'Phil, Did You Know That You're No. 1 ... ?'

After the 2001 World Series of Poker (WSOP), I lamented to my wife and parents that all I had to do was finish one spot higher in the final event (fourth instead of fifth) to be No. 1 on the all-time money-winning list at the WSOP. Ever since 1993, I have been chasing Johnny Chan on that list, and every time I moved up, he moved up, as well. In fact, when I won the two-day pot-limit hold'em event at the WSOP in 1997, Johnny listened to me win it while he was playing in the one-day deuce-to-seven event. I guess that listening to me win fired him up, because even though I moved $210,000 closer to him, about four hours later he went ahead and won the deuce-to-seven event to effectively "come over the top" of me and regain $180,000 of the $210,000 that I had just gained on him! Aargh!! I have been frustrated in my chase of the money list lead by Johnny for a long time. In fact, as I moved up from $1 million to $2.089 million, I actually lost ground to Johnny! Then, throw T.J. Cloutier into the mix as the new WSOP all-time money-winning leader as of 2000, and I really had my work cut out for me to catch them both. In fact, T.J. started the 2001 WSOP more than $550,00 ahead of me, and Johnny started almost $500,000 ahead of me.

Recently I ran into Chris Ferguson in L.A., and he said to me, "Did you know that you are No. 1 on the all-time money-winning list at the WSOP?" I said, "No, I don't think I am." Chris said, "Well, I ran the numbers, and I believe that you are about $25,000 ahead of T.J. and $50,000 ahead of Johnny." (I already knew that I had finally passed Johnny.) I thought, "Wow, could this really be true?!" After calling T.J. to confirm that he had only two finishes in the money this year, I realized that my total of $2,844,850 was enough to make me No. 1! What a great feeling it was to achieve a goal that I have had for more than eight years! I started dancing around my house like a kid in a candy store, and I actually felt a little bit light-headed. I immediately called my parents, Chris Ferguson, Ultimatebet.com, Card Player, and Benny Binion Behnan to share my good news.

Chris Ferguson was rather funny when I called him. He said, "Phil, can you believe this? I cashed six times and won one event, and still lost a spot to Erik Seidel on the all-time money-winning list!" Apparently, Erik ($2,037,401 – fifth) moved just ahead of Chris ($2,028,822 – sixth) even though Chris moved up the list $200,000! Stu Ungar is still in the fourth position with $2,081,478. Johnny Chan is in third place with $2,792,539, and T.J. is in second place with $2,818,046. Until this year, I have always been chasing everyone else (mostly Johnny Chan). Now, it remains to be seen whether or not I can hold the lead. With two of the greatest poker players in history only $26,000 and $52,000 behind me, I'd better get a move on it if I want to hold my lead. In any case, it should be pretty entertaining to watch T.J., Johnny, and I battle for the WSOP all-time money-winning lead over the next few years.

Another couple of records that I would love to break in the next few years at the WSOP are: most finishes in the money, most bracelets won, and most final tables (for information like this go to www.binions.com, click on "poker," and then click on "top money winners"). As far as most finishes in the money is concerned, I have 32 to Berry Johnston's 40 (he may have one or two more than that) and T.J.'s 35. I couldn't obtain info on Mike Sexton (who told me that he has at least 32), Dewey Tomko (who has at least 34), and Men Ngyuen (who's probably close to 25). Regarding most WSOP bracelets won, Doyle Brunson and Johnny Moss have eight, I have seven (it's too bad Scotty Ngyuen made me finish second to him this year in the $5,000 buy-in Omaha eight-or-better event), and Johnny Chan has six. Finally, in the most WSOP final tables category, I now have 23, to T.J.'s 29 and Berry Johnston's 27. Thinking about all of these records has me thinking about playing in next year's World Series of Poker already!

Editor's note: You can often find Phil playing poker online at www.ultimatebet.com. To learn more about Phil or read more Hand of the Week articles, check out www.philhellmuth.com.