David 'The Dragon' Pham Claims Second Player of the Year Title

The Card Player 2007 Player of the Year (POY) race featured the best poker players battling for points at the largest tournaments throughout the world. From the World Poker Tour to the World Series of Poker, and many other events, players got hot to ride to the top of the POY leader board, and only those who played their best poker remained there at the end of the year. In the end, a "Dragon" claimed his second POY title, one of the game's best young players came close once again to claiming the throne, and a cast of other hopefuls, led by some of the youngest stars in the game, challenged down the homestretch. It was one of the more impressive POY races in recent years, as four players eclipsed the 5,000-point mark, and the winner became the first player to amass 6,000 points since 2004. Here are the stories of the top 10 players in the 2007 POY race, including their biggest victories, when they took control, when they lost control, and everything in between.

1. David "The Dragon" Pham

2007 POY Points: 6,562
2007 Final Tables: 11
2007 Tournament Cash Winnings: $1,814,087
2007 Highlight: Card Player Player of the Year

David "The Dragon" Pham put together a body of work in 2007 that was impressive for both the quantity and quality of his poker tournament success. Pham made 11 final tables in 2007, and whether it was a final table in a preliminary event, the WPT, or the WSOP, The Dragon was the most feared player at the table. Pham won four tournaments in 2007, and finished runner-up in another. That second-place finish, at the WPT Legends of Poker tournament, gave Pham his largest cash prize of the year, which was $800,185; he also scored 1,600 POY points for his efforts. Other finishes of note in Pham's 2007 campaign were a third-place finish at the WPT World Poker Challenge (960 POY points), a fourth-place finish in the $5,000 limit hold'em event at the WSOP (540 POY points), and a sixth-place finish at the WSOP Tournament Circuit event at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas (408 POY points). When asked about what is the most important component of his repeated success in the POY race, Pham said "If you want to be the player of the year, you have to concentrate; you really have to focus in the events you play."

What was most impressive about the run that Pham mounted was how he performed under pressure during the final month of the year. He won a $2,500 preliminary no-limit hold'em event at the Five-Diamond World Poker Classic on Dec. 5 to win 1,152 POY points and $279,000, and solidify his lead. Without those points, Pham would have finished in second place to J.C. Tran, who also won a major preliminary event a few days after Pham's win. Perhaps it was The Dragon's experience from the 2004 POY race that prompted him to fight for his lead in 2007 right down to the final event. Daniel Negreanu prevented Pham from winning his second POY title in 2004, when Kid Poker won the WPT Five-Diamond World Poker Classic main event to overtake Pham for the award. "That's why I always focus on the Bellagio events at the end of the year. The $2,500 event is the one in which I finally broke through there, so it was a major accomplishment for me," said Pham. He joins his mentor, Men "The Master" Nguyen (four POY titles), and T.J. Cloutier (two POY titles) as the only players to have won the honor multiple times since the award's inception in 1997. Pham is a perennial threat to win the award, and his performance in 2007 cements his status as one of the elite players in the game. Including 2007, Pham has finished first (2007), 12th (2006), 27th (2005), second (2004), and third (2003) in the last five POY races. The numbers speak for themselves.

2. J.C. Tran

2007 POY Points: 5,748
2007 Final Tables: 7
2007 Tournament Cash Winnings: $2,914,502
2007 Highlight: Won first WPT title at the World Poker Challenge

No player in poker began the year playing better than J.C. Tran. He made three WPT final tables in the first three months of the year and, in less than 90 days, earned more than $2 million. He finished sixth at the World Poker Open in late January, and then he placed second at the L.A. Poker Classic in late February. He eventually won his first WPT title at the third WPT final table that he made at the World Poker Challenge in late March. "I felt like I was in the zone. All of my calls and reads were good, so my confidence was up … and confidence is so important," said Tran about his early dominance. He had a stranglehold on the POY race for much of the early part of the year, and it looked like he would run away with the honor, just as Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi did in 2006.

