WSOP Player of the Year: How the Race Works and Who's Leading
The 2026 Player of the Year race is the first to run as a single year-long leaderboard across all three WSOP festivals. If you are following the series — or planning your own schedule around it — the WSOP player's guide covers the events themselves.
Current Standings
Standings as of the close of the Las Vegas series, August 5, 2026. Source: official WSOP Player of the Year leaderboard.
| # | Player | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Shaun Deeb | USA | 3,410 |
| 2 | Naoya Kihara | Japan | 3,388 |
| 3 | Alex Foxen | USA | 3,381 |
| 4 | Justin Liberto | USA | 2,827 |
| 5 | Josh Arieh | USA | 2,750 |
| 6 | Daniel Negreanu | Canada | 2,698 |
| 7 | Jesse Lonis | USA | 2,674 |
| 8 | Eelis Pärssinen | Finland | 2,638 |
| 9 | Michael Moncek | USA | 2,592 |
| 10 | Josh Reichard | USA | 2,575 |
Twenty-nine points separate the top three. For scale, that is smaller than the gap between a 30th-place finish and a 25th-place finish in a mid-sized field — which is to say any lead at the top of this leaderboard is vulnerable until the last scheduled event concludes.
How the Scoring Works
Best fifteen results count. A player's fifteen highest-scoring open bracelet finishes across the whole year make up their total. Everything beyond that is discarded. This caps the advantage of pure volume — playing eighty events does not beat playing thirty if the extra fifty produce nothing — while still rewarding a player who can find fifteen good results across a year.
Worth knowing how much room there is to find them: of the 15 bracelet events at WSOP Europe, 14 were open and therefore POY-eligible. Of the 100 in Las Vegas, 94 were. Paradise has yet to announce its schedule.
Field size drives available points. The larger the field, the more points are on the table. This is the change that generated the most argument in 2026, and the reasoning behind it is straightforward: winning a 2,600-entry tournament generally requires outlasting 2,599 opponents across three or more days, while winning a 200-entry tournament requires outlasting 199 across typically two days. Whether that difference should be worth as much as the current formula says it is worth remains a live question — one taken up in detail in our look at the field-size debate.
Finishing position applies a multiplier. The formula multiplies by finish: 6 for a win, 4 for a final-table finish, 2 for any other cash, and 1 for busting out. A win is therefore worth three times what the same player would score for a min-cash in the same event, and a final table twice as much. The curve is steep enough that final tabling and closing tournaments out matters considerably more than accumulating cashes. In these ways, the POY formula follows the normal tournament payout model that is generally top-heavy.
Some events don't count. Non-open events — seniors, ladies, and other restricted fields — are excluded, as are online bracelet events. Only open live bracelet events score.
What's at Stake
The title itself, and a $1 million prize pool split among the top 100 finishers. The top three each receive a $100,000 WSOP Paradise package.
The 2026 Calendar
| Stop | Dates | Venue | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| WSOP Europe | March 31 – April 12 | King's Casino / Hilton Prague, Czechia | Complete |
| WSOP Las Vegas | May 26 – August 5 | Horseshoe / Paris Las Vegas | Complete |
| WSOP Paradise | December 3 – 17 | Baha Mar, Nassau, Bahamas | Remaining |
Paradise is the only leg left, and it moves to a new home this year — Baha Mar in Nassau, after three editions at Atlantis. Its full schedule has not been released yet. This page will be updated with the event count and format mix once it is.
How the Race Has Gone
WSOP Europe (spring). Marius Kudzmanas led out of Prague on the strength of a single result — winning the €5,300 Main Event and its 2,617-entry field — ahead of Shaun Deeb, who had cashed six times and finished runner-up twice. That inversion is what started the format argument, covered in the field-size debate.
WSOP Las Vegas (summer). Alex Foxen led for most of the series before Shaun Deeb reclaimed the top spot on the final day, in the $25,000 HORSE High Roller — an event in which four of the top five contenders reached the final 16. A full recap of the leg.
WSOP Paradise (winter). Yet to play, December 3–17.
Past Winners
Two players have won this award twice: Daniel Negreanu, in 2004 and 2013, and Shaun Deeb, in 2018 and 2025. Nobody has won it three times — which is the specific thing at stake for the current leader over the next four months.
Chasing your own results this series? LiveHands lets you log your hands quickly at the table between deals and export them for easy review in PokerTracker 4, Holdem Manager 3, and Hand2Note. Try it free for 7 days.