Phill Hellmuth has never won the POY despite being the WSOP’s all-time bracelet leader. Additionally, two of his best results have come in $10,000 championship events. What he does have, however, is five final table appearances and a trio of top-three finishes. He’s also failed to win a bracelet so far this year. Schwartz is leading the way, even though he’s won less money than Gerhart and Zinno. Indeed, the current POY standings further prove this point. They matter, of course, but they’re not the only variables that go into the WSOP’s formula. This shows that the Player of the Year race isn’t all about prize money and cashes. In 2013, he cashed 10 times, won two bracelets, and banked $2,214,304. In 2004, Negreanu cashed six times, won a bracelet, and banked $346,280. What’s interesting is that he’s cashed more times in this year’s WSOP than he did on the two occasions when he won POY. Moreover, he’s making an investment in his legacy: winning another bracelet would further cement his position as one of poker’s all-time greats.ĭaniel has a ton of cashes but he's still stuck something like $100k.

Negreanu has the bankroll to cope with swings of that magnitude, so his “poor” performance at this year’s WSOP won’t significantly hurt him.

Despite winning more than $263,000 so far this year, talk on Twitter suggests that he’s still down over $100,000. That puts him seventh in the current standings going into the WSOP Main Event. Daniel Negreanu has won the title twice and currently has 14 cashes at the 2021 WSOP. The table below shows the WSOP POY winners since 2004. Even with those factors in play, the current rankings and past results produce some interesting talking points.

In addition to the US travel ban keeping international players at bay until later this week, some players, including 2006 POY Jeff Madsen, sat out due to the WSOP’s COVID policies. The data, however, is undoubtedly skewed due to COVID-19. Based on our analysis, we found that eight previous winners have failed to finish in the money this year. We were intrigued, so we dug a little deeper into the record books. (Image: WSOP)Īri Engel recently tweeted that five former POY winners haven’t cashed at all in this year’s series. Reigning WSOP POY Robert Campbell, who earned the honor in 2019, won’t be defending his title this year.

Wsop winners by year