But, Tran's game cooled during the summer months and he had a quiet WSOP. He had this to say about the slow period: "I tried to play in every prelim before the World Series, and that's when I burnt out." Tran looked determined to reclaim the early lead that had once been his after the WSOP, and he fought hard to mount a comeback in the closing months of the year. He was able to cash five times in preliminary events after the WSOP, and he made the final table in two of those events, but he was not able to accumulate enough POY points in those events to make any major strides back into contention. "I basically told myself that if anybody was going to win the player of the year race, he would have to have 7,000 points to do it. So, when I came to the Bellagio tournament, I knew I was going to have to do well," said Tran. In December, he won a preliminary $5,000 no-limit hold'em event at the Five-Diamond World Poker Classic, beating 306 other players to win $523,075 and 1,116 POY points. This shot Tran back to the top of the leader board and kept things interesting right up until the final major event of the year. Tran was just 814 POY points behind Pham, but that is where he would end the year, in second place. "I told myself that if The Dragon wins an event, it's over, and he did, and that's why he deserves it," he said.

This is the second year in a row that Tran has recorded a high finish in the POY race (third in 2006), and it's a good bet that he will challenge for the award again in 2008. He learned some lessons during his 2007 POY campaign and will try to use them to his advantage in 2008. The young star had this to say about what sustains tournament poker success over the course of a year: "Definitely discipline and money management; you have to play your best regardless of the buy-in. Treat every event the same; to be a consistent threat, treat every tournament like it's your last. You have to have that fire in every event you play; when you're hungry, you play a little more cautiously, but a lot more effectively."

3. Jonathan Little

2007 POY Points: 5,272
2007 Final Tables: 9
2007 Tournament Cash Winnings: $2,536,540
2007 Highlight: Won the WPT Mirage Poker Showdown

Jonathan Little began 2007 at a place that soon became comfortable to him - a WPT final table. Little placed fifth in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in early January, and earned his first 600 POY points and more than $317,000. At that final table, there were few players outside the online community who knew Little's name, but by the end of 2007, the name Little would be on everybody's mind. He followed up that performance in the Bahamas by cashing in both the L.A. Poker Classic and the European Poker Tour Grand Final, and then he really made a name for himself at the Mirage Poker Showdown. He made the final table in a preliminary no-limit hold'em event, and then followed that up by making it to the semifinals of the heads-up championship event. In the semifinals, he lost to eventual POY winner Pham, but more than made up for the loss by claiming victory in the Mirage Poker Showdown championship event. Little took home $1,091,295 and 1,488 POY points for the largest win of his career. He was then relatively quiet during the WSOP, but quickly found his stride once again when the WPT schedule resumed. He just missed making his third WPT final table of the year when he finished seventh at the Gulf Coast Poker Championship in September. He did make his third WPT final-table appearance a short time later in October, when he finished second at the North American Poker Championship, good for $714,000 and 1,600 POY points. Little was second in the POY race at that point, but he was leapfrogged by Tran in December. Little was the final POY contender standing in the Doyle Brunson Classic (cashing in 53rd place), but he fell short of his intended goal, winning the POY title. While he finished third in the POY race, he left little doubt about who the Rookie of the Year was in 2007 in tournament poker. Little is a man of few words, so when he was asked to sum up his 2007 performance in one word, he smiled and said, "Great." When asked if he thought we would see a greater emergence of online players in the 2008 POY race, Little replied, "Definitely."

4. Scott Clements

2007 POY Points: 5,138
2007 Final Tables: 6
2007 Tournament Cash Winnings: $2,206,981
2007 Highlight: Won the WPT North American Poker Championship

Scott Clements began the year by just missing the final table at the PokersStars Caribbean Adventure, where he finished in eighth place. Clements was having a relatively quiet year for a player of his skill (although he did place second in a large preliminary event at the WPT Championship in April to earn 990 POY points), and then the 2007 WSOP began. He made the final table of a $1,500 no-limit hold'em event, where he tangled with Phil Hellmuth, but eventually fell in fifth place (Hellmuth went on to win this event for his 11th gold bracelet). Clements was not done there; a few events later, he won the $1,500 pot-limit Omaha tournament giving him WSOP bracelets in back-to-back years (in 2006, he won the $3,000 Omaha eight-or-better event). Clements hauled in 1,460 POY points during the summer, and he had only just begun. He continued to play well and added another 529 POY points when he won a prelimnary event at the Legends of Poker in August. Then, he claimed his largest win of the year, at the WPT North American Poker Championship. He defeated fellow POY contender Jonathan Little, and took home the $1,456,585 first-place prize and 1,920 POY points. This vaulted Clements into third place on the POY leader board, but he was later passed by Tran. The win in Canada was Clements' final cash of the year, but he might have finished higher had he participated in the WPT Doyle Brunson Classic at Bellagio in December. He did play some of the preliminary events at Bellagio, but in a selfless act, he opted not to play in the championship event so that he could spend time with his wife on her birthday. Clements ended the year in fourth place, but he proved that he is one of the most talented young players in the game today.

