Dec. 3 Andrew Feldman (ESPN Poker Editor) and Lance Bradley (Bluff Magazine’s editor-in-chief) published a list of The Top Ten Poker Players in a blog post entitled, Ivey at the Top. The Dec. 3rd list is the first of what will be a new monthly feature called The Nuts. Their intention is to compile a list of the top ten poker players each month based on current results, not on lifetime achievements. Since this will be a monthly feature, I assume that the Dec. 3rd list includes the top ten poker players for the month of November.
Feldman and Bradley openly admit that it was difficult to come up with a list. Poker players play in multiple tours and they don’t all play in the same tours. Plus the mix of live cash games and online cash games, and live tournament play and online tournament play complicate matters. Here’s what they say about the new feature and the process:
In association with our good friends at Bluff magazine, Lance Bradley and I set out to discover today’s poker top 10 for a new monthly feature. We wanted the best of the best at the current moment and didn’t want the all-time rankings, which of course would include players like Doyle Brunson, Stu Ungar and Chip Reese. These rankings are all about what is going on here and now. To come up with our rankings we asked a panel of poker insiders to weigh in with their thoughts. That panel includes the poker trio at ESPN.com (myself, Gary Wise and Bernard Lee), Bluff magazine’s editor-in-chief Lance Bradley and writer Michael Friedman, Poker News Daily’s Dan Cypra, and Poker Road’s and Pocket Fives’ tournament reporter Court Harrington.
We asked our panel to take into consideration online and live play as well as cash games and tournaments. Here’s a look at December 2009’s version of what we’re going to be calling “The Nuts.”
Later on in the post, they say…
These guys are the best of the best in our eyes, but of course, we’re interested in what we got right and what we didn’t and feel free to leave that information in the comments section.
And feedback is what they got. When I read the piece, 29 poker fans had left comments. Some argued that one or two players didn’t belong on the list. Others were indignant because stellar players (in their humble opinion) had been ignored. General consensus was that there is Too much Ivey love, and the same burning question kept arising:
“Is this list meant to be the ten best poker players in the world at the moment or who is running particularly hot at the moment?“
Frankly, I thought for a first attempt, it was a good list. It takes time to develop a solid formula for ranking, especially given the myriad of variations in play for poker. Also, I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to the online action, so, I wasn’t feeling that any online fav had been left out. I look forward to the upcoming top ten poker player lists.
In the meantime; the post is short and worth the read. The comments are here.
Enjoy!
What do you think? Did they get it wrong? Use comments to let us know.
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