ESPN.com’s monthly ranking of the top ten poker players in the world, called “The Nuts,” has been released and for September, the top five has remained unchanged. In fact, of the ten players on the list, only one was new, meaning that one player had to drop out.
That one player: the incomparable Phil Ivey.
The voters for “The Nuts” attempt to compile a list of the best poker players “at the moment,” meaning that while a player may have a fantastic reputation, if he hasn’t actually accomplished anything in a long time, he (or she) is not one of the “moment’s” best poker players. Thus, you won’t see immortals like Johnny Chan or Doyle Brunson on the list. For them, check out the Poker Hall of Fame.
All poker is considered, from tournaments to cash games, from live to online play. On ESPN’s list, live tournament results tend to be the most highly considered simply because they are the most reported, though significant online results often find their way into the rankings.
The voting panel consists of ESPN.com poker producers Andrew Feldman, Gary Wise, and Bernard Lee, Bluff magazine editor-in-chief Lance Bradley and managing editor Jessica Welman, ESPNdeportes.com poker editor Nahuel Ponce, Poker Road’s Court Harrington, PokerNews.com editor-in-chief Elaine Chaivarlis and the site’s tournament reporter Don Peters, and PocketFives.com’s Dan Cypra.
Ivey has not played poker for much of this year; he did not play in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) at all. It was actually a wonder that he took so long to exit the rankings. Wrote Feldman, “If on the first day we put out ‘The Nuts,’ you would’ve asked me the odds on Ivey coming off this list within its first three years, I would’ve said it wasn’t possible. The complete removal of Phil Ivey from this list for the first time ever highlights the view of the panel that Ivey has truly distanced himself from the game that he once dominated.”
The biggest riser in the rankings was Daniel Negreanu, who jumped from tenth to sixth on the strength of 15 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) cashes. That was good for a third place finish on the WCOOP leaderboard. Perhaps interestingly, Bertrand Grospellier cashed 13 times in the WCOOP and is currently second in the Bluff magazine Player of the Year race, yet did not move from his seventh spot on “The Nuts” list.
Entering the rankings for the first time is Jake Cody, who was recently named “Best Tournament Player” at the 2011 British Poker Awards. This summer, he won his first World Series of Poker bracelet, becoming just the fourth person to capture poker’s Triple Crown: a WSOP bracelet, a World Poker Tour title, and a European Poker Tour title.
The complete “The Nuts” rankings are as follows (last month’s ranking in parentheses):
1. Jason Mercier (1)
2. Erik Seidel (2)
3. Eugene Katchalov (3)
4. Ben Lamb (4)
5. Phil Hellmuth (5)
6. Daniel Negreanu (10)
7. Bertrand Grospellier (7)
8. John Juanda (6)
9. Vanessa Selbst (9)
10. Jake Cody (NR)