COTY (Champion of theYear) - 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, and 2003

Sometimes I forget that Kenneth Popkin (the maintainer of the award) and I have the "COTY" award up and running!! Here are the winners the last five years including some great players. The award was designed to measure who performed the best in the top poker tournaments in the world, the ones that the Champions attended, the ones that really count. It does not measure who won the preliminary events at tournaments. This award includes every WSOP event (55), all of the WPT events in the USA, and a few other events that really count like the main event in Australia. You cannot win this award, or even make the top 100 if you win 8 small tournaments. Although 8 wins would be amazing, and you would probably win Card Player Magazines "Player of the Year," you didn't compete against the best players in the world to win those events. The COTY gives points only for final table finishes. What Champion really cares if he finished in tenth place? The COTY is heavily weighted towards first place, again because Champions value the top three place finishes the most.

Champion of the Year - 2007, updated 12/31
Rank	Name	Score	# of finishes
1	William "Bill" Edler	960	4
1	Jonathan Little	960	4
3	Scott Clements	755	4
4	Robert Mizrachi	740	4
5	Tom Schneider	700	4
6	Freddy Deeb	685	3
7	J.C. Tran	660	3
8	Chad Brown	640	3
9	Paul Wasicka	600	2
9	Jerry Yang	600	1
	Barry Greenstein	570	4
	Alexander Kravchenko	560	3
	Phil Ivey	550	3
	David Pham	540	3
	Kirk Morrison	530	3
	Daniel Negreanu	520	3
	Ryan Daut	520	3
	Juan Carlos Mortensen	500	1
	Erik Cajelais	480	2
	Tuan Lam	480	1
	Mike Matusow	460	2
	Nam Le	455	4
	Danny Wong	450	3
	HumbertoBrenes	445	4
	Fred Goldberg	440	3
	Jeffrey Lisandro	440	2
	Nick Schulman	425	2
	David "Devil Fish" Ulliott	420	2

Champion of the Year - 2006, updated 12/20
Rank	Name	Score	# of finishes
1	740	4
2	Michael Mizrachi	720	2
3	Joseph Hachem	660	3
4	David Williams	640	3
4	Joe Pelton	640	2
6	Phil Hellmuth Jr.	630	4
7	Allen Cunningham	605	3
8	Jamie Gold	600	1
9	Phil Ivey	540	2
9	Scotty Nguyen	540	2
	Joe Bartholdi	500	1
	David 'Chip' Reese	500	1
	Erick Lindgren	480	2
	Mark Newhouse	480	2
	Paul Wasicka	480	1
	Christian Grundtvig	475	2
	William Chen	460	3
	Shahram "Sean" Sheikhan	460	2
	Andy Bloch	450	2
	Anders Henriksson	440	3
	Mike Guttman	440	2
	Sam Farha	430	2
	Michael Binger	430	2
	Steve Wong	420	2
	John D'Agostino	420	2
	Burt Boutin	400	2
	Jason Sagle	400	2
	Alan Goehring	400	1
	Nam Le	400	1
	Ted Forrest	400	1
	Victor Ramdin	400	1
	David Matthew	400	1
	Stanley Weiss	400	1
	Joe Tehan	400	1
	Lee Watkinson	400	1
	Andreas Walnum	400	1
	Soren Turkewitsch	400	1
	Nenad Medic	400	1
	Kevin O'Donnell	380	3

Champion of the Year - 2005, updated 12/18
Rank	Name	Score	# of finishes
1	Chris Ferguson	1565	7
2	Phil Ivey	1075	5
3	Allen Cunningham	790	5
4	Joseph Hachem	760	2
5	Minh Ly	720	3
5	Vinnie Vinh	720	2
7	Phil Hellmuth	715	3
8	Gavin Smith	640	2
8	Steven Dannenmann	640	2
10	Maciek Gracz	600	2
10	Thang Pham	600	2
10	Nick Schulman	600	2
	Men Nguyen	595	4
	Scotty Nguyen	580	3
	Mike Mizrachi	560	2
	Doug Lee	550	3
	John Juanda	550	3
	Antonio Esfandiari	540	3
	John Gale	540	2
	Doyle Brunson	540	2
	Chad Brown	520	3
	Erick Lindgren	520	3
	JC Tran	520	3
	Mike Matusow	520	2
	Ted Forrest	520	2
	TJ Cloutier	520	2
	Tuan Le	500	1
	Jeffrey Lisandro	490	2

Champion of the Year - 2004, updated 12/1
Rank	Name	Score	# of finishes
1	Daniel Negreanu	2360	10
2	John Juanda	1790	10
3	Barry Greenstein	1440	7
4	Howard Lederer	1380	7
5	Hasan Habib	1370	6
6	Allen Cunningham	1340	9
7	Lee Watkinson	1270	5
8	Erik Seidel	1060	6
9	Humberto Brenes	1000	4
10	Ted Forrest	980	5
11	David Pham	960	4
12	Scotty Nguyen	950	6
13	David Williams	900	2
14	Minh Nguyen	810	6
15	Freddy Deeb	800	3
15	Josh Arieh	800	2
17	Paul Phillips	780	5
17	John D'Agostino	780	4
19	Martin Deknijff	770	2
20	Joe Awada	740	4
	TJ Cloutier	730	5
	Scott Fischman	720	4
	Chau Giang	680	5
	Men Nguyen	670	5
	Young Phan	650	6
	Hoyt Corkins	620	3
	John Esposito	600	3
	Antonio Esfandiari	600	2
	Phil Ivey	600	2
	Greg Raymer	600	1

Champion of the Year - 2003, updated 12/20/03
Rank	Name	Score	# of finishes
1	Chip Jett	1090	7
2	Phil Hellmuth	1070	6
3	Erik Seidel	1005	6
4	Phil Ivey	980	5
5	Men Nguyen	920	5
6	Mel Judah	900	6
7	Toto Leonidas	870	5
8	Chris Ferguson	840	6
9	Amir Vahedi	760	4
10	Howard Lederer	740	4
11	T J Cloutier	685	6
12	Ron Rose	680	5
13	Daniel Negreanu	675	5
14	Layne Flack	660	4
15	Gus Hansen	640	2
16	Paul Phillips	640	2
17	Brian Haveson	620	3
18	Johnny Chan	600	2
19	Christopher Moneymaker	600	1
20	David "Devil Fish" Ulliott	585	4
21	John Juanda