It didn’t take long before he had three players step up to the challenge. As most would expect, the first player to take the challenge was Phil Ivey. Ivey is considered by many to be the best all around poker player in the world. Many expect Dwan to fall at the hands of Ivey.

The next player to take the challenge is David Benyamine. Benyamine is one of the top online players in the world and recently won his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet. While Benyamine is one of the best high stakes players, his skill level is considered to be below Dwan’s and Dwan is expected to win.

Patrik Antonius was the third player to accept the challenge put down by Dwan. Antonius has yet to take down a WPT or WSOP title, but he is a well respected cash game player and should provide a challenge to Dwan. Many people expect Dwan to win this match.

The time and location of the challenge has yet to be determined. Chances are the challenge will happen on Full Tilt Poker.

Phan edged out Michael Binger for the award, which is the first for Phan. He started the year off with a 6th place finish at the Bay 101 WPT event. He then went on a historic run at the World Series of Poker that netted him two championship bracelets. The first of his bracelets came in the $3,000 No Limit Holdem event. This event saw an epic heads-up match between Phan and Johnny Neckar. After several hours of play and a private chopping of the prize money, the two decided that they would go all-in blind for three straight hands. This provided some of the best entertainment of the WSOP, with Neckar taking two out of the three hands. In the end, Phan came out on top for the top prize and his first bracelet.

He then made the final table of the 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball event. Both Michael Mizrachi and David Sklansky made the table with Phan. In the end, Phan emerged from this table victorious as well to claim his 2nd WSOP bracelet. Phan was the only multi-bracelet winner of the WSOP.

Next, Phan made the final table of the Bellagio Cup IV, where he finished in 5th place. He then a little over a month later made the final table of the Legends of Poker event in Los Angeles. This time, Phan was able to take down the event, the WPT championship bracelet, and the $1.1 Million top prize.

For the year, Phan earned over $2.1 Million.