A New Year

We have received an abundance of positive feedback in the last few months regarding Card Player's Player of the Year award. Players love having the standings in the back of the magazine so that they can follow the race throughout the year. After receiving many E-mails with suggestions, we have decided to make a couple of changes to make it better. The first change applies to the number of points that one receives based on the buy-in. Last year a player received a factor of 1 for events that cost $50-$299, a factor of 2 for events that cost $300-$999, a factor of 3 for events of $1,000 and more, and a factor of 4 for championship events. This year we are awarding a factor of 3 for events that range from $1,000 to $1,999, a factor of 4 for events of $2,000 and more, and a factor of 5 for championship events. We are also adding a leading money winners listing for players who make the final tables of Player of the Year events. Finally, you can go to www.cardplayer.com and track the standings daily. This should make things more fun for everyone. I have made a few predictions in the past, and all of them have been wrong. However, I will try again this year. I think the following players will be among the front-runners for the 2002 Player of the Year award: Daniel Negreanu, "Syracuse" Chris Tsiprailidis, Men "The Master" Nguyen, and Tony "The Animal" Ma – but all will finish behind Allen Cunningham. Good luck to all tournament players in 2002.

Phil Hellmuth has finally gotten around to doing his Champion of the Year award. Read his "player panel" article on Page 88 to find out how it will work in 2002.

For two years I have been bothering Scott Byron to write some articles. In this issue he has a great one entitled, "Buying the Button." It is an interesting concept that could spread like wildfire.

Don't forget to keep records of your playing results this year.