The Nuts – April Poker Player Rankings – ESPN.com ranks the top 10 poker players – Poker Power Rankings - Casino Research

The Nuts – April Poker Player Rankings – ESPN.com ranks the top 10 poker players – Poker Power Rankings

Someone told me earlier this year that they asked Doyle Brunson to name current players in the game who had never been broke. He could come up with only one name and that was Erik Seidel. It has been a remarkable 2011 for Seidel and with his incredible run this year, Seidel has taken over the top spot in ESPN.com’s poker rankings from Phil Ivey, the man who many on the panel felt would not fall out of that spot for a very long time. So what was the final detail that pushed Seidel over Ivey? Perhaps his second-place finish at the World Poker Tour Hollywood Poker Open. He now has $4.5 million in earnings in 2011.

Despite numerous requests by members of this panel, the Department of Justice would not be ranked No. 1 this month. Clearly the biggest news of the month came on the legal front and those indictments will most definitely shape this list in the future as cash game players in the United States can no longer compete online. Tom Dwan and Daniel Cates, some of the biggest superstars in online poker history, are at a tough juncture and no longer have the online games at their fingertips.

As players migrate from online to live, we’ll be able to get a better feel for the live games of the famed onliners and see if they’ll continue to succeed in every venue. The recent shutdown of PokerStars, Full Tilt and Absolute has left a void in the high stakes games and according to HighStakesDB, the Finnish players (Patrik Antonius, Jens Kyllonen and Jani Vilmunen) have reaped the benefits since the indictments. After running over the competition for the first few months of 2011, Gus Hansen finally suffered a setback and dropped $1.5 million over the past 30 days. While he was a strong candidate for the final spot last month, he didn’t have what it takes to make April’s list.

Live tournaments across the United States have seen an influx of players since Black Friday, but before the chaos, the North American Poker Tour saw a dramatic decrease in attendance at Mohegan Sun. In 2010 there were 716 players in the $5,000 main event and only 387 made the trek to Connecticut in 2011. No matter the turnout, the result remained the same and it was a back-to-back title for Vanessa Selbst. Perhaps equally as impressive, Jason Mercier followed suit with his back-to-back victory at the NAPT Mohegan Bounty Shootout. On ESPN Inside Deal, Bernard Lee equated the repeats as “trying to win a golf major in back-to-back years.” It was indeed a rare occurrence and while Mercier remained at No. 3 this month, Selbst jumped from sixth to fourth. Eugene Katchalov finished second to Mercier and went from being the bubble boy to seventh this month. He replaced John Juanda on the list.

The rest of the major live events in April are in progress and will crown champions in the coming week. Those events, along with the WPT Championship, EPT Grand Final, WSOPC National Championship and many more, will be factored into May’s rankings that will come out just prior to the WSOP.

Here’s a look at April’s Top 10, and of course, feel free to leave your feedback and reactions in the comments section below.

On the bubble:

John Juanda was April’s bubble boy. The poker veteran has notched only one live cash this year while his focus has been on the biggest cash games in the world. The WSOP is usually Juanda’s playground and he’ll be looking to add to his 55 lifetime cashes starting next month. Gus Hansen put up a valiant effort for his spot on the list last month, but his rough fall last month prevented him from making it an issue in April. Victor Ramdin also received some solid consideration in April. Ramdin won the Big Event in March, then made a deep run, finishing 31st at NAPT Mohegan just a couple of weeks ago. It’s been a little while since Ramdin has really been a dominant force and he’ll need a few more big scores to make the top 10. Over on the EPT we’re keeping an eye on Martin Jacobson. Jacobson has had three EPT final tables since August of 2010 and has earned approximately $1.5 million in that stretch. He doesn’t have the big win just yet, but he’s been one of the most consistent players in the world over the past year. Others who earned substantial consideration include Steven Kelly (runner-up at Bay 101 and 10th at WPT Hollywood in the span of a month), Ali Eslami, William Reynolds, Viktor Blom, Sam Trickett and Eric Baldwin.

Final thoughts: Bradley: The high stakes cash game players took a bit of a hit this month and will continue to do so unless word of the big games in Las Vegas or Macau begin to filter out. Ivey’s reputation hasn’t taken a hit and to not see him in top spot is pretty surprising. Hard to find too much fault in those that voted for Seidel given his spot on the all-time money list and recent run.

Feldman: I didn’t think we’d really see anyone overtake Ivey on the top spot ever, but here we are. I agree with Lance that the panel isn’t way off in the least given Seidel’s run, but looking at the bigger picture, Ivey hasn’t given anyone a reason to keep him there. With a couple of big events (WPT Super High Roller, WPT Championship) coming up in May, expect Ivey to be back on the felt in preparation for a big WSOP. Will Seidel be able to hold off Ivey all summer or even for one month? I’m looking forward to finding out.

In this space last month I talked about Marchese’s options of staying among the top 10 and how he’d need to come through with something significant. Well, he came through. Marchese isn’t on pace to claim another Player of the Year title at the moment, but there’s a long way to go and the young star will be doing some live grinding with the departure of online action.

I think that Katchalov’s jump to seventh is a make-up attempt by some who have omitted him in the past few months. He’s been deserving of a spot on the list, but No. 7 might be a little too high. Selbst, on the other hand, might not be high enough, but with the players ahead of her, it’s going to be a tough ceiling to break through. For Seidel, Ivey and Mercier to fall, Selbst will have to put on a show which is perfectly possible given her potential.

Watch out next month for Patrik Antonius. I think the DOJ just moved him into the top spot on the “most feared online player” list well, maybe behind Viktor Blom. It’s a whole new online game out there and unless some key players relocate, those two seem to be in the best shape to profit.

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