2018 WSOP Player of the Year: Deeb On Top Ahead of Yu, Hennigan, Cada

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Jul 17, 2018 3 min read

There's just one day left to go in the 2018 World Series of Poker, and last night the 2018 WSOP Player of the Year leaderboard was updated one final time for the summer. The still-to-be-completed Event #78: $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop does not count toward the POY standings, which means the current rankings will remain the same until results start coming in from the 2018 World Series of Poker Europe later this year.

In last week's update, it was noted how Shaun Deeb's deep run in the WSOP Main Event had positioned him to move ahead of then-leader John Hennigan in the rankings. Not only did Deeb go on to finish 105th in the Main, but during the final days of the series he added two more cashes, including a second bracelet to collect even more POY points.

Someone else topped that remarkable final-week performance, though — 2009 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Cada. Cada went even deeper in the Main Event, getting all the way to the final table to finish fifth, then followed that by winning another side event, also his second bracelet of the summer.

After that final flurry of action, here's how the POY standings look as of this morning, Tuesday, July 17:

Deeb ended with 17 cashes, just one behind Chris Ferguson's 18 for the most of the series. Among those was Deeb's second bracelet win of the summer, coming over the weekend in Event #74: Big Blind Antes $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Handed Championship.

After collecting a second, a third, and a fourth this series, Ben Yu finally broke through and with his 15th and final cash of the summer won Event #77: $50,000 No-Limit Hold'em High Roller (Big Blind Antes). That was the very last event of the series to count toward the POY race, thereby helping Yu up to second in the rankings.

Recent Poker Hall of Fame inductee John Hennigan was leading the POY race a week ago, and while he added a few more cashes at the end to finish with 13 for the summer, he now sits in third position.

Meanwhile Cada finished fifth in the Main Event on Friday, then immediately hopped into the 3,120-entry Event #75: The Closer - $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event and incredibly won that event to earn his second bracelet of the series. Points gathered from both of those finishes move Cada into fourth in the rankings.

All four players — Deeb, Yu, Hennigan, and Cada — had incredible summers. Which of them would you rank to have had the most impressive 2018 WSOP?

Four final tables — including a first, second, third, and sixth — place Scott Bohlman in fifth in the POY rankings, while Paul Volpe's runner-up finish to Yu in Event #74 keeps him in sixth place at present. Additionally, Eric Baldwin (seventh), Justin Liberto (eighth), Mike Leah (ninth), and Anthony Zinno (10th) all added late cashes to earn spots inside the Top 10.

Sitting just outside the list to end the summer are Elio Fox (11th), Julien Martini (12th), Romain Lewis (13th), Mario Prats Garcia (14th), and Yueqi Zhu (15th).

About the 2018 WSOP Player of the Year

As noted above, the 2018 WSOP Player of the Year race includes both events from this summer's WSOP in Las Vegas as well as from the 2018 World Series of Poker Europe series in Rozvadov, Czech Republic later this year (Oct. 11-Nov. 2). Finishes in 72 of the 78 bracelet events at the 2018 WSOP were counted toward the POY, with the following six events excluded:

• Event #1: $565 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em
• Event #32: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em
• Event #36: Super Seniors No-Limit Hold'em
• Event #55: $1,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold'em
• Event #57: $1,000/$10,000 Ladies Event
• Event #78: $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop

Click here for a look at the 2018 World Series of Poker Europe schedule that includes 10 bracelet events. Stay tuned to see who heads to Rozvadov to compete further for 2018 WSOP Player of the Year.

• Tags WSOP Shaun Deeb Ben Yu John Hennigan Joe Cada Scott Bohlman Paul Volpe Eric Baldwin Justin Liberto Mike Leah Anthony Zinno
• Related Tournaments World Series of Poker
• Related Players Shaun DeebJohn HenniganEric BaldwinJoe CadaMike LeahPaul Volpe