A Close Race for COTY
Phil Hellmuth
enjoy seeing the latest Champion of the Year (COTY) update. Below is
my latest Card Player article, and Ivey is in the lead. Last year's
Champion was John Juanda--it was the first official year for the COTY.
By the way, todays event at Foxwoodds counts...(Special thanks to
Kenneth Popkin for compiling and updating the award.) Have a great
day,
-Cheers, Phil Hellmuth jr.
Champion of the Year: what a Race!
Editors note: Phil Hellmuth has a book out called "Play Poker like the
Pros" available through philhellmuth.com. Play poker, and chat with
Phil at ultimatebet.com's small stake tables.
New trend
There is a big trend in poker right now: a lot of the top players are
playing fewer and fewer poker tournaments. Seidel, Lederer, Juanda,
Ivey, Ferguson and I are rarely seen outside of the WSOP or WPT (World
Poker Tour) tournaments these days. In fact, all six of us showed up
right before the Taj Mahal's 10K event; played it and the Borgata's 5k
tourneys, and then flew off our separate ways—we skipped all of the
earlier Taj events, and all of the later events in AC (Atlantic City).
And how about poker legends Chip Reese, Johnny Chan and Doyle
Brunson: they play in fewer events than everyone else. Chan, Brunson
and Reese didn't even show up for the AC events!
Chan, Seidel, Reese and I have families, businesses, and side games to
occupy our time, and some of the others have businesses, girlfriends,
wives, and side games; in addition to playing poker tournaments.
What this means to me is this: many of the top players only come out
when the stakes are the highest, or the tournaments are the most
prestigious. Thus, as many of you are already aware, I developed the
"Phil Hellmuth's Champion of the Year" award. This award measures
performance in only the biggest and most prestigious poker tournaments
in the poker world. All WSOP and WPT events count; and every other
event held in the USA with at least a $2,000 buy-in, and at least 65
player's counts as well—go to philhellmuth.com for a complete listing
of the events that count.
Point's breakdown
Points are awarded thus, in order of finish: 200, 160, 120, 100, 80,
70, 60, 50, and 40 for ninth. These totals are weighted heavily
towards the top, just like the money scale—often times 40% for first,
20% for second and 10% for third. As you would expect, the Champion
of the Year (COTY) award rewards most of the points to first, second,
and third.
Also, the buy-in size or "tradition" plays a role in what a tournament
is worth. Thus the WSOP main event is worth 3x, or 600 points for
first: the $7,500 to $25,000 buy-ins were worth 2x, or 400 points for
first (although the 25K WPT Championship may go up in value in 2004):
and the $5,000-$7,499 buy-ins are worth 1.5x, or 300 points for first.
The race
The race is a tight one, and at this point, with 12 tournaments
remaining, anyone in the top 16 can win. The 12 remaining events are:
3 Foxwoods $2,000 buy-ins, and Foxwoods $10,000 WPT event: the Sands
$10,000 buy-in: the Taj Mahal's $5,000 buy-in: 5 Bellagio Five Diamond
$2,500 buy-in events, and their $10,000 buy-in Championship event.
The top sixteen point leaders are:
1.) 980 Phil Ivey (5 finishes)
2.) 920 Men Nguyen (5 finishes)
3.) 920 Chip Jett (5 finishes)
4.) 840 Howard Lederer (4 finishes)
5.) 840 Chris Ferguson (6 finishes)
6.) 830 Phil Hellmuth (5 finishes)
7.) 760 Amir Vahedi (4 finishes)
8.) 745 Erik Seidel (4 finishes)
9.) 640 Mel Judah (4 finishes)
10.) 600 Johnny Chan (2 finishes)
11.) 600 Chris Moneymaker (1 finish)
12.) 585 "Devilfish" Ulliott (4 finishes)
13.) 570 John Juanda (4 finishes)
14.) 550 Ron Rose (3 finishes)
15.) 535 Daniel Negreanu (4 finishes)
16.) 510 Paul Testud (4 finishes)
We certainly see a lot of the same old names up there, but the fact
that Johnny Chan is in the top ten is amazing. After all, Chan has
played less than 15 poker tournaments this year! Of course, John
Juanda, winner of the inaugural Champion of the Year award, is still
in the running with 570 points. Let me give some props to Ivey,
Nguyen, and Jett for occupying the top three spots.
