The Razor's Negreanu-esque 2008?

There was a last name dancing on people's lips last week at the Legends of Poker whenever they would talk about the possibility that John Phan would make his third World Poker Tour final table in the last six WPT tournaments, and that name was Negreanu. In some cases people would say that Phan was having a Negreanu-esque run, while others were beginning to prognosticate if Phan could top Negreanu's record haul of 8,764 Card Player Player of the Year (POY) points in 2004. After Phan won the event to take his winnings for the year to over $2 million, and his POY point count up to 6,401, it would appear that the record mark was within reach, but as Phan reminded me last week, there is still a long way to go, but if he made another WPT final table, watch out.



Every once in a while a poker professional goes on a run that defies the logic of tournament poker. Poker accomplishment is judged over the long term, but some players have so much success in a short amount of time you have to sit up and take notice.



Negreanu '04: Negreanu set the gold standard in this regard in the post-Moneymaker era. In 2004 he made 11 final tables, won $4,465,907, and set a record to win the POY award with 8,764 points to his name. Negreanu dominated on the WPT, where he cashed five times, made three final tables (PokerStars Caribbean Adventure – third), and won two events (Borgata Poker Open and Bellagio Five Diamond), which led to him winning WPT player of the year honors as well. Negreanu also dominated at the World Series of Poker, where he cashed six times, made five final tables ($1,000 no-limit hold'em – third, $2,500 limit hold'em – seventh, $1,500 no-limit hold'em shootout – ninth, and $5,000 pot-limit Omaha – eighth), and won a gold bracelet ($2,000 limit hold'em), and this led to him wining WSOP player of the year honors. If anyone ever wants to claim the title for best year of tournament poker ever in the modern era, they're going to have to go through Negreanu to do it. The sweep of the WPT, WSOP, and Card Player Player of the Year awards may never happen again and Negreanu winning all three in the same year has made him as much of a household name as a poker player can be these days.



Some other impressive hot streaks have been achieved by other players as well. Most notably Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi in the first half of 2006, and J.C. Tran in late 2006 and early 2007, with an honorable mention going out to the WSOP performances that Jeff Madsen (four cashes, four final tables, two bracelets) had in 2006 and Tom Schneider (three cashes, three final tables, two bracelets) had in 2007.



Let's look a little closer at Mizrachi and Tran's respective hot streaks:



Mizrachi '05: Mizrachi began the year by finishing in second place at the WPT World Poker Open, and followed that up by winning the WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open for a one-two knockout punch that scored him $1,739,725 in prize money. He then made six additional final tables during the first six months of the year, and won three of them at various poker tournaments. He cemented his POY victory with a strong showing at the Bellagio Cup II (where he won another tournament), and sealed the deal on a POY victory. The way the Grinder started that year though, it felt like everyone was chasing him from a major disadvantage.



Tran Late '06 – Early '07: One person that had to give Mizrachi cause for alarm at the end of 2006 was J.C. Tran. Tran made five final tables and won two tournaments in the final three months of 2006, and he picked up right where he left off in 2007. Tran made the final table of the WPT World Poker Open, and then followed that up by coming even closer to his first WPT victory. Tran finished runner-up to Eric Hershler at the WPT L.A. Poker Classic, and then sealed the deal when he won the WPT World Poker Challenge. In six months Tran had made eight final tables (three of them WPT television tables) and won three of them. Tran by no means finished cold the rest of the year, but he did fall second in the POY race to David "The Dragon" Pham.



And, finally let's take a look at Phan's current hot streak.



Phan Middle of '08: In March this year Phan finished in sixth place at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star and he hasn't looked back. He went on to the WSOP, where he cashed five times, and made two final tables. He won both of those final tables and was the only player to walk away from Las Vegas this summer with two gold bracelets. There was one major tournament left before the summer of Vegas tournament poker concluded though, and so he entered the WPT Bellagio Cup IV. There, he made his second WPT final table and finished in fifth place. He took August off back at his second home in Vietnam, hanging out with family and giving back to the community, and then he returned to Southern California. He entered the WPT Legends of Poker, and this time he won his first WPT title and over $1 million. His stat line for the year currently reads 12 cashes, 6 final tables, 3 tournament wins, including 2 gold bracelets and 1 WPT title, $2,024,778 cash won, and 6,401 POY points. The Razor still has some work to do before his run can seriously be compared a successor to the Negreanu crown in the modern era, but there is still a lot of poker to play in '08, and the way Phan is playing right now it should be fun to watch.