Global Poker Index Announces Official Player of the Year Results
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The final tabulations were wrapped up this week and Bin Weng and Kristen Foxen are now officially crowned as Global Poker Index (GPI) Players of the Year, while Nick Pupillo survived a late run from Preston McEwen to close out 2023 as the Mid-Major points champion.
The final announcement was a formality for Weng and Foxen, who led their respective categories with room to spare in the final month of the year. The tighter race was in the mid-major category, where Pupillo faced a late challenge after McEwen went on a red-hot run at the WSOP Circuit stop in North Carolina.
Weng Owns 2023
Weng kicked off 2023 by outlasting 1,142 entries to win $1,000,000 in The Return at Borgata, but that was only the beginning. His back-to-back final tables made him a star on the World Poker Tour, where he joined the WPT Champions Club when he closed the deal in the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown at the Luxor in May. Weng had 55 cashes throughout the year, 20 of which were top 10 finishes.
He went on to win the EveryOne for One Drop and closed the year in grand fashion with a victory in the $25,000 High Roller at the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas. Weng’s total earnings for the year were just over $6.6 million, according to the Hendon Mob.
2023 GPI POY Results
| Rank | Player | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bin Weng | United States | 5,008.99 |
| 2 | Nacho Barbero | Argentina | 4,387.72 |
| 3 | Ren Lin | China | 4,260.94 |
| 4 | Isaac Haxton | United States | 4,168.62 |
| 5 | Danny Tang | Hong Kong | 4,107.14 |
Foxen Wins Her 4th Title
Foxen is back on top of the womens leaderboard and only a short time removed from when she held the title for three straight years. Her fourth title had the smallest margin of victory, with Nadya Magnus claiming second place after a stellar year that started in The Bahamas with an 18th place finish in the PSPC Main Event and continued with several final table finishes around the country.
Ultimately, Foxen’s consistency was too much to overcome. Her 2023 resume has 21 cashes, seven of which were in the top ten — including finishes at the PokerGO Studio and a final table at WPT Choctaw. The top of the leaderboard remained tight as 2023 entered the final months, but Foxen’s run to 33rd at the WPT World Championship in December was the final punctuation mark on an already terrific year that totaled just under $1.1 million in live tournament earnings.
2023 Womens GPI POY Results
| Rank | Player | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kristen Foxen | Canada | 2,970.93 |
| 2 | Nadya Magnus | United States | 2,566.97 |
| 3 | Kitty Kuo | Taiwan | 2,402.78 |
| 4 | Victoria Livschitz | United States | 2,242.02 |
| 5 | Maria Ho | United States | 2,095.09 |
Pupillo Holds Off McEwen
The tightest of the three races was the battle for Mid-Major Player of the Year, and it was McEwen that posed the biggest threat in the final stretch of the season.
With a victory in a PLO event at WSOPC North Carolina in late November, followed by a 14th-place finish in that Main Event, McEwen had put himself within striking distance of Pupillo in the standings. Pupillo fought back with a third-place finish at the MSPT Venetian stop in late November, but when McEwen struck again with a second-place finish in the $800 UltimateStack on December 10 at the Venetian, it became a dogfight that would come down to the last weekend.
Ultimately McEwen could not pick up enough points to close the small gap in the final week of 2023, and Pupillo went on to win the Mid-Major title by just under 42 GPI points with $974,843 earned throughout 2023.
2023 GPI Mid-Major POY Results
| Rank | Player | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nick Pupillo | United States | 2,819.77 |
| 2 | Preston McEwen | United States | 2,777.98 |
| 3 | William Kopp | United States | 2,693.59 |
| 4 | Ankit Ahuja | India | 2,652.64 |
| 5 | Blake Bohn | United States | 2,540.31 |
All three winners will be invited to accept their GPI Player of the Year accolades at the fifth Global Poker Awards, to be held this spring at the PokerGO Studio at ARIA in Las Vegas and broadcast on PokerGO.
