Honoring the Players of the Year

In this issue, we honor the tournament players who put up the most impressive results in 2007. David Pham, with 11 final tables and $1.8 million in earnings, emerged as the 2007 Player of the Year (POY) after another wire-to-wire contest. This was Pham's second title. During his career, he has won more than $7 million and the respect of all of his tournament peers. You can read a recap of the entire race and top 10 finishers in this issue.

Card Player's POY award, which has crunched tournament data since 1997, added a little brother last year. We unveiled our Online Player of the Year (OPOY) rankings system that, all told, tallied results from more than 1,000 of online poker's biggest events. Looking at the leader board, the pole position of which was owned by Isaac "westmenloAA" Baron, a 20-year-old online poker pro from Los Gatos, California, you get a glimpse of the next breed of poker champions. As these players begin to descend on the live tournament scene (the average age of the top 10 in the final 2007 OPOY standings was just 22), expect them to experience a great deal of success.

All of us at Card Player congratulate David, Isaac, and the other top Player of the Year finishers for their accomplishments over the course of 2007.