The World Poker Tour crowned its second champion over the past three weeks, as Shawn Cunix put forth an incredible effort to win the WPT Jacksonville BestBet Open title. Cunix earned $400,600 for the victory, which took five days of endurance as he played with a broken collarbone that he suffered while saving his son's life during an ATV accident.

"It's been one of the most humbling experiences in my life," said Cunix. "I'm just so happy that my son is OK and he got to see me at a time where he's seen his father down, laying in bed for two weeks and still to come back out of that bed and fight and say, 'I'll never quit,' means more to me that I can ever describe."

Cunix entered the final table as the chip leader but had five tough tournament regulars with significant experience under the WPT lights standing between him and the title. According to the World Poker Tour, Cunix's stack swelled early as he separated himself from the pack after taking a big pot off WPT Legends main event champion Will Failla. As was seen on the live stream of the final table on the World Poker Tour website, Cunix extended his lead by opening with a wide range of hands and keeping the pressure on his shorter-stacked opponents preflop.

Failla fell first at the final table, finishing in sixth to earn $54,704. This was Failla's fourth cash and second WPT final table of the season. He'll take the WPT Player of the Year lead into the WPT Championship, which begins May 19. Failla, who was eliminated by Cunix, has $1,108,540 in lifetime WPT earnings.

With five players remaining, Cunix had more than half the chips in play and seemed poised to make this a quick final table. Darren Elias, making his second WPT final table of the season, eliminated WPT co-host Tony Dunst in fifth place. Dunst earned $66,532 in his second cash of the season. Elias dealing the knockout blow allowed Cunix to do more damage to the rest of the table with his dominating stack. As four-handed play began, Cunix's lead over his next closest competitor, James Calderaro, was almost 80 big blinds.

Calderaro eliminated Daniel Buzgon in fourth place as A-J held against Buzgon's K-Q. Buzgon was part of the same final table as Elias earlier this season at the Borgata and earned $94,624 for his efforts. Despite his lack of a victory in this event, Buzgon has found his way into the money a lot in 2012 with 15 cashes to date. This was his third cash during Season X of the WPT.

Cunix lost the lead for the first time at the final table shortly after Buzgon's elimination when Elias seized control after turning an eight-high flush. After dropping nearly 1.75 million in chips in the hand, Cunix had unexpectedly become the short stack. By capturing a few sizeable three-way pots, Calderaro took his turn at the top with Elias in second and Cunix a distant third. Despite the difference between the top and bottom stack of 66 big blinds, Cunix still had plenty of play left, but he committed his chips in a tough spot holding only J-9 against the A-Q of Elias. Cunix, down to his final card, rivered a flush and was a contender once again.

Two hands later, Elias was eliminated in third when he lost a race with A-K to Calderaro's 10-10. Earning $147,850, Elias captured his biggest cash of the year.

For 45 hands, Cunix and Calderaro went to battle, and it seemed that every major pot went Cunix's way. On the final hand, Calderaro, down nearly 8-to-1, called all-in holding J-10. Cunix showed 3-3, flopped a three and earned his place as the newest WPT champion. Calderaro, perhaps known best for his 13th-place finish in the 2009 WSOP main event, won $236,560. This was his second tournament cash of 2012.

"It means a lot," said Cunix. "One of the big things I preach is that if you put passion into anything, you're capable of unbelievable stuff. I tell that to my employees every day. I hope they're watching. It just goes to show that if you put your passion and heart into something, you can achieve anything, and I've always said that."

Here are the final table results from the WPT Jacksonville BestBet Open:

1. Shawn Cunix ($400,600)
2. James Calderaro ($236,560)
3. Darren Elias ($147,850)
4. Daniel Buzgon ($94,624)
5. Tony Dunst ($66,532)
6. Will Failla ($54,704)

EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo

The EPT Grand Final was the "richest" poker tournament series ever held in Europe, awarding more than 19 million euros over nine days. The biggest winner was Justin Bonomo, who won the 100,000 Super High Roller event for 1.6 million euros and finished fourth in the High Roller for 266,000 euros. Bonomo now sits atop the 2012 money list with $2.5 million in earnings this year.

