Into their Season XIII schedule, the World Poker Tour has announced the list of the fortunate individuals that comprise their “Ones to Watch” over the next several months.
This year’s list is comprised of several players who have made a significant mark in the poker community but just haven’t been able to take that “big step” in winning a major poker tournament championship. By far one of the most accomplished on the “Ones to Watch” list is Justin Zaki, who has amassed over $1.25 million in career tournament poker earnings. As a part of his success, Zaki has garnered 12 WPT cashes (with a peak of third at the Season IX WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown) and 22 World Series of Poker cashes. While he might be still waiting for the big score, Zaki has demonstrated that he’s more than ready for prime time.
Two other men on the list, Daniel Strelitz and Garrett Greer, also have some notoriety in the tournament poker world. Both men have high six-figure career earnings from poker (Strelitz has $913,388 according to the Hendon Mob database, Greer $780,596) and have been very successful in the online arena also. Greer, for his part, is making the WPT look pretty smart as he currently is making a deep run at the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic this week at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
Four more players complete the list for the WPT’s “Ones to Watch.” Of the group (Jose Serratos, Vlad Mezheritsky, Candace Collins and Kristy Arnett), two of them – Mezheritsky and Serratos – have made the final table of a WPT event previously. Collins made a deep run at the Season XII WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star; all three of these players can lay claim to the honor of having six-figure career earnings.
The odd choice here is of Arnett. Mostly known as one of the fine video presenters for PokerNews, Arnett chose to leave that company and strike out on her own as a professional poker player. To date, Arnett has only been able to rack up $30,622 in career earnings but, if the WPT “Ones to Watch” list is a harbinger of future success, then Arnett is ready to tackle the honor.
The WPT has been putting together the “Ones to Watch” list since Season IX. In that first year, the entirety of the roster – Matt Affleck, Allen Bari, Joseph Cheong, Phil Collins, Maria Ho, Faraz Jaka, Lauren Kling, Andrew Lichtenberger, Jason Mercier and William Reynolds – have gone on to great success not only on the WPT circuit but also in the international tournament poker world. Cheong and Collins both have the honor of being WSOP “November Niners,” while Mercier, Lichtenberger and Jaka have seven-figures in career earnings (and throw a couple WSOP bracelets in there for Mercier).
The Season X “Ones To Watch” brought back Ho and Reynolds, who were joined by another contingent of players who have gone forward in the poker world. Matt Marafioti, Ebony Kenney, Dylan Hortin, David ‘Doc’ Sands and Dan O’Brien rounded out the list from Season X. As with their Season IX counterparts, these players have made a significant impact in the tournament poker world, O’Brien and Sands in particular.
The Season XI list of “Ones to Watch” featured the likes of Shaun Deeb, Dee Dozier, Brian Hastings, Jason Koon, Xuan Liu, Amanda Musumeci, Alex Phahurat and Jason Somerville. It would be an understatement to say these players (perhaps save Dozier) haven’t been a major part of the poker world since they were named to the list by the WPT. Finally, last year’s Season XII “Ones to Watch” included Loni Harwood, Jeff Gross, Christina Lindley, Aaron Massey, Danny Suied and Athanasios Polychronopoulos, with Polychronopoulos arguably being the star of this group.
It will be interesting to see how the Season XIII “Ones to Watch” play out. As previously noted, Greer is running strong at the Five Diamond and Strelitz and Zaki are fixtures on the international tournament scene. We’ll have to revisit this list come fall of 2015 to see just how good the WPT was at selecting the “Ones to Watch.”
