Daniel Negreanu has been the best tournament poker player in the world over the last 10 years. You can argue that if you want to, but the numbers don’t lie. He has won a staggering $9,664,208 in tournament play over the last 10 years.

Negreanu’s total take is third only to Jamie Gold and Joe Hachem, who both won most of their amounts at the WSOP Main Event over the last two years. He is first all-time on the WPT money list, which includes two Championships, and has also added three WSOP Bracelets to his trophy case.

He had been consistent each year since 1997, but in 2004 he dominated professional poker like no one before. That year he won two WPT Championships, a WSOP bracelet, and a title at the Championship Poker at the Plaza. He added 11 other cashes that year and won CardPlayer’s Player of the year honors.

He was so dominant that year that people consider Negreanu to be in a slump. But he has continued to cash in numerous tournaments over the last three years. Things have really picked up over the last seven months where he’s won $1.2 million in two WPT events, finishing second and third.

Negreanu is one of most hardworking players on the tour. He is constantly promoting one endeavor after another, and he is in front of the camera as much as any big-name pro around. His popular blog offers readers an accurate, candid, and honest look into the life of a high-stakes poker player in today’s Vegas scene. He loves prop betting and will try just about any game in which he’s able to compete.

He’s also another young pro that gets respect wherever he goes. Negreanu shares his abilities as well as his experiences, and has written numerous strategy articles for CardPlayer Magazine, and is about to release a much-anticipated poker book sometime this year. He is one of those players who conducts himself with dignity and a positive attitude, setting a good example for young players to follow.

One of the most feared players on the professional tours is “The Tiger Woods of Poker”, Phil Ivey. Ivey has been one of the most consistent players for the last seven years, and has over 80 tournament cashes in that time period.

Ivey made his big splash in 2002 when he won three WSOP bracelets. He had one bracelet prior to ’02 and added another in ’05, bringing his total to five before he turned 30. Ivey has won over $7.5 million playing in tournaments, but the cash games he plays in are his real meat and potatoes.

You can expect to find Ivey in the biggest games in town, including the “Big Game” $4000/$8000 mixed cash game at the Bellagio. He is a member of the infamous Corporation which pooled money to play head-to-head $50,000/$100,000 limit hold’em against Texas billionaire Andy Beal. After the Corporation lost over $10 million to Beal, Ivey won it all back plus another $6 million in profit.

In 2005 he won $1 million in the Monte Carlo Millions, followed the very next day by a $600,000 win in the FullTiltPoker.net Invitational. He had a third-place finish and a second-place finish in the ’06 WSOP, winning over $800,000 in those two events. His latest win was the winner-take-all Poker After Dark first prize of $120,000 in January ’07. Phil can also be seen on the popular cash game show High Stakes Poker on GSN.

Ivey not only dominates the poker world, but he has been accepted as one of the best by the top pros. A large percentage of pros will mention his name as one of the players they respect most. He’s never an idiot and I’ve yet to see him tilt in any way. The meanest he ever got was when he made fun of Freddy Deeb’s shirt in the 2003 WSOP Main Event after Freddy sucked out on him.

Ivey is class and talent all the way, and he’s making money hand over fist. He will win many bracelets and championships in the future and will become one of the greatest the game has ever seen.

Calvin Ayre Wild Card Poker is also worth watching. Season 2 is still looking for players…

Anyone who plays poker knows the story of Chris Moneymaker. Back in 2003, Moneymaker was an accountant when he won a seat in the $10,000 main event at the World Series of Poker through a $39 online satellite tournament. The WSOP main event was Moneymaker’s first-ever live tournament, but stress didn’t seem to faze him as he turned his $39 into $2.5 million and a World Championship title. Moneymaker’s success has led to every regular Joe Pokerplayer attempting to repeat his magic by winning their own WSOP seat online.