Mohsin Charania, earning his way into the event on a $33 satellite, won the 1.3 million euro top prize in the main event, defeating a field of 665. Igor Kurganov defeated Daniel Negreanu heads-up to win the 25,000 High Roller event for 1 million euros. Kurganov has cashed in four high-roller events over the past EPT season. Negreanu, who finished sixth in the Super High Roller and second in the High Roller, earned nearly $1.2 million.

While others earned more cash for their wins, Daniel Smith won three 5,000 euro events during the festival for a total of 530,150 euros.

Small blinds: Congrats to my colleague Bernard Lee on five years of the "Bernard Lee Poker Show." … PocketFives continues to be innovative and has launched Local Communities as a way for local poker players to interact and find the latest games near them. … A 9-year-old poker prodigy? … PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker gets underway this weekend. The 40-event series will conclude with a $10,300 main event May 20. … A.P. Phahurat won the 2012 Chad Brown Challenge to win $116,449. … Naz Alkhatib won the latest Heartland Poker Tour stop in Canterbury Park, Minn., to win $118,482. … Sam Trickett has left his post as an endorser for Titan Poker. … Card Player has announced that the Card Player Poker Tour will debut at the Choctaw Casino in July. There will a $1,080 re-entry four-day main event. … Phil Ivey cashed in the EPT High Roller event but missed the final table, finishing in ninth. He earned $96,643 in his first cash since his $2 million score at the Aussie Millions in January.

The Nuts is a monthly feature that takes a look at the best poker players in the world. This feature aims to produce a list of the best players at the moment. Our panel of 10 is comprised of ESPN.com's trio of poker contributors (Gary Wise, Bernard Lee and myself), ESPNdeportes.com poker editor Nahuel Ponce, Bluff magazine editor-in-chief Lance Bradley and managing editor Jessica Welman, PokerNews editor-in-chief Elaine Chaivarlis and tournament reporter Don Peters, Pocketfives' Dan Cypra and Poker Road's Court Harrington.

What a month! April was filled with highs and lows on the cash game felt, massive tournament buy-ins and familiar faces holding up trophies and huge bricks of cash. It was a month that highlighted the variety and depth of Europe's poker scene while maintaining that the United States tournament circuit is far from struggling one year after Black Friday changed the industry forever.

A few major events stole the show in April, but perhaps the Party Poker Premier League topped them all. The innovative concept featured 16 players putting up $125,000 and resulted in a big $500,000 score by Scott Seiver. Sam Trickett was able to maintain his spot on this list with an eighth-place finish in that event. The action headed to EPT Berlin and a massive turnout that witnessed Davidi Kitai capture a $930,816 first-place prize and spark debate about whether or not he earned poker's Triple Crown with the victory. Kitai has $2.7 million in tournament earnings for his career, but failed to make the list this month.

The EPT Grand Final then took center stage and a 100,000 euro buy-in attracted the top players in the world, including many on the list below. Justin Bonomo earned more than $2 million for his victory while Tobias Reinkemeier, Bertrand Grospellier, Patrik Antonius, Masa Kagawa and Daniel Negreanu all turned their expensive buy-ins into something greater. The rich got richer as Bonomo and Negreanu were joined by Phil Ivey in the final nine of the 25,000 euro high roller event there as well. (At the time of this posting, the results of that final table were not included in April's rankings).

There were a number of players that really stood out in April, but perhaps nobody more than Grospellier. The French owner of the Triple Crown continued to dominate the high roller felt and, in addition to his third-place finish in the 100,000 Super High Roller, he also won the 10,000 euro re-entry event at EPT Berlin for $301,992. Grospellier has earned $1.2 million on the year and the panel recognized his run with a move from seventh to fourth this month. At his victory in Berlin, Grospellier defeated Chris Moorman heads-up for the title. Moorman also moved up one spot, to fifth, this month.

