10 Poker Players to watch in 2013 Part 1

In this column I’ll make some predictions for the 2013 tournament season, selecting five fairly well-known players who I believe will have a breakout year, as well as selecting five “sleeper” picks; players who may come out of nowhere and set the poker world on fire.

First up, I’ll list my five Sleeper Picks for 2013:

Sleeper Picks

Daniel Rudd (UK)

Thanks to the abbreviated version of my own last name my eye gets drawn to the name Daniel Rudd quite a bit when I’m looking through tournament leader-boards, and I’ve noticed that I’ve been seeing this name quite often in tournaments around the UK and in Europe.

Rudd has a couple of achievements under his belt including a runner-up finish in the recent GUKPT Grand Final in London, as well as a cash in the 2012 WSOP Main Event, the second of his career. I’m looking for Rudd to build on his GUKPT success, and maybe up his tournament schedule in 2013.

Sofia Lovgren (Sweden)

The Team PKR Pro has been on the poker radar for a couple of years now, but after a three cash debut at the 2012 WSOP, followed-up by a deep run in the EPT San Remo Main Event, “wellbet” as she is known online, could be poised for a big 2013.

Taylor Paur (US)

The former perennial online Player of the Year candidate made the switch to live poker in 2011, and Paur has eight cashes in the last two years at the WSOP, including two final tables in 2011, and a 33^rd place finish in the 2012 WSOP Main Event.

Considering his achievements on the virtual felt, it’s really only a matter of time before Paur breaks through in live poker.

Tom Middleton (Canada)

A few months ago when I asked UK poker pro and LockPro Team Elite member Nicky Evans for a name to watch he mentioned the Sam Grafton (who just won the GUKPT Grand Finale) and Tom Middleton. Since his Grafton pick came in, I’m going to go with Middleton as a Sleeper pick for 2013.

Middleton won the $5k NLHE event at the 2012 Fallsview Classic (pocketing $300k in the process) and he has a 3^rd place finish in $2,500 NLHE event at the 2011 WSOP on his resume as well. As he approaches the $1 million mark in career tournament earnings I have a feeling that 2013 may be Middleton’s year.

Ondrej Vinklarek (Czech Republic)

Vinklarek has been an absolute demon at the EPT poker tables over the past two years, but most of his success has come in the tour’s side events, so he is still a bit of an unknown quantity in the poker world as a whole. Amazingly, 15 of Vinklarek’s 21 career cashes have been final tables, which earned him the EPT Season 8 Player of the Year award.

Read Part 2 Here