John Phan Wins the 2008 Card Player Player of the Year AwardPhan Becomes the Seventh Player to Win the Award |
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With the elimination of Michael Binger in 67th place at the World Poker Tour $15,000 Doyle Brunson Classic Championship on Tuesday, Dec. 16, John Phan clinched the 2008 Card Player Player of the Year title. This is the first time that Phan has won the POY award, and he joins a fraternity of players that includes Men “The Master” Nguyen, T.J. Cloutier, Tony Ma, David “The Dragon” Pham, Daniel Negreanu, and Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi. Phan took home poker’s most respected annual award by amassing 6,704 points.
Phan finished in the runner-up position in the 2005 POY race, losing the title in the final month of the year to Nguyen, who rallied in December to win 636 points and clinch his record fourth POY title by a slim margin of 176 points over Phan. The 2008 POY award is one of redemption for Phan, who caught fire this summer at the World Series of Poker and never looked back. He took the lead in the POY when he won the WPT Legends of Poker in late August, and no one was able to chase him down this time.
One player who gave Phan a scare was the 2007 POY champion Pham. The Dragon accumulated more than 6,000 points for the second year in a row, finishing with 6,022. Pham did a great job defending his title, coming within 682 points of becoming the first back-to-back champion in history. Pham confirmed with Card Player via phone today that he is done playing tournament poker in 2008.
Highlights of the year for Phan included his first WPT win at the Legends of Poker in August, which netted him $1,091,428 in prize money. He also made two additional WPT final tables, finishing in sixth place at the Bay 101 Shooting Star event in March, and placing in fifth at the Bellagio Cup IV in July. Phan also won his first WSOP gold bracelet in 2008, winning a $3,000 no-limit hold’em event. He followed that up by taking first in a $2,500 deuce-to-seven triple draw lowball event one week later for his second bracelet. The summer of Phan in 2008 was one of the most impressive runs of tournament poker success in the history of the game.
Phan finished the year with 14 cashes that won him $2,075,323 in prize money. He made eight final tables and won three major events. Phan now holds $5,371,996 in career tournament winnings, two WSOP gold bracelets, one WPT title, and the 2008 Card Player POY title.
Here is a look at the past winners of the Card Player POY award:
1997: Men “The Master” Nguyen
1998: T.J. Cloutier
1999: Tony Ma
2000: David “The Dragon” Pham
2001: Men “The Master” Nguyen
2002: T.J. Cloutier
2003: Men “The Master” Nguyen
2004: Daniel Negreanu
2005: Men “The Master” Nguyen
2006: Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi
2007: David “The Dragon” Pham
2008: John Phan
CardPlayer TV sat down with John Phan shortly after he learned of his big win:
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