5. Bill Edler

2007 POY Points: 4,777
2007 Final Tables: 7
2007 Tournament Cash Winnings: $2,757,402
2007 Highlight: Won first gold bracelet at the 2007 WSOP

Bill Edler captured his first WSOP gold bracelet in 2007 when he won the $5,000 no-limit hold'em shorthanded event. He took home a cash prize of $904,672, which was the largest payout awarded in any event at the WSOP besides the main event and the H.O.R.S.E. championship event. He snagged his first major victory of the year when he won the Heads-Up Championship at Crystal Casino in Southern California in February. He followed that up with even more California success at the WPT L.A. Poker Classic later that month, where he finished seventh, and at the WPT Shooting Star in San Jose in March. He finished sixth at the Shooting Star, making his first-final table appearance in a WPT event. It was not to be his last, as he won the WPT Gulf Coast Poker Championship in September. In that event, Edler made an amazing comeback; he was all in for his last two chips, and then pulled off the unthinkable to take down the $747,615 first-place prize. What has gone overlooked in this long list of accolades is that Edler also did very well in the WSOP main event. He finished in 23rd place and won $333,590. When asked about his biggest win of the year, Edler replied, "The gold bracelet, that's not your average bracelet; I'm really happy about it. It was a large, tough field, and I'm really proud of that performance."

6. David Fox

2007 POY Points: 4,488
2007 Final Tables: 11
2007 Tournament Cash Winnings: $695,980
2007 Highlight: 11 final-table appearances

Making the final table at any poker tournament is difficult to do. You have to be on your game and the cards have to go your way in key situations. Many players will consider it a good year if they make a handful of final-table appearances. David Fox did that and more, as he appeared at 11 final-tables during the course of 2007. Fox cut his teeth on the tournament trail in WSOP Tournament Circuit stops, and this is where he made six of those final table appearances. He cashed 17 times and did so with impressive consistency. Although no single cash was for more than $180,364 (first place in a preliminary event at the World Poker Finals), Fox was able to string together a number of high finishes in smaller events and stamp his name on the 2007 POY race. It is hard to argue with the quantity of work that Fox put together in 2007 to finish in sixth place.

7. Tom Schneider

2007 POY Points: 4,470
2007 Final Tables: 7
2007 Tournament Cash Winnings: $733,589
2007 Highlight: Won two gold bracelets at the WSOP

When the 2007 WSOP began, Tom Schneider had no POY points to his name, but up to that time, he had not played in many events. Three final tables and two gold bracelets later, Schneider had emerged onto the poker scene and was challenging for the 2007 POY award after he amassed 2,832 POY points during the summer. (By comparison, this was just under the 2,880 POY points that Jerry Yang won for taking down the 2007 WSOP main event.) Schneider's gold bracelets in the $1,000 seven-card stud eight-or-better events and $2,500 Omaha/seven-card stud eight-or-better were the first two of his career, and he continued to play with confidence after the WSOP concluded. He began to enter WPT events and found success early when he placed fourth at the Legends of Poker in August. He was able to make three more final tables in preliminary events as 2007 came to a close, but the big win that he needed to take down The Dragon eluded him, and he finished the year in seventh place. "Exciting and draining, I played a lot more tournaments than I expected to play," said Schneider when asked about the experience. He also admitted that he played a lot more events than he otherwise would have: "A friend of mine told me, 'Hey, you're in the running for the player of the year,' as I was third or fourth. So, then I started traveling a lot more, and it turns out that I really did well only in places where I wanted to be, so a lot of the traveling I did was for naught. I think it's really important to play where you're comfortable." Schneider will continue to pick and choose his events in 2008, but if he gets hot early and decides to travel to events all year long, the poker world should be on the lookout. "I wasted half a year, really, not playing many events," said Schneider.

8. Jared Hamby

2007 POY Points: 3,645
2007 Final Tables: 7
2007 Tournament Cash Winnings: $1,268,261
2007 Highlight: Second place in the WPT Mirage Poker Showdown

No player was better in April than Jared Hamby. He won two preliminary events at the WPT World Championship and placed 44th in the championship event to earn $584,615 total. These performances shot Hamby to near the top of the POY leader board, and he stayed there for the rest of the year, in large part thanks to his second-place finish in the WPT Mirage Poker Showdown, which earned him 920 POY points and $459,080. He also finished 88th in the WSOP main event, and while that finish did not net him any POY points, surviving that long in a field of 6,358 players is an impressive feat.

