit wonder.
Five-Time Top 200 Finishers
Seven more players managed to make the top 200 in the POY rankings at least half of the time this past decade. Steve Sung did it five years in a row for 2006-2010, with a top showing of 18th 2008. Sorel Mizzi reached the top three in 2010 after winning four titles at 16 final tables. Shannon Shorr has made the top 30 three times in the past decade, peaking at sixth in 2006.
John Juanda was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame last year and proved why he deserved that honor with incredible consistency. He finished inside the top 50 three times including a 10th-place showing in 2010. Matt Stout has finished in 69th place twice, but never cracked the top 50 in his five years inside the top 200. German Dominik Nitsche is a WSOP multiple bracelet winner and WPT champion and has finished as high as 34th in the POY standings. And last but far from least is 2014 WSOP main event champion Martin Jacobson, who has finished inside the top 50 three times with his best showing being fifth the year he won the main event.
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