2019 WSOP Player of the Year: One Day Left, Negreanu Leads, Only Deeb Can Catch

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Nov 04, 2019 3 min read

This one is coming down to the wire, folks.

There is just one day of poker left at the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe series in Rozvadov, Czech Republic, the final day of the final tournament, Event #15: €550 Colossus No-Limit Hold'em. From a big 2,738-entry field just 11 players remain, with Mick Heder the chip leader when play begins at 3 p.m. local time (9 a.m. ET).

The big subplot, of course, concerns the 2019 World Series of Poker Player of the Year race, which also ends today. One player left among the final 11 has a chance to secure enough POY points to surpass leader Daniel Negreanu — last year's WSOP POY Shaun Deeb.

Deeb will need to finish at least fifth today to move into first and deny Negreanu a third WSOP POY title after his wins in 2004 and 2013.

2019 WSOP POY Top 10

Here's a current look at the top of the leaderboard, as updated overnight by the WSOP:

While the Top 10 looks just as it did on Friday when we delivered our last update here, three players on this list have a few more points than they did then thanks to their cashes in Event #15.

Negreanu took 195th in the Colossus, which earned him another 103.3 POY points, pushing his overall total over the 4,000-point mark. If he had went out just slightly earlier in 204th, he'd have only gotten 51.7 points.

Robert Campbell likewise cashed in the Colossus, finishing in 149th and also earning 103.3 POY points, keeping him in second position. And Anthony Zinno's remains in fourth after his 256th-place in the last event got him 51.7 points.

Deeb, meanwhile, is now 368.24 points behind Negreanu. The WSOP POY calculator gives us an indication of what points will be earned for each of the remaining places in Event #15, which in turn helps show where Deeb needs to finish today to earn the needed points.

Notice if Deeb goes out in sixth he will finish just shy of Negreanu's total — just a half-dozen points behind!

Deeb will be third in chips when play begins today. Here's how the counts will look when the first hand is dealt about an hour from now:

Be sure to stick with PokerNews today for all the live updates from Event #15 as we find out together whether or not Deeb can do it and become the first player ever to win back-to-back WSOP POY titles.

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.

During the 2019 WSOP players earned points in 84 of the "open" bracelet events. The WSOP Europe schedule was expanded to 15 bracelet events, with all of them counting toward the Player of the Year except Event #4: €250,000 Super High Roller No-Limit Hold'em.

You can see the entire Top 100 over the WSOP Player of the Year page.

• Tags 2019 WSOP WSOP World Series of Poker Daniel Negreanu Robert Campbell Shaun Deeb Anthony Zinno Phillip Hui Dan Zack Dario Sammartino Kahle Burns Dash Dudley David "ODB" Baker
• Related Tournaments World Series of Poker
• Related Players Daniel NegreanuShaun DeebDario SammartinoPhillip HuiAnthony ZinnoRobert Campbell