PokerStars Team Pro 2010

As many of you may know by now, I am a full fledged stats geek and my main motivation for playing poker is try to improve upon my own stats each year. I decided to compile a list to see how I matched up against the rest of PokerStars Team Pro in terms of earnings over the last three years.

As you all should know, there is a lot of variance in tournament poker, and it's also impossible to track the amount players spend on buy ins, so these numbers don't "mean anything," if you will, but I still thought it would be interesting to see who's excelled in the last three years. In my opinion, poker has changed more in the last 2-3 years than it has in the past 10 withl the level of play in live tournaments rising to new heights.

In the "old days" if you had a PokerStars qualifier at your table you may lick your chops a bit thinking he's out of his element, but that's no longer the case, as the young breed of poker player has made tournaments tougher, yet more enjoyable as far as I'm concerned. I thoroughly enjoy butting heads with the younger players, and it motivates me to continue working on, and evolving my game to the point where I'm happy with it.

2010 was a tough year for me on many levels, both personally and at the tables. I cashed for just under $700,000, my lowest total since 2005. While I "think" I played well in 2010 and was a bit unlucky, the results don't show that, and poker is a funny thing that way. When things in your personal life aren't where you'd like them to be, that can affect your poker game in ways you don't realize.

I am not entirely sure how much the loss of my mother affected my motivation in 2010, but I'm sure it didn't help. I think I've made my peace with it now, but she was such a big part of my life, so losing her kind of threw me for a loop and I don't think I was "right" for most of the year.

Now, the last couple months of the year I got that fire back making a final table at EPT Vienna and also in December making the final table of APPT Sydney. I'm hungry. Very, very, very hungry to win. This is going to come off wrong, possibly, but poker felt "easy" the last couple months and I think that's a really good thing.

At WSOPE I flew in for the Heads Up event and lost a tough match in the quarter-finals to Andrew Feldman after getting through four tough opponents in Carlos Mortensen, Juha Helppi, Chance Kormut, and Andrew Robl.

I barely missed the money in the main event at WSOPE, and followed that up with my first EPT cash in London. I had an unusual day one exit in Barcelona, but aside from that I played solid poker down the stretch which bodes well for a monster 2011.

On that note, let's take a look at who really had a monster year in 2010. If you had to give someone the "breakout player of the year" award, as well as "team mvp" Vanessa Selbst would run away with both. After an off 2009 where she only cashed for about $100,000 due to focusing on her studies, Vanessa crushed the competition in 2010 picking a couple big tournament wins along with close to $3,000,000.

Another thing I found interesting is how badly the PokerStars boys were outplayed by the women! Vanessa Selbst topped the list, while Liv Boeree had a big win at EPT San Remo and placed second on the list. Vanessa Rousso also had another solid, consistent year, finishing in 9th place on the team. That's three ladies in the top 10, and that's pretty impressive considering the fact that women only make up approximately 5% of tournament fields. It will be interesting to see which one of these three ladies can outdo the other in 2011.

At the beginning of 2010 Team Pro USA member Jason Mercier made a little side bet with his friends to motivate him. He bet even money that he'd cash for at least $1 million in 2010, and for the third consecutive year, Mercier topped the $1 million mark.. just barely with $1,059,908. His worst year of the past three, but still an impressive feat for the workhorse. I don't believe any other player in the world has cashed for $1 million plus in the last three years.

Speaking of workhorses, Barry Greenstein, skilled in all disciplines of poker, which gives him a nice advantage at the WSOP specifically, had an off year, as his total dropped for the second consecutive year, cashing for a disappointing $161,829. Best bet of the year might be that Barry surpasses that total in 2011. He seemed to get aces cracked in 2010 more than you are supposed to! With the volume he plays, though, I'd be willing to bet he cashes for $500k or more in 2011, despite not crossing that mark since 2008.

While I gave the award of "breakout player of the year" to Selbst, an argument can also be made for Nacho Barbero who won back-to-back LAPT titles! Um, that just doesn't happen anymore people. I heard he went on a tear at one point where he WON 5 of 8 live tournaments he played. That's pretty sick. He ended the year with a whopping $1,543,463 in winnings. In 2009 and 2008 he barely crossed the $100,000 mark! Can he keep it up in 2011? I wouldn't bet against him.