The World Poker Tour was busy in April with Morten Christensen winning the WPT Vienna stop and Tommy Vedes winning his second World Poker Tour title at the Seminole Hard Rock Showdown. November Niner Phil Collins won the Heartland Poker Tour event at the Palms in Las Vegas and Tripp Kirk won the record-setting WSOP Circuit main event title in St. Louis.

Despite all the successes, the top two players, Jason Mercier and Jonathan Duhamel, failed to earn some of their own. Both Duhamel and Mercier played in the biggest events in Europe this month, but came away empty-handed. They maintained their spots at the top of this list given their recent performances while Erik Seidel continues to slide down the rankings albeit earning a cash in the EPT Grand Final main event.

Who should be ranked higher? Who should be completely off the list? Leave us your thoughts in the comments below!

Here's a look at April's top 10:

On the bubble

The bubble boy this month was Steve O'Dwyer. Since August, O'Dwyer has made 13 final tables and has earned more than $1.2 million. We often wonder what feat could put a player into the top 10 and, really, O'Dwyer has accomplished them all. It is only a matter of time that O'Dwyer is finally off this bubble list. … Daniel Negreanu finished sixth in the 100,000 euro Super High Roller in Monte Carlo and earned $409,279 and also cashed in the High Roller event just days later. Justin Bonomo won the Super High Roller and also cashed in the High Roller. Both received good support for their performances in April and are likely to move into the top 10 next month. … Tommy Vedes and Will Failla also earned some love for the panel for their recent WPT accomplishments. … Others receiving substantial consideration include Patrik Antonius, David Sands, Joe Serock, Phil Hellmuth, Viktor Blom, Ben Lamb, Mickey Petersen, Isaac Haxton and Faraz Jaka.

Final thoughts

Bradley: Steve O'Dwyer belongs on this list. Without question. He has breezed through Europe over the past few months and has done everything you'd expect of a top-level poker player.

This list is meant to reflect who the best players on the planet are right now. If O'Dwyer's not a top-10 player right now, with five final tables since February, then how do Buchanan and Seidel -- with two cashes between them in 2012 -- make the list? I'm baffled.

Feldman: April was filled with a lot of events and provided every member of the panel with plenty of opportunities to evaluate the talent on this list. While I think we hit it on the head perfectly with Grospellier moving up and the top three staying the same, I think the bottom of these rankings are extremely questionable.

Just as Lance mentioned, O'Dwyer needs to be on this list after what he has done this year. Last month in this space, I called for O'Dwyer and Haxton to find a spot, but neither found their way on to the list. I think the entire group missed out on Scott Seiver, and it's hard not to recognize the feats of Tommy Vedes, Justin Bonomo and Davidi Kitai with a little more support. Negreanu has been a player with an insane amount of support in the past, but a sixth-place finish in the Super High Roller wasn't enough to move him up? The bottom of this list needs an overhaul and I hope that next month, we'll see some new faces hoping to earn their way up.

The great thing about our next rankings is that the WSOP will be underway and there's no better time to explicitly the define the best players in the world than watching them day in and day out. The WSOP is the best time of the year for poker players and fans, and I'm extremely excited for what's in store for Las Vegas this summer.

Tommy Vedes really likes tournaments that are held at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. In fact, he's done so well there that he probably prefers that all major events take place at that venue. All kidding aside, when it comes to the Seminole Hard Rock Showdown, Vedes is definitely the man to beat.

After finishing sixth in the Seminole Hard Rock Showdown main event in 2011, Vedes entered the six-handed final table of the 2012 edition as the short stack. Given the uphill battled he faced, many expected that he would finish in that spot once again. Vedes had different plans and made an incredible comeback to win the event and his second World Poker Tour title.

"I came in thinking that if I took sixth, I'd be okay with it because I knew the table was super hard and I had no chips," said Vedes. "Once I doubled the first time, I realized this was going to be different. I set myself up for success."

Vedes earned $779,520 for the victory in the $10,000 main event, a substantial pay day, but far from the career-best $1,218,225 he earned after he won the $15,000 buy-in Festa Al Lago main event in 2009. Vedes has earned $2.7 million on the tournament felt since 2005.