Moneymaker has taken a lot of flack from poker fans because he’s won very little at the poker tables since his big win, and because of the way he played some of his hands during his WSOP win. This included an insane bluff against Sam Farha with only King-high that most people consider to be the turning point in the match. Moneymaker’s aggressive and tactical play throughout the tournament allowed him to pull off this bluff, and what winning poker player doesn’t get by on a little luck from time to time? Moneymaker played Farha in a rematch on PokerStars a few months later and that time Farha came out on top.

Since winning the WSOP title Moneymaker has become a spokesperson for Harrah’s Entertainment and for PokerStars, the site on which he initially won his WSOP buy-in. Moneymaker spends more time working for Harrah’s and PokerStars than he does at the poker tables, but he has found some success since winning his only WSOP bracelet, including a second-place finish in the WPT Shooting Stars main event during WPT Season 2.

Moneymaker could play poker for the rest of his life until the day he dies and he’ll still likely be remembered for two things. First, of course, is his incredible underdog win in the 2003 WSOP. And secondly, he will go down in history as one of the big reasons behind the online poker boom after demonstrating to the world that far-fetched poker dreams can become a reality.

Greg Raymer used to be a patent attorney that also played poker on the side. The 2004 World Series of Poker changed all that.

Raymer earned his way into the 2004 WSOP main event through an online poker site and became a favorite of the TV cameras due to his fun nickname and unusual glasses. Raymer is nicknamed “Fossilman” because he likes to collect fossils and actually uses one as a card protector at the tables. Raymer’s unusual glasses have holograms on the lenses which either show a pair of creepy eyes or two dinosaurs, depending upon the angle at which you’re looking at them.

The camera may have found Raymer because of his gimmicky specs, but it stuck close by him because he played great poker. Raymer lasted all the way to the final table and ended up heads-up with David Williams for the $5 million prize and title of Poker’s World Champion. On the final hand, Raymer’s pocket eights trumped Williams’ A-4 when the board ended up 4-3-5-2-2. Raymer pocketed the $5 million, which at the time was a record win, and was awarded the prestigious WSOP bracelet.

Raymer proved his poker prowess was no fluke a year later at the 2005 WSOP, after finishing an impressive 25th out of a huge field of 5619 players. Also that year, Raymer entered the inaugural British Poker Open in London and finished third, while taking on some of the best poker players Europe had to offer.

Since winning the WSOP main event, Raymer has stopped working as a patent lawyer and is a representative for PokerStars alongside other WSOP champions Chris Moneymaker and Joseph Hachem. Raymer doesn’t play in as many tournaments as most poker pros, instead preferring to spend time with his family in Raleigh, North Carolina. When you amass $5 million in one tournament you can probably do that.

Go head to head against real poker pros at Bodog Poker.

If you know anything about poker, you’ve heard of Phil “The Poker Brat” Hellmuth. His accomplishments in the game of Texas Hold’em are mind-boggling (he has accomplished very little playing other variations of the game), and he has taken “Poker Star” to a level only a couple of players can rival. His antics have made him a magnet for the cameras, and he has been involved in broadcasting and commentating on the game, as well as writing numerous poker books and DVD’s.

Hellmuth’s stats speak for themselves: WSOP Main Event Champion; 10 WSOP bracelets; over $8 million in tournament winnings; National Heads-Up Championship, and I could go on. He derailed the then two-time champion Johnny Chan in 1989 to win the main event at the age of 24, after dropping out of college to play poker fulltime.

It is estimated that Hellmuth has made as much as $400 million off of the tables with numerous endeavours, including three books, a couple of instructional poker videos, a sunglasses contract with Oakley, infomercials for Ultimate Bet.com, commenting appearances, and a line of clothing. It’s also rumoured that he will be on the next season of the “Surreal Life”.

What sets Hellmuth apart from other seasoned pros is his apparent inability to control his emotions in the face of adversity. His outbursts after suffering a beat are not only fun to watch, but can be brutal and childish. We all love to see him get outdrawn and then wing out for a few minutes. After one of these tantrums he coined the phrase, “If luck weren’t involved, I guess I’d win every one.”