We also have some cross-over from Card Players "Player of the Year"
award, with Men, Amir and Chip numbers 1, 2 and 3 on that list, and
Hellmuth (me), Seidel, Juanda and Negreanu amongst the top 20 there as
well—as of this Nov. 3rd article. Although, strangely, Ivey, Lederer
and Ferguson aren't even in the top twenty in the "Player of the Year
award:" these awards really do measure different accomplishments.
The Champion of the Year award will, in all likelihood, come down to
the last event of the year, the Bellagio's $10,000 buy-in no limit
Hold'em Championship--with its 400 first place points to the winner.
Champion of the Year - 2003, updated11/2/03
Rank Name Score # of finishes
1 Phil Ivey 980 5
2 Chip Jett 920 5
3 Men Nguyen 920 5
4 Howard Lederer 840 4
5 Phil Hellmuth 830 5
6 Chris Ferguson 780 5
7 Amir Vahedi 760 4
8 Erik Seidel 745 4
9 Johnny Chan 600 2
10 Christopher MM 600 1
11 "Devil Fish" 585 4
12 John Juanda 570 4
13 Ron Rose 550 3
14 Daniel Negreanu 535 4
15 Paul Testud 510 4
16 C Mortensen 490 3
17 "Sam" Farha 480 1
18 Dan Harrington 480 2
19 Jon Brody 470 5
20 Toto Leonidas 470 4
21 Layne Flack 460 3
22 Huck Seed 425 5
23 Doyle Brunson 400 2
24 Alan Goehring 400 1
25 D. Benyamine 400 1
26 Gus Hansen 400 1
27 Toto Leonodas 400 1
28 Erick Lindgren 390 3
29 Kirk Conrad 370 3
O-PGManager
_________________________________________________________________
Posted using RecPoker.com - http://www.recpoker.com
Janelle Corsun
very sad--so I have made up an award where you are in first place and way
ahead of everyone else. I call it Jan's "Rationalizer of the Year Award". To
considered for this award you must be:
1. A has been.
2. Think you are at least 10 times better than you are.
3. Be the only one tooting your (own) horn.
4. Be unable to actually win in any real (cash) poker game but still insist
and believe you're the best cardplayer in world.
5. Not be Russ. (Because if I allowed him in he would give you a real run
for your money.)
<snip>
------------
Thus, as many of you are already aware, I developed the
"Phil Hellmuth's Champion of the Year" award.
------------
<snip>
Matt
> The top sixteen point leaders are:
>
> 1.) 980 Phil Ivey (5 finishes)
> 2.) 920 Men Nguyen (5 finishes)
> 3.) 920 Chip Jett (5 finishes)
> 4.) 840 Howard Lederer (4 finishes)
> 5.) 840 Chris Ferguson (6 finishes)
> 6.) 830 Phil Hellmuth (5 finishes)
> 7.) 760 Amir Vahedi (4 finishes)
> 8.) 745 Erik Seidel (4 finishes)
> 9.) 640 Mel Judah (4 finishes)
> 10.) 600 Johnny Chan (2 finishes)
> 11.) 600 Chris Moneymaker (1 finish)
Who wants to take odds on Moneymaker winning it all? ;)
Matt
Hugh Candlin
Phil Hellmuth <ph...@philhellmuth.com> wrote in message news:31ddba0c.03110...@posting.google.com...
> Hi All, I am posting this because I believe that many of you will
> enjoy seeing the latest Champion of the Year (COTY) update. Below is
> my latest Card Player article, and Ivey is in the lead. Last year's
> Champion was John Juanda--it was the first official year for the COTY.
> By the way, todays event at Foxwoodds counts...(Special thanks to
> Kenneth Popkin for compiling and updating the award.) Have a great
> day
You need to speak to Mr Popkin about his lack of accuracy.
[I don't think that you are in 4th place any more, Toto.]
>
> Champion of the Year - 2003, updated11/2/03
> Rank Name Score # of finishes
> 1 Phil Ivey 980 5
> 2 Chip Jett 920 5
> 3 Men Nguyen 920 5
> 4 Howard Lederer 840 4
.....
> 20 Toto Leonidas 470 4
.....
> 27 Toto Leonodas 400 1
This may have had something to do with the error.
D
"Janelle Corsun" <JCorsun321N$S$@aol.com> wrote in message
news:vqufac8...@corp.supernews.com...
Erik Seidel
doesn't identify or represent many of the top player's on the tour.
There are very few players playing in enough events to win the POTY.
