Champion of the Year Award

I think the Card Player Player of the Year (POY) award is great for poker. I hear many of the poker players I hang out with talk about the award and where they stand in the POY standings. Wouldn't it have been awesome to see Men "The Master" Nguyen and John Juanda battle for the Player of the Year award on network TV in the last event of the year (the $7,500 buy-in no-limit hold'em championship at the Taj Mahal in Atlantic City)? Yes, because it actually did come down to the last event of the year in 2001! And it was amazing that the last two players remaining in that event were Men and John, the No. 1 and No. 2 players, respectively, in the Player of the Year standings. It's too bad that we haven't sold poker to the TV networks yet, because this would have been one very popular show.

I like the Player of the Year award, but for some poker champions, it is impossible to win. In fact, of the five living members of the $2 million club at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), none of us can win the Player of the Year award. T.J. Cloutier, Johnny Chan, Erik Seidel, Chris Ferguson, and I all play in far fewer events than most of the players who are competing for the award. Should we be penalized because we spend our time with our families, writing books, trading stocks, and playing high-stakes side games?

World Champion Chris Ferguson loves the Player of the Year award, but concedes that he can't win it because he doesn't play in enough tournaments each year. He is busy trading stocks, and has never even been to Foxwoods or the Taj Mahal to play poker before! "I would like to see all of the tournaments count, but you should lose points when you don't cash in a tournament," Chris said. I agree; every event should count, but players should lose points when they don't cash. That way, someone who plays the most tournaments in a year won't automatically walk away with Player of the Year honors. Can you imagine how hard it would be to keep track of every single player who plays in every single event?

In light of all of this, I am going to recognize the high end of tournament poker and start the "Champion of the Year" award. I am not claiming that the Champion of the Year award will accurately measure who the player of the year is, but it will determine who has done the best in the highest-profile, highest-prestige, history-making events in poker. Therefore, the Champion of the Year award will include all of the WSOP events and any other event that has a minimum buy-in of $2,000 (and 50 players). With the exception of the Poker Million, all of the tournaments included are in the United States. T.J. Cloutier loves the idea of considering only the $2,000 and higher buy-in events. He said, "That way, the players have to play against the very best in order to win the award." Amen.

The points system will be as follows: first place, 200 points; second place, 160 points; third place, 120 points; fourth place, 100 points; fifth place, 80 points; sixth place, 70 points; seventh place, 60 points; eighth place, 50 points; and ninth place, 40 points. The WSOP $10,000 buy-in main event will receive triple points, any $7,500-$10,000 buy-in event will receive double points, and any $5,000 buy-in event will receive one and a half times the standard number of points.

This Champion of the Year award is top-loaded from first through third place. In many tournaments, a three-way deal is made and the top three spots end up with most of the money. If there had been a Champion of the Year award for 2001, World Champion Scotty Nguyen would have won it. Scotty finished third in the Player of the Year awards race. He won two WSOP tournaments, finished third in the Tournament of Champions, won the $5,000 championship event at Foxwoods, won the $2,500 limit hold'em event at Foxwoods, and finished at the final table of the Reno Hilton's $5,000 championship event. Congratulations to Scotty for having a great poker year. He almost won the Player of the Year award, even though he didn't play in as many events as most players. Scotty told me, "You know that if it isn't a $500 buy-in event or higher, I'm not there, baby!" Yep, Scotty, I do know it.

I am having a trophy made for the Champion of the Year award. The winner will have his or her name engraved on the trophy and will keep it for one year. To track what is happening in the Champion of the Year award race, you can go to www.philhellmuth.com. Also, Card Player will periodically publish the updated Champion of the Year standings. I only hope that this trophy will still be around 100 years from now, and that my name will be on it a few times!

A listing of the official 2002 Champion of the Year events appears in the adjacent column.