You tend to see some poker commentators on so many shows sometimes that you wonder if they have any time on their hands to practice what they preach. Not so Chad Brown, the former host of 'The Ultimate Poker Challenge', has been named as Bluff Magazine’s Player of the Year. The ranking system designed to find said player is very similar to the Tournament Leader Board that many online sites use. Any event in North America over the course of a year (in this case 2006), that has a $5,000 or above buy-in with 100 or more runners counts towards the ranking points. Brown managed 4 WPT cashes as well as one final table and also a 9th place in the WPT Championship $25k buy-in event. Not content with this, he also took 5th place at the EPT event in London recently and still had enough time for a 5th place in a $5,000 ‘side event’ at yet another WPT event. Overall, Brown managed a score of 470.66, 30 points ahead of the renowned internet pro Cliff 'JohnnyBax' Josephy who took 2nd place.Ironically, despite all this success, Brown’s biggest win of the year would, of course, come online when he won the big $5,000 HORSE event in the 2006 WCOOP on Pokerstars for a chunky $223k having bested 174 other players. All that is missing now is a bracelet, twice having come 2nd in 7-card and 7-card split events in 2004 and 2005. Certainly, if he were to repeat the success of 2006 then you wouldn’t want to back against him.
Achieving just minor roles in films such as Basket Case 2 and Miami Hustle, it is clear that Chad’s decision to ambush poker has been a wise move, and a lucrative one too as he nears an incredible $1.5 million in tournament winnings. What’s most impressive, however, is the variety of games in which he has reached this accomplishment, the translation from Hold’Em to Omaha, before displaying his skills in 7 Card Stud and Omaha Hi-Lo being a seemingly simple process.