After the year ended, I went back to watch a few videos and try to find my top 5 poker moments of the year. There were a lot to choose from, and this site is filled with great hands from 2009, but to me, the following clearly stood out as the ones that made the most impact on the poker world.

No. 5 — Daniel Negreanu vs. Barry Shulman at the WSOP Europe main event final table.

After a flop of 5d-8d-Jc, Shulman led out for 300,000 and was re-raised to 900,000 by Negreanu. Shulman went all-in and that sent Negreanu to the tank.

Negreanu eventually called, showing Qc Jd. Shulman tabled As Ah.

Pandemonium ensued as the dealer put the turn card out: the Jh, and Negreanu only had to fade two remaining aces in the deck for a WSOP bracelet.

When the Ad fell, the pro-Negreanu crowd fell silent and the likeable pro was crippled. He went out on the next hand and Shulman won the title.

During the heads-up match, Negreanu had chances to eliminate Shulman, but the owner of Card Player magazine proved resilient. Nevertheless, Negreanu’s finish earned him enough money to jump to first on the all-time money list.

No. 4 — Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko against Daniel “djk123″ Kelly in the World Championship of Online Poker.

To understand djk123′s play, you need to really watch a lot of hands at the final table. Timoshenko was making plays with lesser hands and raising in position a ton. Still, it’s tough to watch Kelly 5-bet his stack away. With Timoshenko’s biggest competition out of the tournament, he went on to take the title and the $1.7 million first prize — a few months after winning the 2009 WPT Championship.

No. 3 — Antoine Saout crippled as a huge favorite at WSOP main event final table.

As far as I’m concerned, after Phil Ivey was eliminated, this was Antoine Saout’s tournament. If it wasn’t for outstandingly bad luck on this hand, Saout would have — and should have — been the WSOP champion. Ce qui sera.

No. 2 — Phil Ivey eliminated from WSOP main event final table.

This should actually be called the worst poker moment of 2009. The world’s best player gets his money in as a 3-to-1 favorite and gets a queen in the window, much to the chagrin of the entire poker world. Though this hand breaks my heart to watch,  it doesn’t look like it bothered Ivey one bit. He just takes a bite from his apple, then stands up, shakes hands and walks away.

No. 1 — Isildur1 vs. Patrik Antonius for the biggest pot in online poker history.

For a month-and-a-half, no one captured the imagination of the poker world more than Isildur1. In that time, he was seen 8-tabling against Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and durrrr, putting in huge river bluffs and having million-dollar bankroll swings in the matter of hours. The aforementioned hand came at the height of the Isildur1 craze, when million-dollar pots became the norm. The Swede played 166,073 hands in three months and was a profitable no limit hold ‘em player while struggling at pot limit Omaha, which proved to be his undoing. He played the best at their game and lost — and because he was online, we got to see variance in real-time, sort of a lifetime of a high stakes career in three months.