Online Overview

by Shawn Patrick Green | Published: Nov 01, 2007

Imper1um's Empire No More
By Shawn Patrick Green

Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi's reign over the Card Player Online Player of the Year leader board empire is no more. It's not that he was a bad leader, it was just time to move on, and Matt "ch0ppy" Kay made sure that "move on" is just what Mizzi did when Kay reclaimed his throne. It looks to be a battle of the Canucks, as both Mizzi and Kay hail from the U.S.'s northern neighbor.

Kay snagged 536 points since the OPOY leader board was published in the last issue, compared to Mizzi's 12. That disparity was enough to vault Kay into the lead with 6,374 points versus Mizzi's 6,240. Kay earned the majority of his points from two second-place finishes in OPOY-qualified events. He earned 300 points on Sept. 3 for finishing runner-up in the Full Tilt $1K Monday ($59,200) and 200 points for second place in the PokerStars $100 (with rebuys) tournament on Sept. 16 ($25,328). His total winnings in OPOY-qualified tournaments alone come to more than $657,000.

Some New Combatants Enter the Fray

The last issue of Card Player saw Jon "PearlJammer" Turner enter the battle for the No. 1 spot by securing his place in the top 10. Since that time, two new faces have entered the coveted 10 spots. "Taknapotin" and Scott "SCTrojans" Freeman both made some huge finishes to add to their already impressive online tournament results this year.

Taknapotin moved into eighth place (3,906 points) in the OPOY standings when took down two big events. First, on Sept. 3, he raked in the final pot of the PokerStars Nightly Hundred Grand, earning more than $36,000 and 360 points. Then, almost two weeks later, he finished in first place in the massive $1 million-guaranteed tournament on Full Tilt, pocketing more than $204,000 and collecting 1,440 points.

Freeman earned 1,040 points and more than $88,000 in just two weeks over the course of four events. He made the final table of four OPOY-qualified events, two of which he won (the Nightly Hundred Grand on PokerStars and the $65,000 guarantee (with rebuys) on Full Tilt). Freeman now has 3,570 points, which puts him in 10th place.

Brains Count for Something
Seth "BrainGuy" Moody, a young neuroscience graduate (hence the screen name) from Canton, Ohio, took down the PokerStars Sunday Million on April 8 this year and never looked back. He made $170,000 for that win and almost did the unthinkable when he made the final table of Sunday Million again on Sept. 9, eventually busting out in a heartbreaking second place, within reach of what would have been an incredible two Sunday Million titles in just five months.

Nevertheless, his accomplishments have been impressive, and he has bumped his total OPOY-qualified winnings for the year to $342,000. He currently sits in 11th place in the OPOY standings.

Chatbox Cunning

Quick strategy from online poker's top pros
Jordan "iMsoLucky0" Morgan

On tells:
"There are some things that people see as tells, like someone's hands shaking, and it's kind of hard to know what that means unless you know the player. So, a lot of times, people will see something specific and will interpret it to mean one thing when they really have no reason to interpret it to mean that. I think that's what the problem is, so many people see a tell and they want to attribute it to something, but in reality, they should just be paying more attention to how their opponent is playing his hand."

On what helped him the most when he was getting started playing poker:
"They say that experience is the most important part of the game, and it definitely is. People think that they can just read a book, some online forums, or some magazine articles, and go out and play good poker, but you can't do that. You have to play thousands and thousands of hands and really pay attention and try to learn the game."

Tournament Schedule
The PokerStars tournament lineup is one of the most robust of any online poker site, and is getting even more jam-packed every day. Here are some tournaments to look out for: