There’s nothing like ranking things in a convoluted standing system to bring out the discussion in people. Whether it is tennis or golf rankings, where the Premier League teams are on their ladder (or, for U. S. citizens, the National Football League) or even NASCAR or Formula One drivers, people like to know who are the best teams or players in a sport. Poker has this in its various tournament rankings and Poker News Daily will step into that field with its own Player of the Year ratings system.
While the “big three” of the tournament rankings in poker – Bluff Magazine, CardPlayer Magazine and the Global Poker Index – do a fine job of putting together their systems, Poker News Daily believes that sometimes one huge win can skew the results. Sure, Daniel Colman had a great year, but his High Roller wins might have given him a bit more of an advantage over the field; did 2014 World Series of Poker Championship Event winner Martin Jacobson jump into the Top Ten of two of the rankings purely on that win alone?; finally, what about someone like Dan Heimiller, who had an astounding 35 cashes (at least) in 2014, and why didn’t he get more love in the rankings?
With these things in mind, Poker News Daily has crafted a points system that could give more “food for thought” in the question of the best poker player of the year. The Poker News Daily system is built upon eight levels, with the minimum prize pool starting at $100,000. At Level 1, 1000 points are available for the top ten finishers (yes, we’ll give some points to that unfortunate individual who just misses the final table; in qualifying tournaments that don’t pay ten players, those receiving a cash will be counted) with the first place finisher earning 300 points. Multipliers will be applied to that base 1000 points (Level 2 is worth 2000 points, Level 3 worth 3000 points, etc.) all the way to the pinnacle, Level 8, which is worth 8000 points total and will feature prize pools of $5 million or more.
All World Series of Poker events, European Poker Tour and World Poker Tour Main Events will be counted in the rankings, graded on their prize pools. For example, if a WPT stop “only” generates a $2.5 million prize pool, it will be put in the Level 5 category; if an EPT stop generates a $3.5 million prize pool, it is in the Level 6 category. This gives credence to the players having to make it through (presumably, if it isn’t one of those dreaded rebuy events) what is a larger field. Smaller tournament circuits and regional events will have to make the $100,000 cut line.
The big question in putting together the Poker News Daily Player of the Year race was what leverage to give to the High Roller and Super High Roller tournaments that have become popular. Looking at the tournaments (and poker tournaments overall), we determined that a High Roller or Super High Roller field must pay at least five of its participants to be entered into the Poker News Daily POY. Thus, some of the WPT Alpha8 events wouldn’t qualify (the St. Kitts stop last year paid three players and wouldn’t have counted; the WPT Alpha8 Las Vegas, though, paid six players and would have been counted). By instituting this guideline, High Roller or Super High Roller tournaments won’t dominate the landscape of the Poker News Daily POY.
While we keep an eye on the tournament poker scene wherever it may be in the world, there are going to be tournaments that we might miss. To attempt to correct this – or to allow someone to inform us of a tournament that might have slipped under the radar – readers of Poker News Daily are encourage to pass along the results of a tournament. E-mail us at usraider47@yahoo.com to let us know of a tournament that you believe fits the criteria that we have set out (remember, a tournament must have a prize pool of more than $100,000 U. S.). After review of such information, Poker News Daily will be the final arbiter to determine if said event is qualified for entry into the Poker News Daily POY.
As we get ready to head into another tournament poker year (the EPT PokerStars Caribbean Adventure begins in only five days), it will be exciting to see how things play out. Poker News Daily will continue to monitor the “big three” rankings each month but, by adding in the Poker News Daily POY race to the mix, we will see if there’s a better way to come up with the player who is the best over a calendar year span.