Earning this second title wasn't easy. According to the World Poker Tour, Vedes entered the final table with less than 20 big blinds and trailed chip leader Joe Serock by more than 80 big blinds when play began under the WPT lights. Vedes' comeback began as he won a race with A-K against the 10-10 of Kyle Bowker. The hand left Bowker with just a few chips and he was eliminated by Serock a few orbits later in sixth place. This was Bowker's first WPT final table appearance and it his six-day run was worth $122,496 which raised his career total to $1.5 million in tournament earnings.

Two months after his first World Poker Tour final table, Sharon Levin found his way back and was hoping to improve on her fourth-place finish at the WPT Lucky Hearts. Vedes denied him the opportunity and knocked out Levin in fifth on the 50th hand of the night when his pocket sixes held against Levin's A-3. Vedes moved into second place after the hand and Levin earned $158,688, his largest career cash.

Four-handed and sitting on a 20 big blind stack, Craig Bergeron found a cooler as he moved all-in from under the gun with sixes and was called by Vedes' pocket queens. The board provided no help and Bergeron earned $212,976 for his fourth-place effort. This was his second career World Poker Tour cash.

The final three each had their share of success in the tournament poker world. Serock's biggest score came with a runner-up finish in a WSOP six-handed event. He also finished third at the previous WPT stop in the U.S., the Bay 101 Shooting Star. John Dolan put himself on the map with a sixth-place finish in the 2010 WSOP main event and earlier this year, captured the title at the 2012 Southern Poker Million Dollar Heater main event worth $336,105. As for Vedes, his previous WPT title landed him in the spotlight just months after finishing 19th at the 2009 WSOP main event.

Serock held the lead as three-handed play began, but each seized the chip lead at one point or another during the 32 hands of three-way action. Dolan was the big winner during this time and after he caught a huge break and eliminated Serock, he had nearly a 2.5:1 chip lead over Vedes. Serock earned $306,240 for third place, just slightly short of the money earned from Bay 101 and is currently in the top 30 on the 2012 money list.

Dolan extended his lead to nearly 4:1 when Vedes began his comeback. Vedes' first double up came as he flopped a flush and got Dolan to commit with top pair. The second double up, J-7 against 7-4 (all in postflop on a 7-5-3 board), put Vedes ahead for good. On the final hand, the two were all-in preflop with Vedes holding Ad-10d against Dolan's Kd-6d. The flop was a beauty for Dolan as he flopped two pair (K-J-6), but a river queen gave Vedes the straight and the title. Dolan earned $459,360 for second place.

"Number three is coming," said Vedes to the World Poker Tour after the tournament.

The next chance Vedes will get to try earn his third title is the WPT stop is in Jacksonville beginning on April 27.

Small blinds: Tripp Kirk won the WSOP Circuit main event stop in St. Louis. He defeated the field of 625 entries to win $190,961 and a seat in the National Championship. … During the WSOPC stop in St. Louis, both Kyle Cartwright and Kurt Jewell earned their fourth WSOPC victories. Nik Stone earned the best all-around player award and earned his seat into the National Championship. … The 100,000 euro buy-in Super High Roller in Monte Carlo attracted a field of 45 entries. The winner will take home a top prize of 1.6 million euros. … Davidi Kitai earned the EPT Berlin main event title worth $930,816. While some have stated that he is now the fifth player to earn poker's triple crown, his WPT victory was a charity invitational event. Although it is recognized as a WPT championship, I'm hesitant to award him the crown. Shouldn't the triple crown be given to those that win three open events? Share your thoughts on this in the comments section. … Jia Liu won the Borgata Spring Poker Open title and earned $312,483. … Bertrand Grospellier won the EPT Berlin High Roller event, defeating Chris Moorman heads-up for the victory. Grospellier earned $301,992, his largest cash since his WSOP bracelet victory last June. … Annette Obrestad has signed an endorsement deal with Lock Poker. … Want to play poker with Tiger Woods? Put up the $10,000. … Steen Ronlov turned $360 into $270,905 as he won the Heartland Poker Tour stop in Black Hawk, Colorado. … Allan Le won the first "Manila Millions" event. The one million HKD buy-in attracted a field of 31.

