1. Erik Seidel has to be the man. He has eight bracelets, four of them in the last six years. He has won over $7M in tournament play, plus his cash table earnings.

2. Allan Cunningham has five WSOP bracelets in the last six years, including three in a row. He has earned over $8.7M in tournament winnings.

3. Scotty Nguyen consistently cashes wherever he is. He cashed six times at the WSOP 2007, including an 11th-place finish in the main event.

4. Phil Ivey is one of the top players today. He has five WSOP bracelets in the last seven years, and two big wins in Monte Carlo in 2007.

5. Tom Schneider won two WSOP bracelets last year, one in Seven Card Stud Hi/Low 8 or Better, and also in Omaha/Seven Stud Hi/Low 8 or Better. He also made the final table of the $2500 HORSE event.

The top candidates for player of the year would have to be J.C. Tran, William “Bill” Edler, Jonathan Little and David Pham. They are at the top of just about every professional ranking list out there right now, all within a few hundred points of each other. Pham leads the CardPlayer Magazine standing with 5,410 points with 10 final tables. He is third on the PokerPage’s ProRank 1 list with 25,378 points.

J.C. Tran tops the ProRank 1 list (27,044 points) but is in fifth place (4,458 points) on CardPlayer’s. Bill Edler is second on PR 1 (25,446 point) and fourth on CP (4,777 points). Jonathan Little is fourth on PR 1 (24,477 points) and second on CP (5,272 points).

That makes the race for the best player up in the air at this point. There’s not many events left in the year, but my money is on J.C. Tran to win.

The explosion in the popularity of poker the last few years has seen everything that can somehow be attached to the game marketed and sold. This includes books, games, calendars, cards and even poker camps.

It may seem like a novelty idea, but poker camps have become very popular and are big business recently. A number of professional poker players either run their own camp or are affiliated with one in some way. Howard Lederer helps run Poker Reality Camp, Camp Hellmuth is run by Phil Hellmuth and even Doyle Brunson got in on the act with his son Todd Brunson in the Super System Poker Camp. One of the most popular and well-known camps is the WPT Boot Camp run by the same people that produce the World Poker Tour.

With a wide range of admission fees (from as low as $1,500 to as high as $3,500 and up), is it worth shelling out the cash? It’s worth noting that anyone who thinks they can’t learn a few things from a poker pro is a fool, and deserves to keep making mistakes at the table. Internet message boards indicate that most poker players (novice or experts) find the camps well worth the time and money because of the close interaction with the pros and the close attention paid to skills that are actually helpful at the table. If you do have a couple extra grand, attending a poker camp may be a good investment to improve your game and win more cash.

Two poker players that have gone bad are Mike “The Mouth” Matusow and Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott. Both have done time; Matusow for drugs and refusal to wear a wire, and Ulliott for robbery and assault. Matusow was in prison from September 2004 to April 2005. While he was in there he lost $250,000 that he had won in a WPT event on sports betting, and had to be staked once he got out of the clink.

Dave Ulliott was a real bad boy. He was a member of a safe-cracking team and spent time behind bars in England on numerous occasions. After a friend’s wife convinced him to go straight, he has become one of the best poker players in the world.

Both have changed their evil ways now and have learned from their wild ways. Both have won millions playing poker and don’t need to break any laws anymore.

The best head-to-head matches would come from players that like to talk and try and gain an edge with their words. When two guys like this match up head-to-head it can make for an entertaining show. One match I’d like to see would be Men “The Master” Nguyen against Phil Hellmuth. Men is good at semi-bluffing and masking any hand he may have. Phil Hellmuth’s ego and experience would surely walk into a trap or two, which would result in one Hellmuth tirade after another.

But the match that would be the most entertaining, as long as it doesn’t come to blows, would be Mike “The Mouth” Matusow and Tony “G” Guoga. These two guys are the most obnoxious players in the game. The lines and insults would be priceless, and I would even dole out pay-per-view money for this if it was a three out of five match.

Poker is a game where there are always new up-and-comers entering the scene. Every WSOP is a debut for new young talent. The record for the youngest WSOP bracelet winner has been broken the last four years, and the game continues to be popular with young people everywhere.

The youngest players to make a statement in the last few years are Eric Froehlich, Jeff Madsen, Steve Billarakis and Annette Obrestad. The first three won WSOP bracelets at age 21, and Obrestad won hers this month at the age of 18.

Those are all players to watch out for as their experience grows in the future. There will be new names every year and no one ever dominates the game, young or old. The real thing to watch out for is which of these young guns are able to stand the test of time and remain on the pro circuit without going broke.

Four of the past five Aussie Millions winners all have impressive poker careers. The first five winners were all Australians, but since 2003 only one Aussie has been able to win it.

2007 winner Gus Hansen picked up the $1.5 million (AUS) first-place prize to add to his long list of victories.

2006 winner Lee Nelson is a retired doctor who plays on the Australian poker tournament circuit and has numerous wins Down Under.

2005 winner Jamil Dia is the last local boy to win the Aussie millions.

2004 winner Tony Bloom is a London-based player who has earned over $1.5 million in tournament winnings, and he has been on numerous televised poker events.

2003 winner Peter Costa is a Greek professional player living in Vegas. He has four WSOP final tables and is a two time European Poker Player of the Year nominee.