Player of the Year Commentary

Editor's note: The following commentary takes into account performance results through The Bicycle Casino's Legends of Poker tournament.

John Juanda skyrocketed to the top of the Player of the Year standings with a spectacular run of final-table finishes at the Legends of Poker and America's Poker Classic tournaments. Juanda now holds a commanding 477-point advantage in the overall standings over second-ranked Men "The Master" Nguyen, who had been the leader since early April. Toto Leonidas also performed very well at the Legends tournament, and is close behind in third place. Leonidas trails Juanda by 493 points.

It's been a stunning turn of events. Just two months ago, Juanda trailed by a seemingly insurmountable 1,200 points – roughly the equivalent of winning two major tournaments based on the scoring system. The question at the time was, would any player be able to catch Men The Master and prevent him from becoming the first player in history to repeat as the Player of the Year? (Note: Nguyen won the honor in 1997.) Juanda responded in convincing fashion by making five final tables at the Legends of Poker, including a win in the pot-limit hold'em event. He also made three final tables at the America's Poker Classic. To date, Juanda has made more final tables in 2001 than any other player, 17. Juanda's 1,400 points in August alone catapulted him over David "The Dragon" Pham, who has been near the top of the standings all year, and past rival Men The Master. This breakthrough clearly places Juanda in the driver's seat as the stretch run approaches.

The shake-up in the standings was not limited to the overall player category. No fewer than seven of 10 game categories experienced lead changes since the last major shake-up, at the conclusion of the World Series of Poker. This goes to show that while winning a WSOP event remains the crowning achievement in poker, it by no means guarantees a top spot in the Player of the Year standings. As proof, note that current World Champion Carlos Mortensen is not currently ranked in the top 20. This is the first time that the reigning WSOP champ has not been on the list (although he is 21st in points). Of course, in fairness to Mortensen, it should be pointed out that he resides outside the United States, and thus is not able to enter as many tournaments as his American competitors.

Through the first eight months of 2001, the rankings now include 23 major tournaments and 289 individual events (as of Aug. 28). It's no surprise that we are on pace to set yet another record for the number of big-time tournaments and events that are being held this year in North America. This is a testament to the growing popularity and appeal of tournament poker.

Overall player standings: Back in June, Men "The Master" Nguyen had a comfortable cushion of 987 points between himself and the defending champion, David Pham. At the time, I noted that unless Men went on a cold streak or took time off, he'd probably be the odds-on favorite to win the Player of the Year title again. As it turned out, that's precisely what happened. Men has not improved his position since mid-May. Meanwhile, John Juanda has not only grabbed the lead, he's taken a suffocating stranglehold on the top spot. Juanda has now won three major tournaments in 2001, including a victory at the World Poker Open ($5,000 no-limit hold'em). He has already earned 4,228 points after eight months, which is close to the total points accumulated by last year's winner over the course of the entire year. In fact, he's on pace to shatter last year's record point total set by David Pham.

However, it's not over yet. At least eight players remain well within striking distance. Juanda proved that a 1,000-point deficit could be overcome in just a month's time, which means any of the leading players in the standings could still win Player of the Year. Aside from Men The Master (3,741 points), the main challenger appears to be Toto Leonidas (3,725 points), who won events at the L.A. Poker Classic and the California State Poker Championship. Amir Vahedi (3,469 points) is in fourth place after winning two events at the Orleans Open and an event at the America's Poker Classic. Other players ranked in the top 10 also pose a serious threat, including Scotty Nguyen, David Pham, Stan Goldstein, Chris Tsiprailidis, and Hieu "Tony" Ma. With several major tournaments coming up, the race is still wide open.

No-limit hold'em: Following the WSOP, the world champion ordinarily takes over the top spot by virtue of a whopping 1,200 points being awarded for that first-place finish. However, Carlos Mortensen has been displaced from the summit by two players. Toto Leonidas is currently in first place, and David Pham, who is the defending champion in this category, now ranks second. Assuming Mortensen does not return to the U.S. circuit in the fall, that leaves the always-dangerous Phil Hellmuth (third in this category last year) as yet another threat to win the top prize. Amir Vahedi, trailing by less than 200 points, could also win. Since no-limit hold'em events normally award lots of ranking points (with higher buy-ins and larger fields than usual), it's anyone's game. There's still a lot of poker to be played.