It's been a tumultuous year for Full Tilt to say the least. After the Black Friday indictments, the company had its license revoked, was named a "Ponzi scheme" by the Department of Justice, faced two class action lawsuits and had some of its biggest representatives suffer severe and irreversible brand damage. The company has also experienced a lengthy period of negotiations that has only left those interested in the company's status with a bitter taste in their mouth. There have been no formal press releases, no widespread media interviews and minimal outreach in communication. Quite simply, the company has done its best to remain in the dark as they appear to take a step in a new direction.

Through recent filings in Ireland and Malta, the company has finally revealed its new course and it appears to be under the guidance of Laurent Tapie and Prosper Jeremy Masquelier, the named directors of New Full Tilt Limited. Additionally, Orinic Limited, a subsidiary of Full Tilt, has applied for a Category 2 License with the Alderney Gaming Control Commission to offer online gambling. The license hearing will take place on May 3 in Alderney and will be open to the public. Even if the hearing goes smoothly, the license will not be awarded that day. The company is also hiring with start dates at the end of April.

A representative for Full Tilt declined to comment at this time.

There is still one more element that needs to be cleared up before the site is up and running again. After being vocal during the seizure and indictment process, the Department of Justice, which was an integral part in negotiating a deal between Group Bernard Tapie and Full Tilt, hasn't said a word. On Friday, a spokesperson for the Department of Justice said they have "no guidance" on the sale of the company or any upcoming re-launch.

So where does Full Tilt go from here? More importantly will happens to the money that was frozen on April 15, 2011? The waiting unfortunately continues ….

Small blinds: The World Poker Tour stop at the Seminole Hard Rock was down 143 players year-over-year. For the second year in a row, Alexander Condon was the last 18-20 year-old standing. The event is open to players 18 and up. The winner of the event will earn $779,520. … Jia Liu won the Borgata Spring Poker Open $2,700 main event, defeating the field of 520 entries to win $312,483. The final table also included Chad Batista (sixth) and Cliff Josephy (seventh). … The 2012 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) begins on May 6 and will feature 40 events. … A state representative in Massachusettes has offered a proposal to regulate intrastate online poker. It would require each company paying a $10 million license fee and a 25 percent tax on gaming proceeds. … Member of the 2011 WSOP main event final table, Phil Collins, won the Las Vegas stop of the Heartland Poker Tour. Collins earned $71,556 as he defeated a final table that included Matt Marafioti, Steve Gross, Leo Wolpert, Dan O'Brien and Terry Presley. While the final table was filled with amazing talents, it was one of the smaller HPT events this season. … The Department of Justice confirmed on Friday that on Wednesday, a judge has accepted the plea deal of John Campos, one of the named in the Black Friday indictments. … There hasn't been any news regarding the status of the Epic Poker League, but a representative of the Prevent Cancer Foundation confirmed that the charity did recieive the money raised during the Epic charity event held in 2011. … According to Forbes, Wynn Gaming is in discussions with Zynga regarding an online gambling partnership. … Sorel Mizzi is back in the winner's seat after defeating the field of 26 at the WPT Viennea High Roller. Mizzi earned 114,070 euros for the win. Yevgeniy Timoshenko and Steve O'Dwyer finished second and third, respectively.

The PartyPoker-sponsored Premier League is one of the most unique made-for-TV events on the poker calendar. The first round includes 16 players, broken up into two groups of eight. Each player bought in for $125,000 and participated in four group matches where the top three earned spots at the final table. Players who finished fourth and fifth in each group then played heads-up for their shot at the final table. Scott Seiver finished third in his group, then defeated the star-studded final table to earn the title, $500,000 and a $25,500 buy-in to the WPT Championship next month.

