Pokernews.com has selected their list of Top 5 Breakout Performances of the Year among tournament players. The list includes WSOP winners, WPT winners, online tournament winners and millions in tournament cashes.


5. Daniel "djk123" Kelly
Two wins at this year's WCOOP plus 6 more cashes, including 4th place at the Main Event. That's one hell of a performance in the biggest online tournament series in the world.

4. Cornel Cimpan
Like most of the players in the list, Cimpan is no rookie in the poker world, but his big breakthrough came with two WPT wins at the LA Poker Classic in February and the Foxwoods World Poker Finals in November.

3. Joe Cada
Just five months ago he was just another online cash game player, then he cashed twice at his first WSOP before becoming the World Champion.

2. Ville Wahlbeck
Unknown outside the Finnish poker scene prior to this years' WSOP, but now everyone has to take notice. 1 bracelet, 5 final tables, 6 cashes at the WSOP, and all but one of them at the toughest $10k events.

1. Yevgeniy Timoshenko (pictured)
Rising star who really the big time with a unique live/online double win: the WPT Championship in April, and the WCOOP Main Event in September; incredibly, just one day after the WCOOP he also took down the $1k Monday on Full Tilt Poker. And he's still just 21.

Source: Pokernews.