At home, chilling out, "Champion of the Year," Chinese Poker
I am trying to chill out as much as possible, help supervise some of the clothing company stuff, and help out with our first book from ''Phil's House Publishing'' company—called "Deal me In" about how ten great players got their start in poker. Also, I have really been enjoying watching Greg Norman in the British Open over the first three rounds: win it Greg! Watching golf on TV helps me chill out, and recharge from a long and grueling WSOP. I plan on watching another 5 hours of golf on Sunday!
On Friday night I lost $17,000 playing Chinese poker online with Peter Nordberg, then I was losing another $20,000 plus to Rolande De Wolfe, but I got all the way to even vs. Rolande. Tonight my wife and I are heading over to our friend's house for some dinner and wine.
FYI - here is the Phil Hellmuth "Champion of the Year" standings (the top 30), as calculated by Kenneth Popkin:
| Rank | Name | Score | # of Finishes |
| 1 | David Benyamine | 605 | 5 |
| 2 | John Phan | 550 | 4 |
| 3 | Chris Ferguson | 480 | 3 |
| 4 | Erick Lindgren | 420 | 3 |
| 5 | J.C. Tran | 400 | 4
|
| 6 | Barry Greenstein | 390 | 3 |
7
| Andy Block | 380 | 3 |
7
| Erik Seidel | 380 | 3 |
7
| Jacobo Fernandaz | 380 | 3 |
| | Ted Forrest | 310 | 3 |
| | Phil Ivey | 310 | 2 |
| | Vanessa Salbst | 310 | 2 |
| | Farzad Rouhani | 300 | 2 |
| | David Singer | 280 | 2 |
| | Mike Matusow | 280 | 2 |
| | Tommy Hang | 280 | 2 |
| | David Kitai | 270 | 2 |
| | Gavin Griffin | 265 | 2 |
| | Daniel Negreanu | 260 | 2 |
| | Hoyt Corkins | 260 | 2 |
| | Michael DeMichele | 260 | 2 |
| | Scotty Nguyen | 260 | 2 |
| | Theo Tran | 250 | 2 |
| | David Chiu | 250 | 2 |
| | Phil Hellmuth | 240 | 3 |
| | Brandon Cantu | 240 | 2 |
Look at the names on this list! This is why I have kept doing the "Champion of the Year" award. The great players populate this list, because there are fewer tournaments in the mix that matter.
