Cardplayer

Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliott is the 2007 CardPlayer European Player of the Year after his third-place finish in the World Poker Tour Doyle Brunson Classic on Dec. 17, 2007 moved the notorious Englishman to the top of the leader board with 3,446 points.

Ulliott's late surge saw him overtake Chris Bjorin, who had dominated the rankings for much of the year after an impressive World Series of Poker run which saw him make three final tables. Ulliott had his most successful year in tournament poker ever in 2007, winning $1.2 million dollars and making five major final tables.

Norway's Annette Obrestad came third in the rankings after winning the World Series of Poker Europe main event in London and taking second in the European Poker Tour Dublin. Russian Alexander Kravchenko, who won a bracelet at the 2007 WSOP and made the final table of the WSOP main event, finished fourth.

The top 10 CardPlayer European players of 2007 are:

1. David "Devilfish" Ulliott - Hull - 3,446
2. Chris Bjorin - London - 3,375
3. Annette Obrestad - Stavanger - 2,608
4. Alexander Kravchenko - Moscow - 2,579
5. Juan Carlos Mortensen - Madrid - 2,496
6. Rene Mouritsen - Copenhagen - 2,472
7. Mark Teltscher - London - 2,344
8. Florian Langmann - Dresden - 2,040
9. Gus Hansen - Copenhagen - 2,034
10. Jeffrey Lisandro - Salerno - 1,964

This is the third year of the award, previous winners were Roland de Wolfe (2006) and Max Pescatori (2005).

Below I have compared the current Player of the Year rankings from Bluff and CardPlayer Magazines. I have a couple of observations:

-David Pham & Bill Edler seem to be the top players so far this year;
-J.C. Tran, Robert Mizrachi & Ted Lawson seem to be top ten players;
-CardPlayer gives a lot of weight to the WSOP (Schneider, Hamby, Clements)
-Will CardPlayer change its rating system for the new CardPlayer Europe Magazine?
-For that matter do either of these publications know there is poker outside of the United States?

Here is the comparison:

CardPlayer Magazine Current Standings
1. David Pham 5,410 [2nd in Bluff rankings]
2. Bill Edler 4,696 [1st]
3. J.C. Tran 4,458 [7th]
4. Tom Schneider 3,792 [not ranked]
5. Jonathan Little 3,618 [14th]
6. Jared Hamby 3,573 [59th]
7. James Van Alstyne 3,480 [200th]
8. Scott Clements 3,218 [116th]
9. Ted Lawson 2,999 [4th]
10. Robert Mizrachi 2,984 [9th]

Bluff Magazine Current Standings
1. Bill Edler 809.72 [2nd on CardPlayer]
2. David Pham 625.88 [1st]
3. Kirk Morrison 609.24 [18th]
4. Ted Lawson 607.44 [9th]
5. Nam Le 599.79 [38th]
6. Joe Sebok 590.59 [128th]
7. J.C. Tran 586.08 [3rd]
8. Tim West 581.39 [157th]
9. Robert Mizrachi 538.33 [10th]
10. Danny Wong [11th]

Current European Poker Rankings
1st Søren Kongsgaard (Denmark) - 8,725
2nd Andreas Krause (Germany) - 6,875
3rd Dave Colclough (Wales) - 4,585
4th Dave Smith (England) - 4,240
5th Annette Obrestad (Norway) - 4,140
6th Erich Kollmann (Austria) - 4,085
7th Samir Shakhtoor (Sweden) - 3,940
8th Sebastian Ruthenberg (Germany) - 3,885
9th James Dempsey (England) - 3,706
10th Siegfried Rath (Austria) - 3,630

Kudos to CardPlayer for stepping up their poker journalism a tad. Their current cover story is a Playboy-style interview with WSOP champ Jamie Gold, and in it they don't try to pretend he's not a controversial character with questionable poker values.

In the interview, he addresses the presence of bodyguards -- you are welcome to believe or not believe his claims that there were Nancy Kerrigan-style threats. (I am pretty sure I heard someone in the hallway scream, "I'm gonna kill that motherfucker!") He also -- scroll down to the end -- directly addresses his dealer tip, or lack thereof ... claiming that everyone who deserves something will get theirs, but he never attached a number to it. Well done, Michael Friedman, for getting him to address these topics.

But the one issue not discussed was his lawsuit with Crispin Leyser.

I'm pretty sure Jamie's "people" set up the interview only on the grounds that he wouldn't be asked about the $6 million he may or may not owe Leyser. Fair enough ... it's common for subjects of lawsuits not to want to comment on pending litigation. But they can't prevent you, as in CardPlayer, from writing about it! Ask Allyn ... she'll tell you ... lawsuits are a public records, and therefore the media has every right to address them in pretty much whatever capacity they see fit. At a minimum, CP shoulda printed something in the story acknowledging the basis of the lawsuit and any interview restrictions pertaining to it. Or, legally speaking, they coulda just agreed to whatever with Jamie Gold and then renegged on the deal.