According to PartyPoker, Seiver, who won the WPT Championship in 2011, defeated Daniel "Jungleman" Cates heads-up for the victory. The final encounter took less than a half hour of play as Seiver won a race with K-Q against Cates' 7-7 to finish off his opponent. Cates earned $300,000 for his runner-up performance. It was his largest single tournament cash of his career.

The starting chip counts at the final table were determined based on the points they accumulated throughout the group stage. Mathew Frankland, who qualified through a satellite for the event, won his group and held the chip lead, 400,000, at the start of the final table. Seiver started the final table sixth in chips (300,000) and played tentative at the start resulting in a very similar chip stack after nearly two hours of play when the first elimination was recorded.

Cates eliminated Sam Trickett in eighth place and after initial play with seven players to go, Seiver was in last with 163,000 in chips. At the top of the counts, it was Patrik Antonius and Cates separated by less than 10 big blinds, but Cates moved into the lead after he knocked out Frankland in seventh.

Seiver was able to get back into contention as he eliminated Tom Dwan in sixth. He still trailed the dominating Cates, but with five players left and the blinds increasing quickly, he gave himself a chance to win by taking a flip for his tournament life with 9-9 against the A-Q of Antonius. The board ran clean and Seiver was right on Cates' heels, trailing only by five big blinds after Cates eliminated Tony Guoga in fifth place.

Phil Laak eliminated Antonius in fourth and, minutes later, Seiver moved into the chip lead after taking a pot from Cates where he turned trips and got paid off by Cates' top two pair. Shortly after, Cates rivered Laak to take most of his stack and after Seiver finished the job, the two would begin heads-up play with essentially even stacks. Despite a clear edge in heads-up experience, the online-bred Cates couldn't overcome the WPT and WSOP champion and will have to wait for his first significant live victory.

Here are the results from the Premier League V final table:

1. Scott Seiver ($500,000)
2. Daniel Cates ($300,000)
3. Phil Laak ($175,000)
4. Patrik Antonius ($125,000)
5. Tony Guoga ($100,000)
6. Tom Dwan ($60,000)
7. Mathew Frankland ($65,000)
8. Sam Trickett ($55,000)

Small blinds: Belgian Kevin Vandersmissen won the Irish Poker Open for 420,000 euros. His previous best accomplishment was a runner-up finish at the European Poker Tour Snowfest stop in 2011. Andy Black finished in eighth. … The WSOP announced that there will be satellites for the $1 million One Drop event at more than 15 locations across the country. The $25,000 mega-satellite for the event will be held on June 30 at the Rio in Las Vegas. … The Asian Poker Tour announced its first "Manila Millions" Super High Roller event. The one million HKD buy-in event (approximately $129,000) will take place on April 20 at Resorts World Manila's Genting Club. Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan have already confirmed their participation. … On the one year anniversary of Black Friday, the Poker Players Alliance is launching a new campaign called "The Players Will Never Fold." The PPA's John Pappas will join ESPN's Poker Edge podcast to discuss the latest update on legalization in the United States. … Georges St-Pierre has signed an endorsement deal with 888Poker. He will be playing the 2012 WSOP main event. … Wicked Chops has confirmed that the alias "RaiseOnce" on PokerStars belongs to Phil Ivey. Ivey has six figures in online profit so far in 2012. … The Bluff Mid-States Poker Tour has announced a new stop at the Downstream Casino Resort in Oklahoma. … James Dempsey won the first iSeriesLIVE event in Dublin. The event was streamed online and thousands watched as Dempsey earned 100,000 euros for the victory. … Steve O'Dwyer continued his impressive run in 2012 with a second-place finish in the 10,300 euro High Roller event held at EPT Campione. Govert Metaal earned the win in that event worth 110,000 euros. … Jannick Wrang defeated Olivier Busquey to win the EPT Campione main event title. … After two consecutive losses, Viktor Blom defeated Isaac Haxton heads-up in the latest $500,000 SuperStar Showdown. … The online poker bill proposed in New Jersey would allow players from all jurisdictions where the activity is legal to participate. … According to the bankruptcy papers posted on CardPlayer, the Epic Poker League had nearly $8 million in debt at the time of their filing.