WSOP Player of the Year

The WSOP (World Series of Poker) Player of the Year is an annual award given to the player who has accumulated the most points throughout that year's WSOP tournament series.

Points are earned based on the player's performance at the World Series of Poker and in WSOP Online events, with a formula deciding how many points each event — and each finish — is worth.

The reigning World Series of Poker Player of the Year is Dan Zack, who won two bracelets and the POY title in 2022.

About the WSOP POY Award

The WSOP Player of the Year (POY) title is considered one of the most prestigious awards in the poker world.

The WSOP Player of the Year award was first introduced in 2004. Since then, the award has been given out every year, apart from 2020 in which most events were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The winner of the WSOP Player of the Year traditionally wins a seat to the following year's WSOP Main Event, a custom trophy and receives a personalized banner that hangs during the WSOP in Las Vegas.

Notable WSOP Player of the Year Winners

Daniel Negreanu

One of the most well-known and successful poker players of all time, Negreanu won the Player of the Year award in both the inaugural year and in 2013. To date, he is the only two-time winner of the award. He has a total of six WSOP bracelets and over $42 million in live tournament earnings.

Greg Merson

The only player to have won the WSOP Player of the Year title and the WSOP Main Event in the same year, Merson cashed in five events, won two bracelets, and made it to the final table in two others. His first gold bracelet came in the $10,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em Championship, and his second came in the $10,000 WSOP Main Event.

Merson's Main Event win, which earned him $8.5 million, was particularly impressive as he battled through a field of 6,598 players over several days to emerge as the champion.

George Danzer

Danzer and (Jeff Lisandro) are the only players to be three-time bracelet winners and take down the Player of the Year title in the same year. At the 2014 WSOP, he won two bracelets, in the $10,000 Razz Championship and the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo. His third came at the WSOP Asia-Pacific (APAC) in the A$5,000 8-Game Mix. He also had several other deep runs that helped him secure the Player of the Year award. He has a total of four WSOP bracelets and over $6 million in live tournament earnings

Chris Ferguson

Having finished ninth in the 2016 POY race, Ferguson cashed in 17 events, made six final tables, and won his sixth WSOP bracelet in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better event to become only the second World Series Main Event winner (after Greg Merson) to have also won the Player of the Year title.

Shaun Deeb

Deeb had a phenomenal year at the World Series of Poker in 2018, with two WSOP bracelet wins and 16 cashes in WSOP events, including a runner-up finish in the $10,000 Razz Championship. He also had several other high finishes that helped him secure the Player of the Year award. He has a total of four WSOP bracelets and over $9 million in live tournament earnings

2018 POY Winner Deeb Reflects on Summer of Success

WSOP Player of the Year Format

Over the years, the World Series of Poker points/scoring system of the award has changed on numerous occasions. From 2004-11 each WSOP event across the entire series was weighted equally, with no multipliers for the buy-in or the number of players who entered.

This changed in 2011 when the formula was changed to give weight to field size and buy-in, plus it began including WSOP Europe events in addition to WSOP events held in Las Vegas in its calculations for POY.

Additionally, each poker variation had its own set of points, with unique points criteria for shootouts, short-handed, and heads-up tournaments. The World Series POY calculations were initially managed by Bluff Magazine and later by the Global Poker Index.

In 2017, the WSOP went back in-house, creating a proprietary formula that appears to be based on ROI, which took into account the buy-in amount and the amount won. This created some controversy — during the 2017 World Series, former POY Daniel Negreanu tweeted that he was currently 12th in the standings, but would have been 2nd had the previous year's point system been used.

The following year, the formula was tweaked to alter the ratio of points awarded for a win versus the points awarded for a min-cash.

The Current WSOP POY Points System

In recent years, has been based on the points system used on the WSOP Circuit. Each year, the World Series of Poker hosts a calculator on its website to enable players to calculate the points players will receive based on the event's buy-in, the number of entries and wherever a player finishes.

Players who cash multiple times in events will earn points based on their positions in the final results, but will only earn POY points once for each event. Additionally, the POY points system traditionally excludes results from five events in Las Vegas which are:

• $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em
• $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em
• $1,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold’em
• $1,000 Super Seniors No-Limit Hold’em
• $1,000/$10,000 Ladies Event

These are excluded due to the nature of these events, with those eligible for these events able to gain an unfair advantage were they to avoid points. Therefore, the WSOP decided not to award points in these events.

