Champion of the Year: John Juanda

In 2001, I started fiddling with the concept of recognizing the most prestigious poker tournaments each year. I believed the poker public didn't understand what is really important to the poker players. So, I set out to define the "most prestigious poker tournaments," using the input of 15 top pros, such as Johnny Chan, T.J. Cloutier, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, and so on. After doing a weighted average of the tournaments turned in by the players, I decided, why stop there? Why not create a "Champion of the Year" award based on the 50-plus events?

Thus the Champion of the Year (COTY) award was born. The COTY awards points only for a final-table finish in one of the 54 most prestigious poker tournaments in 2002. The World Series of Poker (WSOP) weighs heavily in the award, with 33 WSOP events included (casino employees, ladies, and seniors events were not included).

Other than the WSOP events, in order to be one of the roughly 63 - yes, that many - most prestigious poker tournaments in 2003, an event has to have a buy-in of at least $2,000 and at least 100 players; and, it must be a tournament held in the United States (except World Poker Tour events). The higher the buy-in for the event, the more weight it carries for the COTY award (go to philhellmuth.com for the scoring system); on the high end, winning the WSOP "big one" is worth 600 points, while most events on the list award 200 points for first place.

I am having a "traveling trophy" made for the champion, like the Stanley Cup in the National Hockey League, which I will present to 2002 Champion John Juanda.

John had a great year in the most prestigious tournaments. He made a whopping eight final tables: the $7,500 buy-in no-limit hold'em L.A. Poker Classic, the $2,500 buy-in pot-limit hold'em event at the WSOP, the $2,500 buy-in stud eight-or-better event at the WSOP, the $1,500 hold'em shootout at the WSOP, the triple-draw lowball ace-to-five $1,500 WSOP event (first place), the $3,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em Bellagio event, the World Poker Tour $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em Bellagio event (second place), and the $7,500 buy-in no-limit hold'em championship at the U.S. Poker Championship. Have you ever heard those song lyrics, "I like to praise you … I like to praise you … I like to praise you like I should"? Well, I'm singing my praises to John Juanda!

John's point total was 1,200, but the top 12 players also deserve a bit of praise for the year 2002. Phil Ivey made six final tables at the most prestigious events, including three WSOP victories, and had a point total of 990. I'll say that again: Phil Ivey won three WSOP tournaments in 2002!

Layne Flack made it to the final table only four times in the most prestigious events, but managed to win two of them - both WSOP no-limit hold'em events - and had a second-place finish in the WPT championship event at Foxwoods. Layne managed to accumulate 980 points.

John "World" Hennigan made it to the final table four times and had a point total of 960, even though he is only a part-time tournament player! John picked up $315,000 for his first-place finish in the Trump Taj Mahal's championship event. You had better re-examine your poker priorities, Johnny "World"!

Erik Seidel made the final table four times, but in the right events. His point total of 960 tied Hennigan for fourth place.

Humberto Brenes had a terrific year in 2002, including a win in the $10,000 buy-in no-limit hold'em championship (for $502,000) at the Horseshoe in Tunica. Brenes ended up with 905 points despite missing at least one-third of all the events on the list!

Howard Lederer finished in seventh place with 900 points, while capturing a coveted WPT victory when he won the Foxwoods $10,000 buy-in championship event. Considering the fact that he missed two-thirds of the events, his 900-point performance was awesome.

Kathy Liebert managed to finish in eighth place with 755 points, and garnered a $1 million tournament victory along the way.

Who was this award created by, anyway? Me, of course, and I managed to total 745 points on the strength of six final-table finishes - with no wins - which was good for a ninth-place finish.

The multitalented Andy Bloch finished 10th with 710 points.

Tournament giant Johnny Chan, who is in first place on the WSOP all-time money-winning list, finished 11th with 635 points. Johnny missed probably half of the qualifying events in 2002, and still accumulated 635 points.

Tournament star "Miami" John Cernuto finished 12th with 630 points.

Here's an interesting look at both the "Champion of the Year" and the Card Player "Player of the Year" top 12 players for 2002:

"Champion of the Year" Card Player "Player of the Year"

1. John Juanda 1. T.J. Cloutier

2. Phil Ivey 2. John Juanda

3. Layne Flack 3. Scotty Nguyen

4. Erik Seidel (tie) 4. Layne Flack

4. John Hennigan (tie) 5. Men Nguyen

6. Humberto Brenes 6. Phil Ivey

7. Howard Lederer 7. Daniel Negreanu

8. Kathy Liebert 8. Huck Seed

9. Phil Hellmuth 9. Erik Seidel

10. Andy Bloch 10. David Plastik

11. Johnny Chan 11. Barry Shulman

12. "Miami" John Cernuto 12. Kathy Liebert

Do you have what it takes to become Champion of the Year in 2003? The Champion of the Year tournaments for 2003 are at philhellmuth.com. Good luck! Congratulations to John Juanda, the Champion of the Year for 2002.