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Joe Hachem
Joe Hachem's 1st place ($2,182,070) finish at the 2006 Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship put him over 10 million dollars in career earnings. The '05 World Series of Poker Champion also joined an elite fraternity with the victory. Doyle Brunson, Scotty Nguyon, and Juan Carlos Mortensen are the only other players to have won both a World Poker Tour title and a World Series of Poker main event. Hachem has had several cashes since his WSOP main event win. His game is as solid as there is and with this latest victory, has to be considered as one of the top tournament players in the game today. We here at Alabama Rounder like this guy from the "Land Down Under" and salute him with his country's chant: Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! For those of you in our neck of the woods, that is like "Roll Tide" in Australian.
Happy Birthday Grinder!
Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi treated himself to an early birthday present by winning Card Player Magazine's Player of the Year award. Mizrachi, who turned 26 on January 5th, got off to a fast start in “06 finishing 2nd (behind Scotty Nguyen) at the Gold Strike World Poker Open in Tunica January 19th. Ten days later he won the Borgata Winter Open in Atlantic City. Our own Shannon Shorr (over 1.6 million dollars in '06) was second in the points race most of the way. Nam Le and J. C. Tran, who also had outstanding years, made late charges but could not overtake the now 26-year-old superstar. With his 5th place finish last year and his #1 ranking this year, don't expect "The Grinder" to let up. He and his wife Aidiliy added another little mouth to feed in '06, Julie Malka, to go along with their 3 year old son Paul William.
"Kid Poker" to coach Leafs
Daniel Negreanu's 3rd place ($592,000) finish at the Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship was more than enough to pass Tuan Le and become the World Poker Tour's all time money winner. With WPT totals consisting of $4,273,497, 6 final tables and 2 championships, you can understand why Joe Hachem referred to him as "the sickest poker player on the planet". Negreanu is a proven winner and always seems to make the right decisions under pressure. Now if only his beloved “Leafs” (NHL Toronto Maple Leafs) could follow suit. I want to nominate Daniel for a job in upper management. I think with "Kid Poker" at the helm it wouldn't be long before the Leafs would be "head up" for the cup.