With the start of the 41st annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) just over two weeks away, a poll from ESPN regarding the top poker players in the world gives readers an excellent insight on who looks to be on track for outstanding performances at this year’s WSOP.
As a part of its poker coverage, ESPN.com convenes a panel they call “The Nuts,” which is a blog that features several prominent members of the poker media. One of the members of that panel is Poker News Daily’s very own Dan Cypra, who is joined by the three members of ESPN.com’s poker coverage: Andrew Feldman, Gary Wise, and poker pro Bernard Lee. Other members of the panel include ESPNDeportes.com Poker Editor Nahuel Ponce, Bluff Magazine’s editor in chief Lance Bradley and senior writer Jessica Welman, PokerNews editor in chief Matt Parvis, tournament reporter Don Peters, and PokerRoad’s Court Harrington.
The monthly task for the ten-member panel is to answer that age-old question that floats around the poker universe: Who is the best player in the game? The members of “The Nuts” look at which players are the best at a particular moment in time. For the month of May, the panel brought in two new names to the Top Ten list and dropped one player down the rankings due to a lack of performance on the tournament stage.
Entering into the top ten for the month of May is newly crowned World Poker Tour (WPT) Player of the Year Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka. Noting his top 15 finish at the WPT Championship and his performances at the PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Bounty Shootout final tables, the panel determined that Jaka’s accomplishments were good enough to move him into tenth place on the list. “Jaka employs a reckless, fearless style of play, but he plays it so well that it drives a lot of opponents crazy and gets him the chips,” noted Peters in the ESPN.com blog. “Maniac or not, with the WSOP around the corner, he’s on the ‘To Watch’ list.”
Another player who did well during the WPT Championship, eventual runner-up Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, also garnered accolades from the panel with his entry into the top ten. After not being ranked in the list prior to May, Baldwin enters “The Nuts” list as the #4 player. Noting one of Baldwin’s Twitter posts, Feldman joked in his comments on the blog, “Basebaldy” may have had some control issues when throwing out the first pitch when visiting his alma mater, but on the felt, he’s in control at all times.”
One player taking a particularly large tumble down the rankings was Daniel Negreanu. After being tied for third place on April’s list, “The Nuts” panel brought up the valid point that “Kid Poker” hasn’t been on his best game in the past couple of months and seemingly has been concentrating on the “made for television” events that are popping up. Peters writes in the blog, “Not sure if the times are catching up with him or what, but he might be pretty low on this list (or off) if he can’t put something together soon.”
Eight of the ten members of “The Nuts” panel gave first place votes to Phil Ivey (ranked #1), who has made $1.4 million online over the past month. Jason Mercier (#2), who won the NAPT Mohegan Sun Bounty Shootout and cashed in the European Poker Tour (EPT) stop in San Remo, earned one of the other two votes. Cypra nominated Scott Seiver (#7) for the #1 slot in the top ten.
“This list is about who’s hot now and no one is hotter on the tournament circuit,” Cypra states on the ESPN.com blog about Seiver. A look at his record says it all; he has $834,462 in live tournament earnings in 2010, including a victory in February at the L.A. Poker Classic’s High Roller event and a fourth place finish in April at the NAPT event at Mohegan Sun. Other players who make the top ten are Tom “durrrr” Dwan (#3), Patrik Antonius (#5), Carlos Mortensen (#8), and new Titan Poker pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi (tied for #10).
The top ten list from the panelists on “The Nuts” at ESPN.com could very well take on a whole new look come the end of the WSOP. “I believe there will be a major shakeup on this list after the next two months,” Feldman observed at the end of the blog. “With the WSOP offering a great chance to watch all of the world’s best players, those on the panel will get a close-up view at how each of them fares on a day-to-day basis.”