WSOP Europe & WSOP APAC

The World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) made its debut in 2007 but was only included in the Player of the Year points system in 2011. The World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific (WSOP APAC) was also included in POY calculations in 2013 and 2014.

Since 2021, results from WSOP Europe bracelet events have not been used to decide the Player of the Year winner.

Memorable WSOP POY Races

Over the years, there have been several close races in the WSOP POY. PokerNews has picked out some of the best, closest or most memorable contests:

2009 WSOP - So Close for Ivey as Lisandro Triumphs

It was only the third time a player had won three bracelets in a year, but that still wasn't enough to mathematically secure the Player of the Year title for Jeff Lisandro. He cashed six times and also made four final tables in an astonishing performance in 2009, winning each of his bracelets in a different variant of seven-card stud: the $2,500 Razz, the $10,000 Seven Card Stud 8-or-Better Championship and $1,500 Seven Card Stud.

However, it still could have come down to a certain Phil Ivey who made it to the November Nine. They had recorded the same number of cashes — six — but even if Ivey won the Main Event, he would still have finished just 13 points shy of the title having won two bracelets himself that year.

2011 WSOP - Lamb Denies Hellmuth

In 2011, there was a closely watched Player of the Year race between Ben Lamb and Phil Hellmuth. Lamb had a phenomenal series, winning a gold bracelet and making two other final tables. Hellmuth also had a strong series, cashing in 12 events and making it to the final table on three occasions, including three runner-up finishes.

Hellmuth held the lead heading into the Main Event, with Lamb intent on a deep run to overtake the Poker Brat. Having narrowly missed out on a place in the World Series of Poker November Nine in 2009, Lamb made the 2011 WSOP Main Event final table and finished in third place. Good enough for a large chunk of the prize pool — $4,000,000 to be exact — and enough points to overtake Hellmuth in the process.

2012 WSOP - Hellmuth Denied Again!

In 2012, Phil Hellmuth was having another stellar year at the World Series. Not only did he break his WSOP bracelet record, but he became the first player to win both the WSOP and WSOP Europe Main Events. All of this meant that after all events at the WSOP Europe had wrapped up, he once again held the lead in the WSOP Player of the Year race.

But it all came down to the final event. The Main Event. And there was only one player who could catch him. Greg Merson.

Phil Hellmuth Blows Up AGAIN; Rails Against WSOP POY Rules

"He [Greg Merson] has to win!" said Hellmuth after his victory, regarding the WSOP POY scenario. "You know what, if he does it, just more power to him. I heard he's a fantastic player with a lot of talent. I think it's going to be a fun sweat."

Merson had locked up a seat at the 2012 November Nine, sitting third in chips, and had also won his first WSOP gold bracelet that year in the $10,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em Championship. And he would win the WSOP POY title as well if he could just win the Main Event.

Well, the rest is history. He won $8,531,853 in prize money for winning the 2012 WSOP Main Event, becoming the first player to win the WSOP Main Event and Player of the Year.

2019 WSOP - Negreanu Wins Third POY Title...or Does He?

It was meant to be third time's a charm for Daniel Negreanu, clinching the World Series Player of the Year title for the third time, after holding off Australian Robert Campbell and a Shaun Deeb intent on taking down the title again having won the previous year. Negreanu ended the WSOP atop the final standings, having recorded 24 cashes, five final tables and two runner-up finishes — and would have become the first player to win the WSOP POY title without winning a WSOP bracelet in the process.

However, his "victory" lasted just four days. A post on the TwoPlusTwo Forum by the name of "iskander" noticed an error, giving Negreanu extra points in an online event on WSOP.com. Removing these points not only meant that Negreanu was no longer the winner, it relegated him to third place behind Campbell and Deeb.

A World Series of Poker statement revealed that a "data entry error" was the cause of the mistake, with Campbell declared the winner. His two gold bracelets, 13 cashes in bracelet events and six final tables were enough to make him the first Australian crowned WSOP Player of the Year since Jeff Lisandro in 2009.

Top 10 Stories of 2019: The 2019 WSOP POY Debacle

WSOP Player of the Year Winners 2004-2022

WSOP Player of the Year FAQs