Live and Online Poker -- Who's the Best Tournament Player?

If you talk enough about poker, you eventually get around to one of the most debated subjects in the game: Who is the best?

It’s a simple question with an impossible answer. Because variance plays such a big part in the outcome, it would take a sample size much larger than a lifetime even to begin to determine the greatest. Quantifying those results on a yearly basis, however … that’s a different story.

Since 1997, Card Player has been ranking the world’s best tournament players and awarding Player of the Year honors to those who have the most outstanding tournament results. Winners include Men Nguyen (1997, 2001, 2003, 2005), T.J. Cloutier (1998, 2002), Tony Ma (1999), David Pham (2000, 2007), Daniel Negreanu (2004), Michael Mizrachi (2006) and John Phan (2008). (pictured above left)

Times have changed, and with the rapid growth of online poker, it was important to recognize those virtual tournament players with the ability to make millions from the comfort of their own homes. Thus began the Card Player Online Player of the Year race in 2007. The two players who have claimed this title are Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron (2007) and Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis (2008). (pictured right)

The formulas have been tweaked over the years to crown the best possible champion, but for the past three years, it has been difficult to recognize those who excel both live and online.

Because the Card Player rankings take into account the size of the buy-in, the total field size, and the place finished, it fairly determines the top players in each calendar year. To figure out who dominated both sides of the spectrum, we averaged out both rankings and ordered them accordingly.

The rankings below will showcase the top 25 players from 2007 through the current year. If you are looking for any of the above-mentioned names, you won’t find them, with the exception of Baron (in the wrong year). The data shows that doing extraordinarily well in one discipline will usually cost you in the other.

Let’s start with 2007…

The 2007 Rankings

It’s no surprise who is the top player here. Annette Obrestad (pictured left) had a monster year by taking down the World Series of Poker Europe main event and was one of the most consistent players online, playing under the name Annette_15.

Jared Hamby is another example of overall success. Hamby won three preliminary events during the year and added a runner-up finish at the WPT Mandalay Bay Poker Championship, as well. Playing as TheWacoKidd, Hamby racked up monster points, particularly in the daily $100 rebuys on PokerStars.

Anchored by his success at the Bellagio Cup III, Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul did enough online to put himself in third place in the rankings.

These three players clearly had great years, but the individual POY and OPOY rankings hid how truly remarkable they performed throughout the year. This chart shows that arguably no one had better overall results.

The 2008 Rankings

Unlike the year before, only Mike “SirWatts” Watson (pictured right) truly dominated both live and online in 2008. Not only did he win the Bellagio Cup IV, but Watson kept on plugging away with his online play, finishing the year inside the top 25. His combined ranking of 34 was easily best over the rest of the competition.

Unless you are a true pokerphile, it’s likely you’ve never heard of second-place resident Ben “bmf823” Fineman. The young pro excelled at smaller in events in Las Vegas before getting his big payday at the WSOP Circuit main event at Caesars Palace. He was even better online, where he picked up a win at the Full Tilt Online Poker Series.

Amazingly, Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko made the top three, even though his big WPT Championship victory didn’t come until 2009. With a win on the Asian Poker Tour and another final table at the WSOPE, Timoshenko easily slipped into the top three with a solid year online.

One of the more unheralded players is James “mig.com” Mackey, who finished fourth overall in 2007 and seventh in 2008 in these new rankings. He is not quite enjoying the same success in 2009 thus far, but should be recognized for making the top 10 in consecutive years.

The 2009 Rankings (As of 9/16/09)

The year is hardly over, and these rankings are likely to change drastically before all is said and done, but the current best overall player of 2009 is Christian “charder30” Harder (pictured left). The young gun has a stellar online record and great live success, making final tables on both the EPT and WPT.

Mike “UNCSowers” Sowers currently sits in second place overall, thanks to a solid year online complete with deep finishes in both WCOOP and FTOPS events, but it’s the live arena where he has truly made his mark. Sowers went deep at the L.A. Poker Classic and followed that up with a fourth-place finish at the WSOP.

In third place is newcomer Carter “bdybldngpkr” Phillips, who just took down the EPT Barcelona for his first live win. This came just a week after his first live final table, where he finished third.

Looking to make the top five for the second consecutive year is Timoshenko, who sits in fourth place. If the results hold, he’ll be the first to do so.

Those are the numbers — let the debate begin.

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