How much of the “poker brat” is calculated? Some of it must be – if not, the guy really has some issues. You would think that he would realize by now that poker has a degree of losing included in the picture. I remember the first time I saw him. He was walking as fast as he could, and trying to get through the crowd of poker fans without having to stop and talk to anyone, or sign an autograph. A couple of people tried to get a picture with him but he just shrugged them off, with a slightly annoyed look on his face. If he is just acting like a spoiled baby, he should be given an Academy Award for his role-playing.

David Williams took a different journey into the world of poker than most famous poker pros. This 26-year-old poker pro began his poker training in a different game – “Magic: The Gathering”. If you were in junior high in the 90s, you might remember some of the geeks playing the fantasy card game in the library or the lunchroom. If you knew the money that great “Magic: The Gathering” players could have won at tournaments, maybe you would given the game a try instead of mocking and laughing at them.

Williams was one of the top Magic players in the U.S. when his career was put on hold at the 2001 World Championships in Toronto. At that competition, Williams was accused of using a marked deck and was banned from competition for one year. During his time off from Magic, he learned Texas Hold’em which would make him a lot more money than Magic.

Williams burst on to the poker scene at the 2004 World Series of Poker when he finished second to Greg Raymer in the main event. Second place wasn’t exactly a losing finish though, as he still netted $3.5 million. Williams went on to have more success in tournament poker with four final table appearances, and eight money finishes in WPT events. He also became a member of Team Bodog Poker after his 2004 WSOP runner-up performance.

At the 2006 WSOP, Williams won his first bracelet in the $1,500 7-Card Stud tournament. As one of the “young guns of poker”, Williams likely has a few more WSOP bracelets in his future and many more cashes if he sticks with the game. Williams is also studying economics at Texas Methodist University (after passing on Princeton and Harvard), and has said in past interviews that he enjoys playing poker but didn’t want to ruin his love of the game by making it a career.

That may be the best thing other poker pros have heard in a long time, because if Williams decides to cut down his poker tournament schedule that’s one less great player the other high-level competitors will have to worry about.

If you had to name the most recognizable poker player, a good candidate would be Chris “Jesus” Ferguson. Ferguson stands out in a crowd with his long brown hair, beard and black cowboy hat. According to Ferguson, his unusual appearance was designed to keep his opponents from knowing he was an academic when he first started playing poker.

Ferguson’s ruse must have paid off because looking at him you probably wouldn’t know he holds a PhD in Computer Science from UCLA. Ferguson’s typical garb also makes it a surprise to learn that he was the president of UCLA’s swing dancing club and he’s also an accomplished ballroom dancer. Could we possibly see “Jesus” parading around in his cowboy hat on Dancing with the Stars in the future?

What most poker fans do know about “Jesus” is that he won the World Series of Poker main event in 2005 and has four other WSOP bracelets in his collection. Anyone who’s seen Ferguson on ESPN’s WSOP televised events also knows how dangerous he is with a pack of playing cards. Not only can Ferguson use those cards to take your money at the poker tables, but he can also heave them with enough force to slice through a banana, carrot or even a melon.

Ferguson first began playing poker when he was only 10 years old, for nickels and dimes. His nickel-and-dime poker games continued through high school where he was a constant winner at the small stakes. He made his first-ever trip to Vegas not long after and found success there as well, losing money only twice in 22 trips to Sin City.

Ferguson found other interests away from the world of poker to occupy his time until he stumbled upon the IRC Poker Network. For the next two or three years Ferguson would dominate the play-money poker network, where he would reign at the top or at least in second place on the tournament leaderboard. After reenergizing his desire to be a winning poker player in IRC, Ferguson focused heavily on game theory and the mathematics of poker, and took his new skills to the WSOP. Five WSOP bracelets and more than a dozen cashes later, Ferguson is one the most well-known and feared poker players in the world.

Annie Duke’s poker career got started in 1994 when her brother, Howard Lederer, tutored and funded her game. She first got noticed when she finished 10th in the 2000 WSOP main event, notably while eight months pregnant. But the year that put her on the map was 2004, when Duke finally won her first WSOP bracelet in an Omaha Hi/Low event. She followed that up with a $2,000,000 win at the WSOP Tournament of Champions in September; all that after she got a ton of publicity for training Ben Affleck to his 2004 California State Poker Championship.