David Williams has quietly put together a nice poker career, coming in 2nd in the WSOP main event in 2004, having several near misses on the WPT (he came second to me at Borgata) before going on to not only finally win a WSOP in 7 Card Stud, but he also won one of the most prestigious titles in the world, the WPT Championship bringing his years winnings to $1,583,274.

Bartrand "Elky" Grospellier had an off year by his standards, cashing for $459,701. In 2009 he topped $1.6 million and his monster 2008 saw him win close to $4 million! Elky is way too good to not rebound from what many would consider a successful year. Elky is one of the most competitive people I know, so make sure he is on your radar if you are betting on someone to have a big year.

One noticeable omission from the list was Jonathan Duhamel, the 2010 WSOP main event champion. When compiling my list of Team Pros I went to the website and he wasn't on there so I left him off. Otherwise, um ya, he'd be #1 lol.

A big question for 2011 is not only "Who is Isildur1," but what will he do in 2011? Will he focus on cash games, or will we see him crushing the big live tournaments? I don't know the answer to that, and as a poker fan, I'm as curious as any of you.

I found 75 Team Pros listed on PokerStars.com and sorted them by their 2010 ranking, with their 2009, 2008, and combined total ranking in parenthesis:

1. Vanessa Selbst $2,865,830
2009 (rank) $103,879 (40)
2008 (rank) $540,577 (12)
3 year total (rank) $3,510,286 (6)

2. Liv Boeree $1,825,425
2009 (rank) $173,642 (29)
2008 (rank) $55,542 (41)
3 year total (rank) $2,054,612 (13)

3. David Williams $1,583,274
2009 (rank) $221,909 (24)
2008 (rank) $327,739 (18)
3 year total (rank) $2,132,922 (12)

4. Jose Ignacio Barbero $1,543,463
2009 (rank) $115,058 (37)
2008 (rank) $100,617 (33)
3 year total (rank) $1,759,138 (15)

5. Theo Jorgensen $1,375,854
2009 (rank) $50,385 (57)
2008 (rank) $406,702 (15)
3 year total (rank) $1,832,941 (14)

6. Jason Mercier $1,059,908
2009 (rank) $1,354,026 (5)
2008 (rank) $2,752,423 (4)
3 year total (rank) $5,166,357 (4)

7. Martin Hruby $747,452
2009 (rank) $72,106 (48)
2008 (rank) $48,565 (46)
3 year total (rank) $868,123 (26)

8. Daniel Negreanu $683,825
2009 (rank) $1,224,895 (7)
2008 (rank) $1,301,853 (6)
3 year total (rank) $3,210,573 (8)

9. Vanessa Rousso $616,514
2009 (rank) $1,342,590 (6)
2008 (rank) $267,419 (20)
3 year total (rank) $2,265,523 (11)

10. Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier $459,701
2009 (rank) $1,642,560 (4)
2008 (rank) $3,686,476 (3)
3 year total (rank) $5,788,737 (3)