9. James Van Alstyne

2007 POY Points: 3,588
2007 Final Tables: 7
2007 Tournament Cash Winnings: $731,158
2007 Highlight: Fourth place at the WPT Shooting Star

James Van Alstyne was a model of steady tournament success in 2007. He began the year hot; in January and February, he made the final table of three preliminary no-limit hold'em events at the Borgata Winter Poker Open and the L.A. Poker Classic. He even won one of the events at the LAPC for a $187,895 payday. Van Alstyne followed up that win by making one of the best final tables of the year at the WPT Shooting Star in March. He finished in fourth place, earning $250,000, and this gave him a brief lead in the 2007 POY race in mid-March. He relinquished this spot to a cast of others, though, and eventually finished the year in ninth place. "Most of my results were from earlier in the year; I was playing well back then," said Van Alstyne. The early surge he experienced at the start of the year encouraged him to play more tournaments than normal, and he has a new outlook for 2008. "I'm probably going to switch back to cash games," he said.

10. David "Devil Fish" Ulliott

2007 POY Points: 3,446
2007 Final Tables: 5
2007 Tournament Cash Winnings: $1,242,448
2007 Highlight: Third place in the WPT Doyle Brunson Classic

David "Devil Fish" Ulliott began 2007 by winning a preliminary no-limit hold'em event at the World Poker Open in January. He made another final table in a preliminary no-limit hold'em event in Tunica, and another at the WPT Championship in April. He made his fourth final table of the year when he placed third in the $5,000 pot-limit Omaha event at the WSOP. This gave Devil Fish his second-largest cash of the year, $332,582. He cashed twice more at the WSOP and then was silent as far as tournament poker results go until the last major event of the year. It was in the WPT Doyle Brunson Classic that he achieved his greatest tournament success in 2007. He took third place in the event and won $674,500. This win also gave him 1,920 POY points and catapulted him into the top 10 at the very end.

Card Player Introduces Online Player of the Year 1,100 Events, Awarding Hundreds of Millions of Dollars, Qualified in 2007
By Shawn Patrick Green

Every day, hundreds of thousands of players log on to play online poker. Countless millions of dollars are available to be won every single week for those willing to put in the time, to focus, to outplay, and, of course, to get a little lucky. With so much money being won by so many players online, Card Player wanted to find out who was the absolute best player of them all.

In January 2007, Card Player decided to establish an Online Player of the Year (OPOY) contest modeled after its famous Player of the Year (POY) race. The idea was to give some credit to this new breed of poker players, the predominantly young, aggressive pros who had been making a killing online. Like its predecessor, the OPOY would award points to the deepest finishers in online poker's biggest events, and would ultimately crown the leader as the Online Player of the Year. This wouldn't be a war of attrition, wherein the player who could play the highest volume of tournaments would have an edge. To win the OPOY, a player has to do consistently well in the most prestigious tournaments online.

Here's a look at what it takes for a tournament to qualify:

• 100 entrants or more
• $100 buy-in or more (for rebuy tournaments, the average buy-in per player is used)
• $100,000 prize pool or more

With those criteria in place, more than 1,100 tournaments qualified for OPOY points in 2007. Those tournaments paid out hundreds of millions of dollars to in-the-money finishers. After the final events played out on Dec. 31, 2007, Card Player had its first-ever OPOY winner

A Baron is Crowned King
When speaking with prominent online poker players about who they think the best poker player out there is, one name comes up time and time again. That name, Isaac "westmenloAA" Baron, ended up at the top of Card Player's inaugural Online Player of the Year (OPOY) leader board.

The 20-year-old online poker pro from Los Gatos, California, terrorized both the online multitable tournaments and the online cash games from start to finish in 2007. He kicked off his year by fulfilling every online poker player's dream: taking down the PokerStars Sunday Million, a win worth $255,000. That was essentially a snowball rolled down a mountain, because when 2007 finally came to a close, Baron's winnings - from OPOY-qualified finishes alone - amounted to more than $1 million.

Despite all of that, Baron was anything but a shoo-in for the top spot. His competition was tough, and included the likes of Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi and Matt "ch0ppy" Kay, both of whom held the No. 1 seat during the year. In fact, Baron took over the lead just 10 days before the end of the race, and he led by just 26 points (out of more than 8,000). It was a nail-biter, for sure, as Kay, the eventual runner-up, could have taken over the lead with almost any qualified score.

