2019 WSOP Player of the Year: Robert Campbell Leads After 2nd Win

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Jul 04, 2019 4 min read

There have been five weeks' worth of events so far at the 2019 World Series of Poker, with the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event already underway. In fact, there's still a lot left in the series, with more than 20 bracelets still to be awarded as many "postlims" will continue to crowd the schedule over the next two weeks.

We were all set to deliver our weekly check of the 2019 WSOP Player of the Year standings yesterday, but a big change happened that encouraged us to delay the report an extra day.

On Tuesday night Robert Campbell won his second bracelet of the year, the first two-time winner of the summer, when he took down the Event #67: $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo Championship. Add that to his previous win in Event #33: $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw and five other cashes (including a fifth, seventh, and eighth), and Campbell now leads the POY race.

Here's how the 2019 WSOP POY Top 10 looks as of this morning, Thursday, July 4:

Campbell went from 10th to 1st with Tuesday night's win, catapulting ahead of Dan Zack who has been at No. 1 or close to it all summer.

Zack had continued to lead after finishing fourth last week in the Event #62: $10,000 Razz Championship won by Scott Seiver. That was Zack's 11th cash and third final table at a WSOP, his series having begun with a win in Event #6: $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball.

Zack's now at No. 2, though, just ahead of hard-charging Phillip Hui, winner of the exciting Event #58: $50,000 Poker Players Championship shown on PokerGO. That was Hui's ninth cash of the summer, four of which have been final-table finishes, all good enough to put him at No. 3.

Last year's WSOP Player of the Year Shaun Deeb has continued his progress up this year's POY leaderboard, with a fifth-place finish in the Poker Players Championship one of the 13 cashes he's earned already. Deeb is up to No. 4 now.

Anthony Zinno had a big week as well, winning his second career bracelet in Event #60: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo just after finishing third with his teammate John Allan Hinds in Event #57: $1,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold'em won by Barak Wisbrod, Daniel Dayan, and Ohad Geiger. Zinno cashed two more times since his bracelet win, too, thereby earning him enough POY points to move up to No. 5.

Scott Clements has made the money six times this summer, with three of those cashes coming at final tables including a victory in Event #10: $1,500 Dealer's Choice. That's enough to put him at No. 6 currently.

Jason Gooch, winner of Event #55: $1,000 WSOP.com Online Double Stack No-Limit Hold'em, is now at No. 7. Meanwhile Rick Alvarado last night won the 10,185-entry Event #64: $888 Crazy Eights No-Limit Hold'em to earn his first career bracelet and move up to No. 8. Just behind him, Upeshka Da Silva, who won Event #38: $600 WSOP.com ONLINE No-Limit Hold'em Knockout Bounty, remains on the list at No. 9.

Chris Ferguson was the WSOP POY two years ago when he set a record for cashing 23 times (17 in Vegas, six more at the WSOP Europe in Rozvadov, Czech Republic). Ferguson once more is topping the "most cashes" list this year with 16, and as a result is now at No. 10 in the POY rankings.

A look outside the Top 10 at the moment shows Ari Engel (No. 11), Ben Yu (No. 12), Yueqi Zhu (No. 13), Daniel Strelitz (No. 14), and Jon Turner (No. 15), with Daniel Negreanu (No. 16) also just a cash away from joining (or rejoining) the list.

About the 2019 WSOP Player of the Year

After changing the way POY points were calculated prior to last year, the WSOP has kept the same formula to determine this year's winner. The formula is "loosely based" on the one employed to calculate WSOP Circuit rankings, with modifiers based on buy-ins and field sizes.

At the time, the WSOP explained the changes had been made "to better reward bracelet winners and players who run deep, while still rewarding consistency." A couple of differences from the pre-2018 system include a bigger gap between points earned from first- and second-place finishes, and min-cashes being worth relatively less than was the case before.

Here's an information sheet provided by the WSOP that provides further details regarding the 2019 WSOP Player of the Year.

The 2019 WSOP POY race includes all of the "open" bracelet events from this summer's WSOP in Las Vegas as well as events from the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe series that will take place in Rozvadov, Czech Republic later this year (Oct. 15-Nov. 4). That means from the full schedule of bracelet events this summer, the following six events are excluded:

• Event #1: $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em
• Event #32: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em
• Event #39: $1,000 Super Seniors No-Limit Hold'em
• Event #47: $1,000/$10,000 Ladies Event
• Event #57: $1,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold'em
• Event #81: $1,500 Bracelet Winners Only No-Limit Hold'em

By the way, the WSOP added an extra bracelet event to this year's schedule — the $50,000 Final Fifty High Roller — bringing the total number of bracelets awarded in the 2019 WSOP to 90. That new event will count toward the 2019 WSOP POY race, which means players can earn points in 84 of this summer's events.

We'll continue our once-a-week check of the WSOP POY race here at PokerNews for the remainder of the summer series. However, you can always consult the standings any time on the constantly updated WSOP Player of the Year page. There you also can find a "WSOP Point Calculator" to discover in advance how many points each event will award based on the number of entries.

• Tags 2019 WSOP WSOP World Series of Poker Robert Campbell Dan Zack Phillip Hui Shaun Deeb Anthony Zinno Scott Clements Jason Gooch Rick Alvarado Upeshka De Silva Chris Ferguson
• Related Tournaments World Series of Poker
• Related Players Chris FergusonShaun DeebScott ClementsPhillip HuiUpeshka De SilvaAnthony Zinno