Phil Ivey Throws His Hat Into POY Race

We're nearly a quarter of the way through the year and the Card Player 2008 Player of the Year leader board is taking shape. Familiar names such as Men Nguyen, Gavin Griffin, David Pham, Michael Binger, Erik Seidel, and Lee Watkinson all have started strongly on the tournament circuit this year, but one player - namely, Phil Ivey - recently made a mad dash to near the top.

To say that Phil Ivey plays to win is an understatement. He made his eighth World Poker Tour final table recently at the L.A. Poker Classic (LAPC). Prior to that event, he already held the record for most final-table appearances on the WPT (seven), but he had never won an event. Here is an amazing statistic: All seven times that Phil cashed in a WPT event, he made the final table. Well, the LAPC was no different, but this time, Ivey captured the victory, beating out 664 players to claim the $1.6 million first prize.

You can read all about the event, which featured an amazing final table consisting of Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, and Nam Le, to name a few, in this issue. Card Player was at the LAPC, and interviewed Ivey after his victory. Don't miss the next issue, as Phil will share his insights into what it takes to dominate tournament poker. With more than $8.7 million in lifetime tournament winnings, it is an interview that you cannot afford to miss.

But Ivey didn't stop there. Immediately after winning the LAPC, he rushed back to Las Vegas to compete in the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. He beat up on J.C. Tran, Johnny Chan, and online qualifier Alisha Kunze to finish in a tie for third in the event. Congratulations, Phil!

Now, on to this issue. Another player who continues to assail the tournament circuit is two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and WPT champion Scott Clements. Clements finished fourth in the 2007 Player of the Year race and continues to put up impressive results. In this issue, Scott discusses his rise up the poker ranks. Card Player also would like to welcome Jeff Hwang, author of the recently released Pot-Limit Omaha: The Big Play Strategy, to the Card Player columnist roster. Jeff is also an investment analyst who writes for the Motley Fool, and his columns in Card Player, the first of which appears in this issue, focus on Omaha and investing, two "games" that are both played "on the draw."