The fact that Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, & Chris Ferguson aren't even
in the top 20 on the Player list, when each of them are having great
years tells me there needs to be an alternate list that doesn't count
so many small events. All of us players are very competitive with each
other & it's important (+ fun) to have a list that represents how well
the best players are doing. I'm all for the COTY, plus it's got a much
better acronym than the POTY. -Erik Seidel
lvdlrs
amount of all the tournaments he or she has played during the
qualifying year (not to include the house drop) and divide
that into the total $ amount won for those tournaments? The
highest ratio is the champion. Tournaments must have a
minimum buy-in amount in order to be counted and a player
must have played in a minimum number of tournaments. I don't
know what would be fair for those numbers. Suggesting some
figures, say $500 or even $1,000 as the minimum buy-in for a
qualifying tournament and a player must play in a minimum of 20
tournaments. Those figures can be tweaked, but you get the idea.
Gary (...) Philips
Jack King
play in and do well in a 'large' number of tournaments. I realize this is
hard work and takes time and effort, which is why a lot of players don't do
it. If you or other tournament players don't feel like the hard work of
traveling and playing in a large number of events that's fine and
understandable, but then you cannot be the 'true' tournament champion of the
year (or whatever name you make up). It's silly to pick the events you like
and say that they are the ones that should count. Play in the events you
want and make the money. Do you really need the 'attaboy' title anyway?
By the way Eric, you do yourself a disservice aligning yourself with Phil
Helmuth. With the popularity of the WPT and other televised poker (not to
mention online poker) the game is getting a nice boost in status but Phil's
personality, behavior, and self-aggrandizement should be an embarrassment to
all tournament pros. He diminishes pokers improved image each time he opens
his mouth or throws a fit.
------------------------------------------------------
"Erik Seidel" <erikse...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:ec009f64.03111...@posting.google.com...
Max Longman
"lvdlrs" <lvd...@midsouth.rr.com> wrote in message
news:3FB04B66...@midsouth.rr.com...
> What's wrong with a system that takes a player's total entry
> amount of all the tournaments he or she has played during the
> qualifying year (not to include the house drop) and divide
> that into the total $ amount won for those tournaments? The
> highest ratio is the champion. Tournaments must have a
> minimum buy-in amount in order to be counted and a player
> must have played in a minimum number of tournaments. I don't
> know what would be fair for those numbers. Suggesting some
> figures, say $500 or even $1,000 as the minimum buy-in for a
> qualifying tournament and a player must play in a minimum of 20
> tournaments. Those figures can be tweaked, but you get the idea.
I would say Chris Moneymaker has won already, what was it $15(?) for a $2,500,000
win.
Erik Seidel
> play in and do well in a 'large' number of tournaments. I realize this is
> hard work and takes time and effort, which is why a lot of players don't do
> it. If you or other tournament players don't feel like the hard work of
> traveling and playing in a large number of events that's fine and
> understandable, but then you cannot be the 'true' tournament champion of the
> year (or whatever name you make up). It's silly to pick the events you like
> and say that they are the ones that should count. Play in the events you
> want and make the money. Do you really need the 'attaboy' title anyway?
"Jack"- I have no problem with there being a POTY contest, I think all
of these contests are fun & useful. I'm just saying that if you want
to determine who is having the best year on the circuit, Phil's list
is more accurate. Phil's top 10 are winning on average 100k more than
the player's on the POTY list. When you consider that many of these
players are playing in about a quarter of the events as the POTY
players, spending less money & less time to get their results I think
we can conclude that they are having better & more efficient years.
Phil Ivey is 30th on the POTY list & is winning almost 300k more than
the average of the 6 players who make the POTY,but not the COTY top
10. You can draw your own conclusions, but it's pretty clear to me
that Hellmuth's list is a much more accurate barometer of who's having
the best year on the tour. -Erik
lvdlrs
Actually Max, Chris right after his win would have a score of 265.96
(2,500,000 / 9400) But he has to play in 19 more $1000 or better
tournaments to qualify. If the resulting ratio of each played
tournament is totalled with the others and divided by the number
of qualifying events played, his score could be whittled down, if
he never placed in the money and he only played in $1000 events, to a
score of 13.3
I realize this is not the method I originally stated, which uses a
dividend that is the total cost of all the tournaments entered, and,
in our example, results in a score of 88.03 (2,500,000 / 28400).
