WSOP Player of the Year 2026: Standings, Points System and Full History

The WSOP Player of the Year is an annual consistency award. It goes to the player who accumulates the most points across eligible bracelet events throughout the World Series of Poker season.

The 2026 race marks the first time the award carries a $1,000,000 prize pool, with points counting across three festivals worldwide. The money has already changed the calculus: several players who typically skip festivals outside Vegas have committed to all three legs in 2026.

Defending champion two-time POY champion Shaun Deeb enters the Las Vegas leg in second place on 1,353 points. Marius Kudzmanas (Lithuania) leads on 1,392 after winning the WSOPE Prague Main Event. The race concludes at WSOP Paradise in December.

The table below reflects results from WSOP Europe Prague (Mar 31 to Apr 12) only. The Las Vegas leg adds 100 bracelet events. By our count, 94 are POY-eligible with six non-open events excluded.

Standings are updated weekly during the Las Vegas series and after each WSOP Paradise bracelet event.

For real-time updates, check the official WSOP Player of the Year leaderboard. For full results from the opening festival, see our coverage of the WSOP Europe Prague 2026 bracelet results. Bracelet winners during the Las Vegas leg are tracked on our daily WSOP 2026 results page.

VIP-Grinders has covered every WSOP since 2013. This page is updated weekly during the series with standings, analysis and context on new bracelet winners.

Last updated: 28 May 2026.

Eight of the current top 10 won bracelets in Prague. Deeb is the outlier: he sits second without one, having built his total from two runner-up finishes and consistent cashes across the festival. That pattern mirrors his 2025 campaign, where volume and deep runs outweighed headline wins.

The gap between first and second is just 39 points. With 94 bracelet events remaining in Las Vegas and WSOP Paradise still to come in December, these standings are a starting grid, not a finishing order.

A single bracelet win in a large-field event can generate over 1,000 points: Kudzmanas earned roughly 1,350 from his Main Event win alone. The 2026 WSOP Player of the Year winner will not be confirmed until WSOP Paradise concludes on 18 December.

The 2026 WSOP Player of the Year format is the most significant overhaul in the award’s 22-year history. Three changes define it: a global calendar, online exclusion, and a scoring cap.

Which Events Count: 3 Festivals, 94 Eligible in Vegas

Three festivals feed the 2026 leaderboard: WSOP Europe Prague (Mar 31 to Apr 12, 14 POY-eligible bracelets), WSOP Las Vegas (May 26 to Jul 15, 94 of 100 qualifying), and WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas (Dec 1 to 18).

Only open live bracelet events count. All online bracelet events on WSOP.com and GGPoker are excluded for the first time. Only a player’s top 15 scores count toward the final leaderboard, up from 10 in 2024 and 2025 and unlimited before that.

The following six non-open Vegas events are excluded from POY:

The 2026 Points Formula Explained

POY Points = C × ⁴·⁵√Buy-in × |ln(Rank Ratio)|¹·⁷

Where C = multiplier based on finishing position, Rank Ratio = final position ÷ total entries, and ln = natural logarithm.

The official formula graphic from WSOP.com:

The C multiplier is the biggest lever in the formula. It rewards winners six times more than players who bust without cashing:

Rank Ratio equals Final Rank divided by Total Entries. The 4.5th root dampens the buy-in effect significantly: a $10,000 event generates roughly 1.7 times the base points of a $1,000 event, not 10 times.

The natural log component rewards deep runs disproportionately. A win scores several times more than a final table, which scores several times more than a min-cash.

The exact ratios vary by field size. The WSOP’s interactive calculator at wsop.com lets players test specific scenarios.

Tiebreakers: How Equal Positions and Multi-Cash Events Are Scored

Players eliminated in the same round (5th through 8th in a heads-up bracket, for example) receive equal points. The points for those positions are averaged across the tied places.

Multi-cash events like The Closer award POY points once per player, based on final overall finishing position. No specific tiebreaker protocol exists for equal point totals, but the continuous-variable formula makes exact ties near-impossible in practice.

Before 2026, the Player of the Year winner received a trophy, a personalised banner hung in the rafters at Paris Las Vegas, and a $10,000 Main Event entry. The total package was worth roughly $10,000 plus the prestige. That changed when the WSOP announced a $1M global prize pool for 2026.

The top-100 payout structure creates a genuine financial incentive for mid-volume grinders. A player who finishes 50th still earns a $5,000 package. Even 100th place receives a $2,500 Circuit Championship ticket.

The prize money has changed behaviour at the tables. Lower buy-in events are drawing deeper fields as players chase every possible POY point, not just bracelet glory.

The Player of the Year leaderboard after Prague features familiar names alongside first-time contenders. The Las Vegas leg and WSOP Paradise will reshape these standings significantly.

