Card Player's Player of the Year Title Goes to Dan Colman

In a recent article, we revisited the truly amazing year that Dan Colman had on the live tournament circuit in 2014. Apart from winning millions and despite his somewhat peculiar take on poker in general, his success has not gone unnoticed in the poker community.

In fact, Card Player magazine named Dan Colman player of the year for 2014 yesterday, once again confirming that the young phenom is truly a force to be reckoned with. Coming from a background in online poker, this head-ups specialist took the live scene by storm, cashing for just shy of $22.5 million and breaking the previously held record for most cashes in a single year by more than $3 million.

Fierce competition

Colman left his competition far behind on the Card Player Player of the Year leaderboard with 5,498 points, well ahead of second place Ami Barer (5,042), and Mike Leah, who ended 2014 with 4,830. Other well-known names who placed among the top ten include this year’s WSOP Main Event champion, Martin Jacobson, French pro Davidi Kitai, and Mustapha Kanit to mention a few.

Amassing money and POY points

Creating a big gap between himself and the competition was no easy task, but Colman was able to do it by reaching nine qualifying final tables and winning four of them. His most significant win, financially speaking, was in the WSOP Big One for One Drop tournament where he bested Daniel Negreanuto take home the bracelet and $15.3 million in first place prize money.

The Big One for One Drop was tough, but it was also a small field, so that is not where the majority of Colman’s points came from. In fact, he only earned 600 points for his One Drop victory, while his biggest points score came after he outlasted 1,499 players who competed in the $5,300 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open Main Event. For that outstanding performance, Dan received 1,920 POY points.

His second biggest score points-wise was his second biggest score of the year and the one that kicked things off for him in 2014. Colman earned 720 POY points after emerging victorious in the EPT Grand Final €100k Eight Max event.

Making Poker History

Dan Colman has had a year like no one else before and it is not very likely anyone will repeat his success in the near future either. The Player of the Year title is just a cherry on top of his awesome 2014 performance. But despite his undisputed success, financial and otherwise, his take on poker has not changed.

Colman has been one of the most controversial characters of 2014, as his every success was followed by his refusal to do interviews and his unchanging stance that poker is inherently bad.

We will not go deeper into this subject at this time, as many have tried to solve the enigma that is Dan Colman, but no one has been really able to figure him out. Let's just let the cards speak for themselves and congratulate Colman on yet another great achievement that further ensures his name will remain a part of poker history – even if he is not in love with that idea.