Canadian poker pro Daniel Negreanu has been bestowed the title of “Player of the Year” for the 2019 World Series of Poker (WSOP). The player, who is a member of the Poker Hall of Fame, was awarded the title in a recent tournament when Shaun Deeb was played out of the Colossus No-Limit Hold’em event at the 11th place during the WSOP Europe.
Negreanu has now triumphed as the World Series of Poker Player of the Year on three separate occasions. In 2004, he was the first person to win the prestigious honor, and then he did it again in 2013. After being voted Player of the Year in 2018, Shaun Deeb came close to capturing consecutive winning championships in 2019, but he was ultimately unsuccessful.
97 Poker Events Considered
All open bracelet poker tournaments that take place at the World Series of Poker are included in the race for WSOP Player of the Year. This encompasses competitions held at both the WSOP in Las Vegas and the WSOP in Europe. There were only two open tournaments that were not factored into the final standings; these were the WSOP Europe €250,000 ($278,500) Super High Roller event and the $1,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold’em tourney.
The 2019 Player of the Year award was determined based on performance in a total of 97 events in the competition. Players earn points based on their placement in any given tournament, and the points system scales the number of points awarded based not just on the number of players who participated in the event but also on the amount of money that was paid to enter the competition. The method was also modified during the course of the previous year in order to more effectively reward players who win poker tournaments or advance deep into the tournament.
A Performance That Is Victorious
Before the start of the Colossus, which was the last event of the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe, the Player of the Year award was still up for grabs. There were a total of four competitors in the race, with Negreanu finishing in first position with 3,971.54 points. Following Robert Campbell in second place with 3,857.97 points was Deeb, who had 3,710.64 points, and then Anthony Zinno, who had 3,270.33 points. Zinno was a past WPT Player of the Year.
Zinno finally came in 256th position and received 51.7 points, which was sadly not enough to compete with Negreanu’s total. Campbell finished in 149th place with a total of 103.3 points, which, once again, was not enough to beat the leading player from Canada. Negreanu finished in 195th position overall, which earned him 103.3 points, bringing his total up to 4,073.88 points. Deeb required 365 points to win Player of the Year. Although Deeb reached Day 3 of the tournament and was one of the final 11 players, he was ultimately the first player to leave the table.
As Negreanu prepared to compete in the World Series of Poker Europe, he was sitting in third place in the WSOP Player of the Year race, trailing both Deeb and Campbell. Because he had six different places in the money at the event before the Colossus, he was in first place. At the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, he also won an impressive 17 times and, despite the fact that he did not win any bracelets in these tournaments, he was able to make it to four final tables and finish in second place twice.