In the end, however, Kay came up short and Baron was crowned. Card Player spoke with Baron shortly after his win to discuss his amazing year and his humble beginnings.

Shawn Patrick Green: How did you get started in poker in the first place?

Isaac "westmenloAA" Baron: I got started like a lot of people my age who are playing poker, probably. After 2003, the Chris Moneymaker video came out, and my friends and I just started playing home games. We all really enjoyed it, and we just kept getting more and more serious. And then, eventually, one of my friends started playing online, and he transferred me a little bit of money, and I started playing a little more online. I got lucky and won some tournament for like four grand, a $20 tournament or something, and after that, I just kind of kept playing online, and that was that.

SPG: What tools have you used to improve your game, and what has seemed the most effective for you?

IB: I definitely, definitely like the Harrington on Hold'em books; they were very helpful to me as far as tournament play goes.

SPG: For someone like you, there's really got to be some kind of X-factor, something that you do or have that not many others have or can do. Do you have any idea what that might be?

IB: I think it's probably just being able to really stay composed and not let any outside influences or stuff like that affect how I'm playing. Also, not really getting emotionally involved in the poker, and just focusing on the poker play and not worrying about personal vendettas, or bad beats, or anything like that. Just kind of staying on an even keel and trying to play my best poker at all times, I think that's definitely part of it.

SPG: What did you do before poker?

IB: Well, I was pretty much just in school. I was in high school before I really got into poker, and I just played sports: basketball and football. I didn't really have a job or anything before poker. I did go to [college], but I was already playing poker when I started school. I went to the University of Oregon for a year and then to Santa Barbara City College for a year, and now I'm taking some time off for an indefinite period. I definitely want to finish. I definitely want to get my degree at some point. Journalism is what I was going to major in, actually.

SPG: Who do you think is the best player you've ever seen?

IB: I would probably have to say that "Genius28" [Chris Lee] has impressed me the most, because he seems to just be able to play anything: sit-and-gos, cash games, tournaments. In whatever he's playing … he's at the absolute top of the class in any single form of poker, and I just have a lot of respect for his game. I think he's a really fantastic player; he's probably the best I've seen, overall.

SPG: Speaking of the best players out there, let's get back to the OPOY. You had some really fierce competition for the OPOY title. What did you think of some of your competitors, especially Matt "ch0ppy" Kay, the runner-up, and Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi?

IB: I think Sorel and Matt are both fantastic tournament players. They both put up some amazing results, and I would expect them to put up amazing results this year, as well. Sorel is really crazy and aggressive and makes huge bluffs and huge calls, but he definitely has a way of making it work. I can't imagine how he plays the way that he does; I could never do that. And Matt, he plays more similarly to myself, more solid and tight-aggressive, picking his spots.

SPG: What are your goals for this year?

IB: Well, my No. 1 goal is to win one of the live tourneys, because, I mean, that's something that I haven't accomplished yet, obviously, and it would be amazing to accomplish it. Winning a $10,000 buy-in or bigger live tournament would probably be my No. 1 goal. [Winning the POY] would be another goal, but that is a little more farfetched.

SPG: What are your long-term goals in poker?

IB: Just to keep winning as much as I can and to keep enjoying the game; to keep a good attitude about it and to keep liking what I do and liking poker as my job. If I stop enjoying it, I'll probably find something new, but until then, I'm just going to keep enjoying it, and I guess that's my only long-term goal.

SPG: What does it take to consistently win tournaments, as you do?

IB: It definitely takes a lot of luck. (Laughing) I won't lie about that; I ran very, very well this year. It takes a lot of luck, but also not focusing on the money or trying to move up in spots, but just playing to win the whole time. It takes really focusing on the victory and staying composed for the entire tournament.

The Other Top Contenders
Second - Matt "ch0ppy" Kay ($823,067 in OPOY winnings, 31 OPOY final tables)

Losing the inaugural Online Player of the Year race by a mere 26 points (out of more than 8,000 points!) had to have been disappointing for runner-up Matt "ch0ppy" Kay.

"I think Isaac Baron is a very good player, and I'm glad I lost to him and not some random idiot," Kay said, smiling.

Kay, a 19-year-old from Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, started off 2007 atop the OPOY leader board by winning the year's first PokerStars Sunday Million event. He had the lead at the beginning of the year as a result of that win, and during much of the last portion of the year, and he was the player who sat in the No. 1 spot for the longes period of time, which is certainly an accomplishment in and of itself.