Limit hold'em: Paul Ladanyi was in third place in June, and vaulted into the top spot, propelled by a win in the $300 buy-in event at the Legends of Poker and a second-place finish in the $1,000 buy-in event. Cheu "Joe" Lim also made a major move. He made two final tables at the California State Poker Championship. Nani Dollison rocketed to the top of this category with her win in the $2,000 limit hold'em event at the WSOP, but has not improved her position since, and fell to third place. With so many limit hold'em events held at major tournaments, this category was expected to be a fierce battle, with several top players competing for the top spot. Now, it appears to be a two-man race between Ladanyi and Lim.

Pot-limit hold'em: The top two places in this category have not changed since the WSOP. Men The Master holds a slim lead over "Syracuse Chris" Tsiprailidis, who trails by only 228 points. John Juanda is in third place and could make things interesting if he's able to make another final table in a pot-limit event. With only a dozen or so pot-limit events remaining this year, just one or two more final tables by any player listed in the top 10 may be enough to win this category.

Seven-card stud: Allen Cunningham ranked third two months ago and has now shot into the lead. The winner of the $5,000 buy-in stud event at this year's WSOP, he took second place in the $500 buy-in stud event at the California State Poker Championship. This was enough to surpass Adam Roberts, who is now in second place. In the previous update, Randy Holland fell from first to second, and is now in third place, but remains well within striking distance. With several big seven-card stud events coming up at major tournaments in November and December (notably, the World Poker Finals, which is oriented toward stud), this category will probably go down to the final event to determine this year's champion. Nevertheless, Allen Cunningham remains the favorite.

Seven-card stud high-low: Overall points leader John Juanda now ranks first in this category. Oddly enough, as late as July 20, Juanda was not even in the top 10. But due to an impressive run at the Legends of Poker, he took over first place, slightly ahead of Stan Goldstein. These two top players are separated by a razor-thin margin of just six points. Chris Grigorian remains a serious threat in third place, while Card Player's Barry Shulman fell to fourth place.

Omaha high-low: Sirous Baghchehsaraie, a popular tournament regular, fought his way to the top position in the Omaha high-low category. His biggest win came in June at the America's Poker Classic, where he won the $500 buy-in Omaha high-low event. Baghchehsaraie has made 14 final tables thus far in 2001 (overall) – second only to John Juanda. Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, the 2000 world poker champion, fell to second place and trails by less than 200 points. Men The Master, Tony Ma, and Steve Hohn round out the top four. Any one of them is capable of a hot streak that could knock Baghchehsaraie from the lead.

Omaha high/pot-limit Omaha: This was one of only three categories not to see a lead change. Phil Ivey, from Atlantic City, regarded as one of poker's most promising young stars, is well on his way to winning his first Player of the Year game title. Ivey made four final tables in this category last year, and probably deserved the honor based on such an impressive achievement. Still, nothing comes easy. Bob Walker, Jim Lester, Tony Cousineau, and Jay Heimowtiz are all within striking distance of Ivey, and could steal the top prize with a high finish in tournaments to come.

Lowball events: Steve Flicker took over the top spot with his fourth-place finish in the lowball event at the Legends of Poker, combined with a third-place finish in the ace-to-five lowball event at the World Series of Poker. Berry Johnston, the 1986 world poker champion, won that same ace-to-five event, but dropped to second place. It will be very tough for any player to catch Flicker at this point, since there are relatively few lowball events played each year (there were only a dozen events in 2000, about the same number expected in 2001). With the point totals so close, however, anyone on the list who makes another final table in the months to come will be the likely winner of the "2001 Lowball Player of the Year" bragging rights.

Mixed games: To the surprise of no one, "Miami John" Cernuto now ranks first in the mixed games category. Long acknowledged as one of poker's best all-around players by his peers, Cernuto finished fourth at the 2001 Tournament of Champions. He also made the final table in the H.O.E. event at the Legends of Poker. 1998 World Champion Scotty Nguyen is second in the current standings, while the winner of this year's Tournament of Champions, Brian Saltus, is in third place. 1998 Player of the Year T.J. Cloutier is in fourth place. Fifth place belongs to the 2000 Player of the Year, David Pham.

The real excitement of the Player of the Year race is about to begin. Look for my next report immediately following the next major shake-up in the standings. To see which upcoming tournaments qualify for "Player of the Year" points, read the "2001 Qualifying Tournaments."