2016 WSOP POY: Global Poker Index Rolls Out New WSOP Player of the Year Formula
The first cashes of the summer are already being recorded at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, and that means the 2016 World Series of Poker Player of the Year race is underway to see who will succeed last year's WSOP POY, Mike Gorodinsky.
Once again, the Global Poker Index is powering this year's WSOP POY rankings. After listening to comments (and complaints) from a year ago, the GPI has revised its formula this time around in the hopes of producing a more accurate reflection of players' performances in WSOP events.
As described to PokerNews, the new formula will allow more lower buy-in tournaments to have an impact on the rankings while at the same time lowering the points earned in some of the higher buy-in events. One criticism of the formula from a year ago was it had too heavily weighed those big money events, thereby tilting too greatly the rankings in favor of those notching deep runs and wins in those tournaments.
A press release from the GPI offers further details about the changes.
"The GPI normalized their data, analyzed tournament trends and made alterations in hopes of rewarding players on a more balanced level going forward, making adjustments to its key components: size of field, buy-in and finishing position," explains the GPI. "Also, event winners will see their scores earn an even larger percentage of points compared to the scores of others, for the most part."
"We have spent nearly a year reviewing our scoring system and we're confident that we've made the necessary adjustments in order to ensure that important points can be scored at any buy-in" said Eric Danis, GPI Head of Poker Content. "When the GPI scoring system was first introduced five years ago, it did not include points for any events with a buy-in under $1,500. With the GPI now including all events, an adjustment was necessary."
The same, revised formula will also be employed to track the 2016 GPI Player of the Year, for which Ari Engel stands as the current leader after five months' worth of tournaments.
One other alteration that will have an effect on the GPI POY rankings is a change to the minimum number of entries in order for a tournament to qualify for points — now 32 entries after having been 21 before. (That latter change will be unlikely to impact any 2016 WSOP events, obviously.)
For those wanting to get an idea how cashes in WSOP events will translate into 2016 WSOP POY points, the GPI has provided a calculator.
As of this morning, only two WSOP events have produced any player-of-the-year points.
The only event to have completed thus far — Event #1: $565 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em won by Christopher "CJ" Sand — yielded no POY points as it was not an open event. Meanwhile even though hundreds have cashed already in Event #2: $565 Colossus II No-Limit Hold'em (currently down to 78 players), those results haven't been tabulated either just yet.
Two other events have reached the money — Event #3: $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Championship (down to six players) and Event #4: $1,000 Top-Up Turbo No-Limit Hold'em (down to nine) — and WSOP POY points for cashers in those have been tabulated.
Two-time WSOP bracelet winner Bill Chen enjoys the early lead thanks to his seventh-place showing in the $10K Seven-Card Stud Championship. Calvin Anderson finished one spot behind Chen in eighth, and he sits one spot behind him in the early POY standings as well. Here's the top 10 as of this morning:
| Position | Player | WSOP POY Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bill Chen | 176.48 |
| 2 | Calvin Anderson | 169.44 |
| 3 | Rodney Pardey | 163.73 |
| 4 | Adam Friedman | 158.99 |
| 5 | Mohsin Charania | 155.72 |
| 6 | Stephen Chidwick | 154.99 |
| 7 | Adam Owen | 151.58 |
| 8 | Timothy Finne | 150.56 |
| 9 | Jeff Lisandro | 148.62 |
| 10 | Felipe “Mojave” Ramos | 146.05 |
Both Rodney Pardey and Adam Friedman also cashed in the $10K Stud event, while Mohsin Charania was the highest finisher so far in the $1K Top-Up Turbo (in 10th), helping him slide into fifth position this morning. All of these players will be passed by those going deeper in their respective events today, of course, with other results likewise affecting things from day-to-day.
Click here to follow the constantly-updated 2016 WSOP Player of the Year race on the GPI site. We'll be providing a weekly update on the race here each Monday throughout the series to get you caught up as well, and keep an eye out on Thursdays for a weekly update of the overall Global Poker Index rankings and the 2016 GPI POY race.
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