The Race for WSOP Player of Year Begins In Earnest
There is a small group of players who have a chance at winning WSOP Player of the Year each year. In this edition of The Overlay, we look at historical data, the contenders, and give our pick to win.
While the 2025 World Series of Poker officially began on Tuesday, the race for WSOP Player of the Year really doesn’t begin until POY points-eligible events began wrapping up. With the $1,000 Mystery Millions already having reached the money and a few other early events set to award bracelets this weekend, the race has begun and the first set of contenders will begin to emerge.
Changes to the POY scoring system were made prior to the 2024 WSOP that require players to have a minimum of five cashes and only counts the ten best results of the year. This was done to prevent a player from putting in a high volume and padding their points total with min-cashes.
The most famous and egregious example of this exploit is Chris Ferguson, who won the 2017 WSOP POY title with one bracelet and 23 cashes. He was spotted taking advantage of long lines to have seats assigned in the Colossus, going as far as getting out of line when nearing the front and moving to the back, which meant more players were busting while he was waiting to register. He finished 449th in that event.
One of the players who wasn’t thrilled with the change was 2018 WSOP POY Shaun Deeb. In a PokerNews article posted earlier this week, Deeb said he felt like he was being targeted with the rule change.
"Implementing that rule to punish people like me who put in volume and multi-table, which is kind of silly for all those involved. But I was in the minority and I lost that argument, and that's kind of why they have that 10 cash scoring system," Deeb said.
Where Consistency is Rare, Shaun Deeb Dominates
Unfortunately, the WSOP hasn’t done a great job of keeping track of historical WSOP POY races and the recent update to WSOP.com has, probably temporarily, removed the results of all previous races. Prior to the change, only the top 100 finishers for 2015 - 2024 (with no POY awarded in 2020 due to COVID) listed on the site. There is some interesting data that shows just how difficult it is to contend for POY - no matter what the scoring system.
In the nine years that WSOP had (has?) data for, only one player managed to finish in the top 100 each of those nine years: Shaun Deeb. In that span he won once (2018), was runner-up twice (2019, 2023), and finished in third place twice (2015, 2022). Interestingly, he finished 15th in 2024 following the rule changes meant to prevent players from padding their point totals with min-cashes.
The next best performer in this category is Daniel Negreanu, the only player to win WSOP POY twice (2004, 2013). Between 2015 and 2024, ‘Kid Poker’ finished in the top 100 eight times, missing out only in 2018. In that span, his best finish was a pair of third place finishes in 2019 and 2021. He was originally announced as the 2019 winner, only to have a scoring error noticed after the fact that had awarded him points for one event twice. Eventually, Robert Campbell was awarded the title.
No other player has managed more than six top 100 finishes and there are seven players who are tied for third with six top 100 finishes: Ben Yu, Brian Hastings, Chance Kornuth, John Racener, Justin Liberto, Phil Hellmuth, and Yuri Dzivielevski. Interestingly, despite being amongst the most consistent players during this period, none of them have ever won WSOP POY, but Hastings (2015) and Hellmuth (2021) each finished second.
While Deeb and Negreanu have been models of consistency throughout this stretch, the rest of the pack struggles with producing good results year after year. Of the 546 unique players who cracked the top 100 over the 2015-2024 span, only five of them have managed to do so in each of the last five years: Deeb, Negreanu, Kornuth, Liberto, and Dzivielevski. Only two more have managed to do it in each of the last four years (Brian Rast, Jeremy Ausmus) and just five more have a three-year streak going (Scott Bohlman, Alex LIvingston, Adam Hendrix, Jesse Lonis, and Sean Troha).
POY Contention Remains Elusive for Female Players
In that time frame, just three women have managed to crack the top 100. Kristen Foxen has done it twice. In 2019, she finished 91st and and in 2017 she wound up in 27th place - the best POY finish for a woman in that span. Leo Margets was 66th in 2021 and Natasha Mercier (nee Barbour) was 64th in 2016.
While winning a bracelet isn’t necessarily required to win POY, each of the nine have won at least one on their way to the POY crown and the bracelet they do win, might just play a role in that ascension. Seven of the nine winners from 2015 to 2024 each won at least one Championship event - a $10,000 or higher buy-in event with a “Championship” designation on the official schedule. Only Ferguson and 2023 WSOP POY Ian Matakis failed to do so. And Matakis is the only POY to have won a bracelet in that time frame in No Limit Hold’em.
According to w50p.com, just 30 women have won a WSOP bracelet outside of the Ladies Championship events in the 55-year history of the Series. Only Annette Obrestad’s win in the 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event and Liv Boeree’s win in the $10,000 Tag Team No Limit Hold’em Championship carry the Championship designation. Loni Hui (nee Harwood) won the $10,000 WSOP National Championship in 2015 which isn’t considered a WSOP Championship event and would not have earned her POY points due to it not being an open event. Also, only eight of the 37 bracelets won by women were in games other than No Limit Hold’em or Pot Limit Hold’em variations. The most recent being Carol Fuchs’ win in the $1,500 Dealers Choice event in 2015.
Poker Media Can’t Reach a Consensus 2025 Pick
At this time of year, nearly every poker media outlet makes predictions on various WSOP events including Player of the Year. The folks at PokerNews, Poker.org, and the official broadcast partner, PokerGO all had some of their top folks chime in. There was seemingly no consensus amongst the group but plenty of familiar faces:
Tim Duckworth (PokerGO): Shaun Deeb
Calum Grant (PokerNews): Michael Rocco
Matt Hansen (Poker.org): Yuri Dzivielevski
Chad Holloway (PokerNews): Scott Seiver
Donnie Peters (PokerGO) Jeremy Ausmus
Matthew Pitt (PokerNews): Daniel Negreanu
Peter Robinson (PokerNews): Jesse Lonis
Jon Sofen (PokerNews): Nick Schulman
Milko van Winden (PokerNews): Scott Seiver
As for my pick, I’m going with one of the players mentioned in the ‘Six Most Intriguing Players at the 2025 WSOP’ in Bryce Yockey. He won his second WSOP bracelet last summer in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event after snagging his first back in 2017 and has made a pair of deep runs in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship. He previously finished 13th (2024), 17th (2017), and 32nd (2019) in the POY race. Given his ability to play every game on the schedule at a high level, Yockey is my choice to win POY in 2025.
Low Roller Podcast talks WSOP
Check out my appearance on the Low Roller Podcast where I talked with co-hosts Eric Raskin and Jeff Edelstein about some of the expectations for the 2025 WSOP and what might just be required to give poker another pop culture push.
Win this High Stakes Poker Hat
We’re giving away this amazing High Stakes Poker hat and all you have to do to win it is get your poker-loving friends to subscribe to The Overlay. Click the red button below and share The Overlay with your friends via direct link, email, Twitter, or any of the other methods there. Each person who subscribes through you gets you one entry into a draw. Contest closes on Sunday, June 1 at Noon ET when one winner will be drawn. Good luck!