Having reached the end of 2010, it's time to figure out who should be the 2010 poker player of the year. There are several awards given out each year from different poker news or poker organizations, each based off different parameters. Here is a list of a few deserving candidates. Give your opinion in the comments. - Thomas Marchese - He won the NAPT Venetian main event. His consistent play netting over $2.1 million in live tournament winnings. He won CardPlayer's POY points competition.
- Dwyte Pilgrim - Won six events, was a beast on the WSOP-Circuit tour, and won a WPT title.
- Dan "jungleman12" Cates - He was the top high stakes cash games money winner, with over $5.4 million in NLHE and PLO winnings on Full Tilt and more on PokerStars.
- Sorel Mizzi - Tremendous first half of the year. Bluff Magazine's Player of the Year.
- Vanessa Selbst - Top earning PokerStars pro with $2.8 million in winnings and a couple big titles. Wicked Chops' Player of the Year.
- Tom Dwan - Continued strong live and online cash game play. He continues to lead Patrik Antonius in the Durrrr challenge, while losing currently in the 2nd Durrrr challenge against Jungleman12. He has $3.6 million in Full Tilt earnings. Unconfirmed rumors suggest he might have won $5-10 million in his Macau high stakes sessions.
- Michael Mizrachi - Won the $50k WSOP event and final tabling three other $10k buy-in events including the WSOP Main Event for over $ million in winnings.
- Andreas "skjervoy" Torbergsen - The Swedish PLO specialist was the second biggest winner on Full Tilt with $3.7 million in winnings and solid results on PokerStars.
Zimba analysis: My personal pick is Dan "jungleman12" Cates. He came out of almost total obscurity in 2009 to be the dominant cash game player online. He took on all comers in both NLHE and PLO with the best cash results in 2010 by a large margin. He won over $5.4 million on Full Tilt alone, with very consistent results. He leads Tom Dwan in their 50k hands heads up challenge and defeated Patrik Antonius for $400k to finish his year off on a high on December 30th.
