DANIEL NEGREANU HEADLINES LIST OF 2014 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POY QUALIFIERS
The year 2013 may be over, but that doesn’t mean we can’t add another list Daniel Negreanu is number one on to the pile. The 2013 World Series of Poker Player of the Year is also the top POY points qualifier for the 2014 WSOP National Championship in Atlantic City.

This is the third year that the players who have earned the most WSOP Player of the Year points, which are powered and calculated by BLUFF Magazine, over a two year stretch (in this instance, 2012 and 2013) will be able to buy-in to the bracelet event for $10,000 and compete alongside the 100 freeroll qualifiers from the WSOP Circuit.

Negreanu tops this list of POY qualifiers after a dominating year at the tables where he won two bracelet s and became the first two-time WSOP POY. Over the two-year period, Negreanu racked up 1,094.82 points, while Phil Hellmuth, who was the top qualifier last year, came in second with 1,038.03. The 2012 WSOP Main Event Champ Greg Merson rounds out the top three with 1,031.13.

What is interesting to note about Negreanu’s top dog status is that he is actually a first-time National Championship qualifier. For comparison, consider that Hellmuth has qualified for the National Championship all three years the option has been available. Moreover, Negreanu and Matthew Ashton are the only two players in the top ten qualifiers who have not qualified for the event previously.

Of the 100 qualifiers, 45 made the cut last year as well. There are also 11 players who have qualified for the event all three years:

 Phil Hellmuth
 David “Bakes” Baker
 Michael Mizrachi
 David “ODB” Baker
 Joseph Cheung
 Mark Radoja
 Jason Mercier
 Nick Schulman
 Daniel Idema
 Amir Lehavot
 Vladimir Zhukov

It is an impressive list that includes three November Niners, a Main Event champion, two David Bakers, and a whole slew of bracelets. Yet, even though these big names in the game are some of the top pros around, they have yet to succeed in the National Championship. Two years ago, Ryan Eriquezzo turned his Circuit freeroll seat into a six-figure payday and a bracelet, while last year it was Jonathan Hilton who took the title and taught us all how to ball all day. 

Will this year’s event, which will take place in Atlantic City in May, be the year one of these qualifiers takes the bracelet? We won’t know in May, but right now we do know that these are the 100 players who have a chance to do just that. A full list of players is also available on WSOP.com, as is the current at-large leaderboard of Circuit points chasers:

 1.    Daniel Negreanu – 1,094.82
2.    Phil Hellmuth – 1,038.03
3.    Greg Merson – 1,031.13
4.    Antonio Esfandiari – 975.95
5.    David “Bakes” Baker – 832.29
6.    Jeremy Ausmus – 811.65
7.    John Monnette – 740.20
8.    Michael Mizrachi – 732.70
9.    Matthew Ashton – 731.75
10.    Phil Ivey – 722.20
11.    Chris Klodnicki – 685.43
12.     Dominik Nitsche – 667.83
13.    Max Steinberg – 647.69
14.    Stephen Chidwick – 629.77
15.    Timothy Adams – 629.53
16.    Konstantin Puchkov – 621.20
17.    David “ODB” Baker – 616.63
18.    Ryan Riess – 591.50
19.    Marco Johnson – 581.13
20.    Shannon Shorr – 572.40
21.    Roland Israealashvili – 565.68
22.    Tom Schneider – 563.76
23.    Joseph Cheong – 563.00
24.    Mark Radoja – 556.25
25.    Jesse Martin – 549.68
26.    Andrew Lichtenberger – 526.07
27.    Jason Mercier – 523.08
28.    Greg Mueller – 519.60
29.    Anthony Gregg – 516.50
30.    Andy Frankenberger – 515.86
31.    Michael Gathy – 512.75
32.    Jason Koon – 499.97
33.    Vanessa Selbst – 494.42
34.    Jon Aguiar – 492.00
35.    Jared Hamby – 491.73
36.    Brandon Cantu – 489.09
37.    Loni Harwood – 487.20
38.    George Danzer – 485.93
39.    Scott Seiver – 481.14
40.    David Peters – 479.05
41.    Donald Nguyen – 478.13
42.    Erik Seidel – 475.55
43.    Andy Bloch – 475.38
44.    Roger Hairabedian – 474.75
45.    David Chiu – 473.31
46.    Nick Schulman – 471.73
47.    Jesse Sylvia – 471.25
48.    Scott Clements – 468.01
49.    Matt Stout – 468.00
50.    Noah Schwartz – 465.60
51.    Mike Wattel – 465.18
52.    Charles Nelson Robinson – 460.25
53.    Kyle Julius – 456.32
54.    Brent Hanks – 454.04
55.    Brent Wheeler – 449.88
56.    Dan Kelly – 448.90
57.    Joe Kuether – 445.34
58.    Keith Lehr – 441.38
59.    Eric Baldwin – 436.50
60.    Bryan Piccioli – 433.30
61.    Jeff Madsen – 433.00
62.    Daniel Idema – 432.15
63.    Mike Watson – 427.60
64.    Amir Lehavot – 425.76
65.    Brian Hastings – 424.90
66.    David Vamplew – 423.50
67.    Steve Sung – 423.00
68.    Erick Lindgren – 421.15
69.    Manig Loeser – 419.13
70.    Marvin Rettenmaier – 417.23
71.    Joe Cada – 411.30
72.    Jacob Bazeley – 410.75
73.    Yuval Bronshtein – 408.18
74.    Eddy Sabat – 407.09
75.    Mike Matusow – 404.95
76.    Jan-Peter Jachtmann – 401.26
77.    Athanasios Polychronopoulos – 400.80
78.    Matt Berkey – 400.13
79.    Layne Flack – 399.96
80.    Daniel Alaei – 398.75
81.    Matthew Waxman – 397.59
82.    Russell Thomas – 397.40
83.    Ronnie Bardah – 396.00
84.    Adam Friedman – 394.80
85.    Jeffrey Lisandro – 390.12
86.    Davidi Kitai – 382.92
87.    Chris Dombrowski – 381.88
88.    Simeon Naydenov – 378.13
89.    Randy Ohel – 376.25
90.    Jacob Balsiger – 374.50
91.    Taylor Paur – 371.57
92.    Dan O’Brien – 371.33
93.    Nial Farrell – 369.32
94.    Brock Parker – 369.24
95.    Jay Farber – 366.88
96.    John Hennigan – 364.79
97.    Cliff Goldkind – 364.50
98.    Jonathan Duhamel – 362.00
99.    Salman Behbehani – 361.75
100.  Viacheslav Zhukov – 361.30