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.

When poker action in November is mentioned, the thoughts of poker fans quickly turn to the WSOP main event final table. The November Nine finally reconvened in Las Vegas and viewers around the world watched live as Pius Heinz captured the biggest title in all of poker. The 22-year-old German has seen his life change in just the weeks after his victory, but in doing so, he provided the poker world with a highlight reel full of his creativity on the felt.

As Heinz grabbed the attention of the world (in addition to his $8.7 million in first-place prize money), Sam Trickett continued his dominating year with a victory on the Partouche Poker Tour. Trickett moved up to fifth this month and for the doubters that don't give the British superstar much respect, he's had three seven-figure scores in 2011. Not even Erik Seidel can say that. Seidel held on to second this month, but still trails Jason Mercier, who retained the top spot, for the sixth straight month. Neither player notched any tournament cashes in November, but this wasn't the most action-packed month on the tournament trail.

The events that did take place were well attended. Anthony Ruberto earned his first major victory at the untelevised, but very successful WPT Jacksonville. The WSOP Circuit continued to roll with Bryan Schultz earning the main event ring in Lake Tahoe and Jerry Monroe earning $112,779 in Biloxi, MS. Randy Lew managed to outlast the returning Phil Ivey en route to his victory in the APPT Macau main event, Scott Clements defeated the field of 265 at the Venetian's semi-annual Deep Stack Extravaganza and Andrew Badecker won the Borgata Fall Poker Open and the top prize of $388,657. The $2,500 to $3,500 buy-ins were very popular in November.

The biggest event of the month occurred in a place you probably wouldn't expect: Brazil. The Brazil Series of Poker Million event attracted a field of 1,446 players and crowned Flavio Reis champion. It was the largest poker tournament in Latin American history and it paid off quite well for Reis, who earned $245,342 and a seat in the 2012 WSOP main event.

As the calendar turns to December, some big events that could dramatically shake up these rankings are on the horizon. The WPT's Five Diamond highlights the list of majors that also includes the third Epic Poker League main event, EPT Prague and the WSOP Circuit stop in Atlantic City. The biggest question for next month's rankings might not be who is going to move up or down, but what to do with Ivey. Will he earn his way back on the list? Maybe he should already be back. Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

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

The Nuts: Poker's best in November 2011

PLAYER (NO. 1 VOTES)		RANK (LAST)	RECENT SUCCESS	COMMENT
	Jason Mercier (6)	1 (1)	No tournament cashes during November, but Mercier was active at the cash game tables and, according to his Twitter feed, was running quite well in props.	Mercier has held the No. 1 spot for the last six months. He's earned at least $1 million in each of the last four years on the tournament felt. #Whenwillitend? Not anytime soon. (Feldman)
	Erik Seidel (3)	2 (2)	For the first time in 11 months, no major cashes.	Seidel's been crushing so consistently this year that November was the first month in which he didn't have at least one cash. Still, the 52-year-old has been beating the biggest buy-in tournaments all year long and with another Epic event around the corner, he might be poised to strike again. (Bradley)
	Eugene Katchalov	3 (3)	Second at EPT Loutraki's 2,000 euro side event for $49,915.	You might know that Katchalov's year has included a bracelet win, a seven-figure score and $2.5 million in prize money. What you might not know is that he's also had three second-place finishes that could've made 2011 even better … as hard as that is to imagine. (Feldman)
	Ben Lamb	4 (4)	Third place in the WSOP main event for $4,021,138	His extensive preparation for the November Nine shows you just how dedicated Lamb is to constantly refining his game and maintaining his place among poker's elite. (Welman)
	Sam Trickett	5 (10)	Won the Partouche Poker Tour main event for $1.3 million	The PPT win was his second huge score in 2011. Over the past 12 months, Trickett has emerged as one of the world's best players, and he'll continue to push his way up this list - especially if his trip to Macau this year is as frutiful as last year's. (Bradley)
	Shawn Buchanan	6 (5)	Cashed in the British Columbia Poker Championships.	Buchanan has been a top-notch player for years. The only thing that has changed recently seems to be that he is finally getting the recognition he deserves. (Welman)
	Bertrand Grospellier	6 (7)	Eighth at WPT Marrakech for $27,327.	Grospellier got his butt kicked this month -- but not on the felt. His much-hyped kickboxing match with Lex Veldhuis resulted in the Frenchman being knocked out, but Elky continues to deliver knockouts on the felt. Grospellier's final table put him only six points behind Katchalov for BLUFF Player of the Year -- the closest any race has been this late in the year. (Bradley)
	Chris Moorman (1)	7 (9)	More online success for Moorman, who earned nearly six figures online in November.	Going through Moorman's online poker results is like reading a never-ending book. He recently became the first player in online poker tournament history to surpass $7.5 million in earnings. (Welman)
	Jake Cody	9 (7)	Fourth at the Black Belt Nottingham Live high roller event	There's no limits to what Cody can accomplish in the poker world. He's this good … at 22 … and has an incredibly bright future ahead of him. (Feldman)
	Phil Hellmuth	10 (8)	No scores on the felt, but if you want to follow the highs and lows of sports betting, his Twitter feed is a great place.	How quickly Hellmuth has fallen back into the "what have you done for me lately" category. The 11-time bracelet winner had $1.6 million in tournament earnings in 2011, the most he's ever attained. (Feldman)

On the bubble

Pius Heinz. Pius Pius Heinz. Na na na na na na na na na na na. Pius, Pius Heinz. Yes, that chant is still ingrained in all of our heads, but no, he's not the official bubble boy of this month. His run to the WSOP main event bracelet put him in contention for a spot as he earned a lot of support from the panel. If he can overcome the fact that everyone has seen his strategies and what he's capable of at the felt, he might join this group soon. The actual bubble boy this month was Sam Stein. Have any doubts about how good Stein is? Understand the fact that he was one of Ben Lamb's primary poker discussion partners as the final table approached. Stein's 2011 includes 11 cashes and $2.1 million in tournament earnings. … Others receiving substantial consideration include Andy Frankenberger, Jonathan Duhamel, Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Selbst, John Juanda, Matt Giannetti, Eric Baldwin and Elio Fox.

Final thoughts Bradley: Including Hellmuth, who rode his summer success to a spot on this list but hasn't done much else since, but not including Ivey, who panelists said would need to be playing again before he'd be considered, seems strange to me. Hellmuth had a great summer, but it's almost Christmas time. Ivey's playing again in the big games in Macau and that has to make him eligible for votes again. If he's not a top-10 talent, nobody is.

Feldman: Not a lot of movement on the list this month and in all reality, that had to be expected. With all the hype surrounding the final table, the real question, in terms of these rankings, was whether or not Ben Lamb would either win and move up or get knocked our early and drop down. Partouche provided a good vehicle for Trickett to continue to rise and, besides a few other smaller events around the country, there wasn't anything that I'd weighed heavily when composing my rankings this month.

Seeing consistency in the list is a good thing when it comes to realizing the stars of the game and I feel that November's group is representative of the game's elite right now. Sure, there are a couple people I think are deserving of a spot, but in general, I don't have the one regret that often accompanies the publication of this list each month.

Two final, final thoughts. First, Pius Heinz's performance at the WSOP main event final table immediately made him a candidate for this list. The ability he demonstrated during those days of play was simply impressive. Second, to Mr. Phil Ivey, I'm glad to see you back at the tables and I expect you to make this list in the very near future.