Duke has won over $3 million in tournament play with 45 WSOP cashes, and is 49th on the all time WSOP money list. She also earns a good living playing high stakes limit hold’em around Vegas.

Duke is a highly intelligent woman who is not afraid to speak her opinion. She sets the example for other female players by showing that women can compete with men at an equal level, and purposely boycotts female-only events to emphasize her point. Speaking out for player rights is also important to her, and she is involved in many organizations that work towards improving the treatment of professional and amateur players alike.

She has also used her fame to cash in on the instructional poker market. She has worked with her brother on a line of video poker games, and her biography is titled “Annie Duke: How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed, and Won Millions at The World Series of Poker.”

Duke has made numerous television appearances from talk shows to commentary duties on poker shows. She recently showed her intelligence by having an amazing run of correct answers on the game show “1 vs. 100”. She correctly answered 35 questions before she finally missed one.

She has been on the scene for long time and will no doubt be around for a while yet. I fully expect her to win many more bracelets and continue to make her mark as one of the best players in the world.

Thuan “Scotty” Nguyen was born in Vietnam in 1962, the oldest of 12 brothers and sisters. When he was only 11 years of age, Nguyen left war-torn Vietnam and ended up in a refugee camp in Taiwan. He was able to get out of the refugee camp by landing a job, and when he turned 13 he found an American sponsor and found his way to Chicago.

From Chicago Nguyen went to Orange County, California, to be closer to his accustomed climate. After going though school in California, Nguyen journeyed to a place he had heard of as a young boy in Vietnam. That place was Las Vegas.

Nguyen began his life in Vegas cleaning tables at what is now Harrah’s Casino. His manager at Harrah’s gave him his now-famous nickname Scotty, because he believed nobody would be able to pronounce Thuan. Scotty went from table cleaner to poker dealer, and after taking a liking to the game he pursued a life as a poker pro.

At the poker tables Scotty is known for his contagious smile and boisterous sense of humor. When he first started playing poker, Nguyen ended up broke a few times and had to return to dealing to save up some money to get back in the game. His dealing days came to an end in 1998 when he won the World Series of Poker main event. Everyone remembers that win because of Nguyen’s infamous last words to his opponent, Kevin McBride. Nguyen had pushed all-in with a full house and said to McBride, “you call this one, and it’s gonna be all over baby.” McBride called anyway and the rest is poker history.

Since his WSOP World Championship win, Nguyen has added three more WSOP bracelets to his wrist, and racked up numerous other poker tournament wins. Nguyen has come a long way from Vietnam to Taiwan to cleaning tables at the casino – cleaning the poker chips off the tables, that is.

To the poker world Johnny Chan has been a well-known force since the 1980’s. To the rest of the world, he became known after appearing in the cult film Rounders alongside Matt Damon and Ed Norton in 1998. Today, Chan is known as one of the best poker players in the world, having won the World Series of Poker main event twice and winning a record 10 WSOP bracelets.

Born in China in 1957, Chan moved to America with his family in 1968 and they eventually settled in Houston five years later. When Chan first arrived in America he didn’t speak a word of English. Chan’s journey into the world of poker began at the age of 21 when he dropped out of the University of Houston and moved to Las Vegas to become a professional poker player.

At the time Asian poker players were nowhere near as common as they are today, and Chan was able to use this to his advantage as he was often underestimated by other players at the table. At first Chan was too impulsive at the tables and often ended up on the losing end of games, but as he got better he learned to control the game and started a lifetime of winning.

Chan proved he belonged alongside the best players in the world in 1987 when he won his first WSOP main event title. Chan proved that was no fluke the next year by winning the main event again. He holds the record for most WSOP bracelets won at 10, along with poker legends Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth.

Nicked named “The Orient Express,” Chan was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2002 for his numerous poker accomplishments and his work as a pioneer for Asian players in the world of professional poker.