The World Series of Poker has come in for some criticism this week over its Player of the Year award, with not a single prize offered for what is considered by many a very prestigious title…
The award is given every year for the player who tops the points leaderboard across the WSOP in Vegas and the European version, the WSOPE, the overall title won last year by Shaun Deeb.
Previously there were reasonably attractive prizes on offer, Main Event seats at 10k apiece and at one point some shiny, new Toyota trucks…
Daniel Negreanu, the only two-time winner of PoY in 2004 and 2013, was the recipient of one such prize – but this year, as with the last few, the only prize seems to be a dubious one at best…
Bragging rights, of course, mean quite a bit in the poker world, but with one Australian, one Canadian and eight from the USA currently topping the 2019 race (see below) two weeks in the Kings Casino in Rozvadov might be a stretch too far without some incentive.
| 1 | Robert Campbell | 3,300.70 |
| 2 | Daniel Zack | 3,073.42 |
| 3 | Phillip Hui | 2,881.67 |
| 4 | Shaun Deeb | 2,813.43 |
| 5 | Daniel Negreanu | 2,746.27 |
| 6 | Jason Gooch | 2,643.72 |
| 7 | Anthony Zinno | 2,443.22 |
| 8 | Chris Ferguson | 2,417.92 |
| 9 | Jon Turner | 2,371.64 |
| 10 | Scott Clements | 2,368.02 |
Of course the WSOPE was invented partly to balance out the US-centric ‘World Championships’ of poker, and Shaun Deeb made the trip last year to book his Player of the Year title win.
This year? Who knows, but a WSOP incentive would go a long way to persuading the leaders to make the trip – 10 bracelet events in the Czech Republic counting towards the title.