Marius Kudzmanas (Lithuania) leads on 1,392 points after winning the WSOPE Main Event (2,617 entries, first prize of EUR 2,000,000). It was his third career bracelet after two online wins in 2023 and 2024.

He is the first Lithuanian to win the WSOPE Main Event. Whether he plays a full Vegas and Paradise schedule remains unclear.

Shaun Deeb (USA) sits second on 1,353 points. The defending two-time champion (2018, 2025) has eight bracelets and five consecutive top-six POY finishes from 2018 to 2023.

He reached two WSOPE Prague finals without winning either, losing both to opponent quads. He turned 40 in March 2026, making him eligible for the Poker Hall of Fame for the first time. He has committed to all three festivals.

POY isn’t about highlight reels.
Shaun Deeb, on X after the 2025 POY controversy

Deeb’s point was that consistency across a full schedule matters more than individual headline wins. His 2025 and 2026 campaigns both reflect that philosophy.

The other two-time champion is inaugural winner Daniel Negreanu (Canada, 2004 and 2013). He holds seven bracelets and has confirmed a 40-event schedule for Las Vegas. His mixed-game strength gives him entries in disciplines that most NLH specialists skip.

Benny Glaser (UK) sits 17th on 781 points after WSOPE Prague. He holds eight bracelets, three of them won during the 2025 summer. He is the most decorated European player in WSOP history and a mixed-game specialist whose range of disciplines suits the top-15 scoring format.

All-time bracelet leader Phil Hellmuth is not in the current standings after withdrawing from WSOPE 2026 for personal reasons. He has finished runner-up in the POY race four times (2006, 2011, 2012, 2021) without ever winning. He could enter the race during the Las Vegas leg.

Dark Horses From Prague

Several WSOPE Prague standouts enter Vegas with realistic shots at a top-15 finish if they play full summer schedules:

Three episodes reshaped how the WSOP calculates and administers the Player of the Year race. Each one led directly to formula changes.

The 2017 Chris Ferguson Controversy

Ferguson won POY six years after the Full Tilt Poker scandal. The DOJ filed a civil complaint in 2011 alleging Full Tilt operated as a Ponzi scheme that paid out $444M of customer funds to its directors.

Ferguson was never criminally charged. His case was dismissed on 19 February 2013 via a settlement forfeiting $2,350,000 with no admission of wrongdoing.

He recorded 23 cashes across the WSOP and WSOPE, won one bracelet, and earned $496,343. He ranked 279th on the money list but finished first in POY under the new ROI-style formula.

The community reaction was fierce, and the WSOP did not strip the title. Ferguson issued a brief video apology in May 2018.

Hellmuth’s Four Runner-Up Finishes

Phil Hellmuth has 17 bracelets but has never won POY. He has finished second four times, each under different circumstances.

In 2006, he was briefly declared the winner before the WSOP ruled that post-Main-Event tournaments did not count, handing the title to Jeff Madsen. In 2011, Ben Lamb’s third-place Main Event finish overtook him.

In 2012, Greg Merson’s Main Event win put him ahead after WSOPE. In 2021, Josh Arieh’s two PLO bracelets edged him out.

Hellmuth publicly criticised the POY format after the 2025 result, arguing that Mizrachi’s Main Event and PPC double should have earned the title over Deeb’s volume-based campaign.

The 2019 Scoring Error

Daniel Negreanu was declared the 2019 POY winner after WSOPE Rozvadov and posted a celebratory vlog. Four days later, a data-entry error in Online Event #68 was discovered. Negreanu had been credited with points for a cash that belonged to another player.

After correction, Robert Campbell was declared the rightful winner. Deeb finished third and later said that under the correct numbers, he would have won had he adjusted his strategy in the closing Colossus event. The episode led directly to tighter scoring oversight and, eventually, the cap-based system introduced in 2024.

The award has been given every year since 2004 except 2020, when the live WSOP was cancelled due to COVID-19. In 22 editions, only two players have won it twice.

The scoring formula has changed more than ten times. Greg Merson (2012) remains the only player to win both the Main Event and POY in the same summer.

All earnings figures below reflect POY-eligible events only and are sourced from the official WSOP historical table and verified tournament results on Hendon Mob.

No other poker award has been recalculated as often. The POY formula has passed through five different administrators since 2004, with each era bringing fundamental changes to how points are calculated.

The WSOP Player of the Year formula has changed more than ten times in 22 years. The 2026 system is the most significant structural overhaul since the award’s creation.

For profiles of past POY winners and other leading tournament players, see our poker player profiles.

For the full WSOP 2026 schedule, bracelet records and daily results coverage, see our full WSOP reference section.