11. Arnaud Mattern $445,016
2009 (rank) $140,162 (32)
2008 (rank) $153,729 (28)
3 year total (rank) $738,907 (31)

12. John Duthie $371,607
2009 (rank) $393,609 (16)
2008 (rank) $50,471 (45)
3 year total (rank) $815,687 (28)

13. Marcin Horecki $366,430
2009 (rank) $68768 (50)
2008 (rank) $584,287 (10)
3 year total (rank) $1,019,485 (21)

14. Alexander Kravchenko $357,146
2009 (rank) $262,187 (21)
2008 (rank) $345,600 (17)
3 year total (rank) $964,933 (24)

15. Johnny Lodden $356,161
2009 (rank) $32,508 (63)
2008 (rank) $278,713 (19)
3 year total (rank) $667,382 (33)

16. Luca Pagano $$327,088
2009 (rank) $540,840 (14)
2008 (rank) $553,203 (11)
3 year total (rank) $1,421,131 (17)

17. Maxim Lykov $279,500
2009 (rank) $697,564 (12)
2008 (rank) $0 (65)
3 year total (rank) $977,064 (23)

18. JP Kelly $274,578
2009 (rank) $468,194 (15)
2008 (rank) $41,796 (48)
3 year total (rank) $784,568 (29)

19. Ruben Visser $241,330
2009 (rank) $62,346 (52)
2008 (rank) $2,495 (63)
3 year total (rank) $306,171 (46)

20. Van Nguyen $238,090
2009 (rank) $59,347 (53)
2008 (rank) $40,469 (49)
3 year total (rank) $337,906 (44)

21. Richard Toth $213,313
2009 (rank) $261,735 (22)
2008 (rank) $25,700 (54)
3 year total (rank) $500,748 (37)

22. Dario Minieri $191,983
2009 (rank) $180,253 (28)
2008 (rank) $1,147,934 (7)
3 year total (rank) $1,520,170 (16)

23. Tony Hachem $180,237
2009 (rank) $18,278 (65)
2008 (rank) $83,862 (36)
3 year total (rank) $282,377 (48)

24. Marcel Luske $166,532
2009 (rank) $6,449 (72)
2008 (rank) $381,194 (16)
3 year total (rank) $554,175 (35)

25. Thomas Bichon $166,100
2009 (rank) $860,225 (10)
2008 (rank) $32,320 (52)
3 year total (rank) $1,058,645 (20)

26. Barry Greenstein $161,829
2009 (rank) $318,590 (19)
2008 (rank) $939,921 (8)
3 year total (rank) $1,420,340 (18)

27. Lex Veldhuis $153,696
2009 (rank) $335,317 (18)
2008 (rank) $23,836 (55)
3 year total (rank) $512,849 (36)

28. Pat Pezzin $146,682
2009 (rank) $316,827 (20)
2008 (rank) $149,667 (29)
3 year total (rank) $613,176 (34)

29. Dennis Phillips $143,971
2009 (rank) $339,598 (17)
2008 (rank) $4,524,608 (2)
3 year total (rank) $5,008,177 (5)

30. Bryan Huang $139,485
2009 (rank) $55,607 (54)
2008 (rank) $181,123 (25)
3 year total (rank) $376,215 (42)

31. Pieter de Korver $136,888
2009 (rank) $3,065,565 (2)
2008 (rank) $15,659 (59)
3 year total (rank) $3,218,112 (7)

32. Alexandre Gomez $126,194
2009 (rank) $1,947,937 (3)
2008 (rank) $847,895 (9)
3 year total (rank) $2,922,026 (9)

33. Greg Raymer $120,487
2009 (rank) $780,927 (11)
2008 (rank) $34,579 (50)
3 year total (rank) $935,993 (25)

34. Victor Ramdin $118,242
2009 (rank) $55,146 (56)
2008 (rank) $182,439 (24)
3 year total (rank) $355,827 (43)

35. Chad Brown $116,007
2009 (rank) $603,995 (13)
2008 (rank) $141,511 (30)
3 year total (rank) $861,513 (27)

36. Raymond Wu $114,770
2009 (rank) $163,579 (30)
2008 (rank) $0 (65)
3 year total (rank) $278,349 (49)

37. Joe Hachem $105,829
2009 (rank) $111,600 (38)
2008 (rank) $214,719 (22)
3 year total (rank) $432,148 (38)

38. Leo Fernandez $94,036
2009 (rank) $244,083 (23)
2008 (rank) $54,469 (43)
3 year total (rank) $392,588 (40)

39. Victoria Coren $87,259
2009 (rank) $42,000 (59)
2008 (rank) $98,909 (34)
3 year total (rank) $228,168 (53)

40. Chris Moneymaker $70,712
2009 (rank) $97,801 (42)
2008 (rank) $72,442 (38)
3 year total (rank) $240,955 (52)

I do have the results for all 75 players, but since I'm doing this manually, it takes a while, and the focus isn't on who did the worst, I figured I'd stop after the top 40. Good luck to everyone in 2011 and I'll see you all at the PCA!

Daniel Negreanu is the 2004 CardPlayer Magazine and World Poker Tour Player of the Year. He presents his poker strategies in one-on-one virtual training at pokervt.com and writes a weekly syndicated newspaper column.
Read all of Daniel Negreanu's poker blog and poker articles at Full Contact Poker.