Third - Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi ($615,419 in OPOY winnings, 27 OPOY final tables)

Sorel "Imper1um" Mizzi, a Canadian, like Kay, became the front-runner in the OPOY race about midway through the year. He was the only player to hold the top spot without having won the Sunday Million. He earned his points through consistently deep cashes in other events, and through his high volume of play.

The 21-year-old Mizzi achieved his high position while also battling it out in many brick-and-mortar casino tournaments. He made several deep finishes the in 2007 World Series of Poker, including the main event (208th out of 6,358), and he finished in third place in the 2007 Irish Open, for $280,000.

Fourth - Jim "P0KERPR0" Campbell ($616,616 in OPOY winnings, 15 OPOY final tables)

Jim "P0KERPR0" Campbell, 24, has been a legend in online poker for some time now, so it came as little surprise for most people to see his name so high on the OPOY leader board when the year came to a close. Like a number of those in the top 10, Campbell's big break came when he won the PokerStars Sunday Million on April 15, earning an even $180,000. "That's one tournament you always kind of dream about winning," he said of the accomplishment.

Fifth - Greg "DuckU" Hobson ($623,004 in OPOY winnings, 18 OPOY final tables)

Winning back-to-back Sunday majors is a dream of most online poker players. Greg "DuckU" Hobson's done it. (He took down the major Sunday event on Full Tilt twice in a row.) Taking down two events in an online tournament series like the UltimateBet Online Championship is also the thing of dreams for online poker players. Hobson's done that, too (and made two other final tables during that series, to boot). Those wins, along with his consistent results in other tournaments, enabled him to finish up the year by rounding out the top five. Hobson, 28, of Oregon, became a full-time poker pro after his job as a teacher failed to make ends meet as well as his poker did.

Sixth - Luke "Bdbeatslayer" Vrabel ($541,447 in OPOY winnings, 30 OPOY final tables)

Luke "Bdbeatslayer" Vrabel began his journey up the ranks in the poker world in an unconventional way: He pretended to be a girl. Through his ruse, he used his alter ego "Dana" to solicit training and advice from online poker's top pros. The ploy worked, and he has since used what he learned to become a top pro himself. He's since kicked the Dana façade, and he went on to crush online tournaments and finish high on the OPOY leader board.

Seventh - "Andy McLEOD" ($537,512 in OPOY winnings, 20 OPOY final tables)

"Andy McLEOD" is a relatively mysterious player in the online poker world. Andy McLEOD was killing the multitable tournaments online throughout 2007, but he was, in fact, too young to be playing on the online poker sites. He was outed as a 17-year-old in the online forums later in the year, and was subsequently banned from online poker until he came of age. He plans to pick right back up where he left off when he turns 18 in August.

Eighth - Chad "lilholdem954" Batista ($767,559 in OPOY winnings, 21 OPOY final tables)

There are many ways that one might recognize Chad "lilholdem954" Batista: his ultra-aggressive style, his baby face (especially for a 27-year-old), or, perhaps most notably, the grills on his teeth. He professes to have never read a single poker book, to have never graduated from high school, and to never, ever use odds in his game. Whatever he does, it works for him, and it's unlikely to be a fluke. Batista used his incredible poker instincts to rack up an amazing set of results in 2007, enough to get him into the top 10 of the OPOY standings.

Ninth - Scott "SCTrojans" Freeman ($561,886 in OPOY winnings, 28 OPOY final tables)

Scott "SCTrojans" Freeman, 21, came out of nowhere this year to start tearing up online poker, earning more than half a million dollars in OPOY-qualified finishes alone. Freeman, known for his no-nonsense, say-what-he-means attitude, caused his fair share of minor controversies in the online poker world, but no one could deny that the kid was good. His incredible year landed him in the No. 9 spot on the final 2007 OPOY leader board.

10th - Jon "PearlJammer" Turner ($428,613 in OPOY winnings, 18 OPOY final tables)

Jon "PearlJammer" Turner is likely the most veteran online poker player in the top 10. He's been a legendary figure in online poker pretty much since it was possible to do so. The 25-year-old redhead, recently scooped up as a Full Tilt pro, has attracted huge rail crowds for the majority of his lifetime as an online poker pro. It's a misconception that he's an online pro, though, as Turner got his start primarily in live tournaments and cash games.