Pham, Tran and Phan Top Ranked Poker Players So Far
It's sort of like a Three Musketeers act, but the Vietnamese version. With only 20 days into the new year, David "Dragon" Pham, J.C. Tran and John "Razor" Phan are the three top ranked poker players, respectively, according to Bluff Magazine.
Bluff ranked Pham number 3 in 2008 and number 2 in 2007. Card Player Magazine named Phan its Poker Player of the Year both in 2000 and 2007.
This California-based poker player has some pretty good poker lineage. He's the cousin of Men "The Master" Nguyen. Phan is a true survivor, having arrived in the U.S. from South Vietnam at the age of 17. Only 46 of the 145 people on the boat with Phan survived the journey.
Prior to becoming a poker pro, Phan worked at Nguyen's dry cleaning business. He would eventually hone his poker playing skills under Men.
Pham has two World Series of Poker bracelets and has made seven final tables at the World Poker Tour.
To date, Pham has won just shy of $8 million in live career tournaments.
J.C. Tran has won $6.8 million.
Tran is a World Series of Poker bracelet winner, a World Championship of Online Poker(WCOOP) Main Event champion, has made five World Poker Tour (WPT) final tables, winner of a WPT title, won at the World Poker Challenge and is the WPT Player of the Year of their fifth season.
Then there is John "Razor" Phan, a two time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and four time final tablist of World Poker Tour Championships.
He won Cardplayer Magazines's 2008 Player of the Year with 6,704 points as well as 2008 Bluff Magazine Player of the Year.
Phan's career winnings total just over $5.3 million.
Bluff Magazine has revised the Player of the Year formula for 2008. After soliciting feedback from many of the top poker professionals, the new formula is a complete change from what existed in the past years. The formula takes into consideration that there should be alternate scoring methodologies for shootouts, short-handed and heads-up tournaments.
Players will receive points if they play in any open tournament held by one of the following entities:
World Series of Poker, Las Vegas
World Series of Poker, Europe
World Series of Poker Circuit Events
World Poker Tour
Wynn Classic Tournaments
European Poker Tour
Asia Pacific Poker Tour
Aussie Millions
Monte Carlo Millions
2008 Player of the Year Scoring Formula: There are three pieces of information factored into the formula: 1. Finishing Position (Players must cash in order to receive points) 2. Amount of the Buy-in 3. Number of Entrants The points are calculated by multiplying the point factors from all three criteria.
Advertisement: Get a 100 percent cash signup bonus when you join Absolute Poker today. Also be sure to check out their world famous bad beat jackpots, currently over $429,000 and growing.
Ace King, Gambling911.com