But if the dividend used is the number of events played, it brings
Chris' astronomical figure of 265.96 down to 13.3
Gary (...) Philips
lvdlrs
the word divisor for dividend.
Gary (...) Philips
RyanO
The 8 comes, he is 11th best in the world, better than John Juanda
and Daniel Negreanu. Doesn't that seem wrong? The value of a ranking
system can be judged by such comparisons.
Craig Permenter
"Max Longman" <linker5...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote in message
news:Nq7sb.558$xP7.3...@news-text.cableinet.net...
Daniel Negreanu
You are kind of missing the point a little I think. The rankings
wouldn't equate to who is better than who, the rankings simply try to
judge who has had the best year in tournament poker.
Eventually I'd like to see this ranking system, or possibly another
system become an even better reflection of playing ability. For that
to happen, you would need a large sample of tournaments as well as a
full list of players who entered. The WPT has an opportunity to do
that now, as they have all the necessary records to do so. They could
compile a WPT ranking system using all of the WPT events (with the
exception of the WPT Invitational, Aruba 2002, Ladies Night, and the
Hollywood Home Game).
My guess is, that with the popularity of the TPOY and the CPOY, the
WPTPOY is not too far behind.
Daniel Negreanu
www.fullcontactpoker.com
Peg Smith
>news:<4a1392d9.03111...@posting.google.com>...
>> If Moneymaker doesn't spike the 8 against Brenes, he is off the chart.
>> The 8 comes, he is 11th best in the world, better than John Juanda
>> and Daniel Negreanu. Doesn't that seem wrong? The value of a ranking
>> system can be judged by such comparisons.
I'll say it again...how quickly we forget Chris Ferguson's A9 beating T. J.
Cloutier's AQ for all the marbles.
Peg
Don OPlney
maybe no gooooooddddddddddddd
RyanO
the best year of anyone.
The World Golf rankings are similar to what you suggest - they
consider # of tourneys entered, how you did, and how many top ranked
players were in the field. And it has Tiger Woods way out in front,
even though Vijay won the money title. If there was "backing" in golf
I'd back Tiger before Vijay any day...
kidp...@hotmail.com (Daniel Negreanu) wrote in message news:<7220404a.03111...@posting.google.com>...
JohnJuanda
>The thing is, to be the tournament champion for a year you really have to
>play in and do well in a 'large' number of tournaments. I realize this is
>hard work and takes time and effort, which is why a lot of players don't do
>it. If you or other tournament players don't feel like the hard work of
>traveling and playing in a large number of events that's fine and
>understandable, but then you cannot be the 'true' tournament champion of the
>year (or whatever name you make up). It's silly to pick the events you like
>and say that they are the ones that should count. Play in the events you
>want and make the money. Do you really need the 'attaboy' title anyway?
>
>By the way Eric, you do yourself a disservice aligning yourself with Phil
>Helmuth. With the popularity of the WPT and other televised poker (not to
>mention online poker) the game is getting a nice boost in status but Phil's
>personality, behavior, and self-aggrandizement should be an embarrassment to
>all tournament pros. He diminishes pokers improved image each time he opens
>his mouth or throws a fit.
>
I think Erik was simply saying he prefers the Champion Of The Year system over
Cardplayer's Player Of the Year (it just so happened that Phil H. was the one
who came up with COTY). Nowhere in his post did Erik endorsed---to quote
you--'Phil's personality, behavior, and self-aggrandizement'.
I myself prefer COTY to POY as well. While I agree with you that the winner of
either award should 'do well in a large number of events', I don't think it
will be fair to punish the players, whom because of their family or residency
(For example, live in New York instead of LA where there is a $50-$100 tourney
on a daily basis), make it impossible for them to compete 365 days/year.
I think even in sports such as tennis, where there's a ranking system, they'd
count the prestigeous tournaments such as Wimbledon, French Open, etc., etc.,
but maybe not the regional tourneys such as Orange County Open or Las Vegas
Classic.
Phil's COTY does almost the same thing. I estimate there are well over 500
poker tournaments a year. COTY simply counts the most prestigious 100 or so(or
whatever the real number is), while CardPlayer's system counts a lot more
(maybe over 400). It is also my belief that poker players/fans are more
interested in knowing/seeing who wins at the bigger tournaments such as the
WSOP or the WPT events (which all count toward COTY), than who wins at San
Francisco Open or Reno's Pot of Gold (which counts toward POY but not COTY).
John Juanda