Part II - Best Damned WSOP Main Event Players in the 2000s, spots 7th, 6th and 5th

Day 2a of the WSOP ME has begun today - so that has to mean the second installment of our series: Best Damned WSOP Main Event Players in the 2000s. Our first post can be found here and covers positions 10th to 8th place in the top ten as well as the criteria being used. This post we'll count it down to 5th place.

To recap the top ten so far:

10) Daniel Alaei has little fashion sense, but he knows how to play the ME.
9) Allen Cunningham could be #1 based on a combination of intelligence and table presence, but his ME play puts him in 9th.
and,
8) Scotty Nguyen has a career full of great play. His play in the 2000s in the ME put in 8th place on our list.

Before we continue our countdown, here are a few more players who just missed making the list of Best Damned WSOP Main Event Players in the 2000s.....

Neil Channing - The CPL likes this UK player not only for 3 ME cashes in the 2000s, but because he's squarely a Gen Xer (actually a little older than we are) - meaning that there's still some hope for us. However, his best finish is 131st from 2007 which isn't enough to make the list.

Marcel Luske - Karaoke is partial to the singing Dutchman and Luske's two cashes - 14th in 2003 and 10th in 2004 are great, deep finishes, but not great or deep enough for us.

Joe Hachem - The man from down under took down the ME in 2005 and followed it up the next year with a 238th place finish. That's good, but not enough to pass the sugar.

And, now, on with our countdown of Best Damned WSOP Main Event Players in the 2000s.

Coming in at number 7...

7) Phil Ivey - "Jerome's" performances in the ME during the 2000s have seen him make the final three tables three times with his 10th place in 2003 as the high water mark. "Points" get subtracted, however, since two of those three cashes were in the pre-2004 (read less than 1000 player) time frame. It still puts him in 7th.

6) Greg Raymer - Widely regarded overall (and, we at the CPL think unjustly) as a weak player, Fossilman does seem to know how to play large-field poker. We've heard other commentators say that he simply has the ability to not make as many mistakes as others tend to do over long periods of time - we agree. And, Raymer, seems to have proven with his Main Event win in 2004 followed up with a 25th place finish in 2005. All good enough make our list.

5) Phil Hellmuth - You cannot keep this 11 time bracelet winner off any "best of" lists - the fact that all that jewelry is from various hold 'em events just magnifies his talent in this format. In the ME, Phil's three cashes including a 5th place run in 2001 and his deep 45th place finish last year ensure that he does, indeed, make our list of Best Damned WSOP Main Event Players in the 2000s.

That covers spots 7 through 5 of Best Damned WSOP Main Event Players in the 2000s
.

Look for more entrants in future posts and give us your thoughts on who should (or should not) be on the list.