The World Series of Poker has already awarded 56 WSOP bracelets so far this summer. With just 43 events to conclude, the race is on to become the 2024 Player of the Year, where the winner will receive a “unique trophy”, entry into next year’s 2025 WSOP Main Event and – most importantly of all – their flag up on the wall of either the Horseshoe or Paris casinos.

Who will become this year’s winner? Over the next three weeks, we’re going to find out.

How the Top Ten Currently Looks

This year, possibly in response to previous years where champions such as Chris Ferguson ‘gamed’ the system, the WSOP have switched things up. No more the 20-25 smaller scores in a bid to min-cash your way to glory. Only your best 10 live WSOP Cashes and your best single online WSOP tournament cash count towards your overall total. It’s a change that will come into play later in the series as some players surpass that number and see their smallest score replaced by a bigger one from later successes.

Currently leading the way is Scott Seiver, who has 2,736 points, including wins in both Event #10, the $10,000 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship, and Event #40, the $1,500 Limit Razz event. With another eight cashes, Seiver already has the ’10 and 1’ live and online scores to build a top score. Determined to win the Player of the Year race, Seiver admits that he is “desperate” to take the title.

Behind Seiver, Chris ‘Big Huni’ Hunichen’s win in Event #47, the $100,000 WSOP High roller for over $2.8m was followed by his third-place finish just last night in the $250,000 WSOP Super High Roller Event #55. Cashing for over $5 million, Big Huni is going to be a massive threat.

Here are how the current top 10 look with around 40% of this year’s WSOP to play.

Who is Favorite to Win the WSOP Player of the Year?

With Seiver clearly determined to win, who could stop him from the immediate chasing pack? The remainder of the top five players, for a start. Jeremy Ausmus has been Mr. Consistent yet again at the WSOP and has every chance of surpassing the two players above him if he gets on a decent run.

Behind him, John Racener was the player who ran Chris Ferguson closest in the controversial ‘multi-cash’ year of 2017, so he has proven his chops at posting result after result. Of course, in 2024, that will only mean 10 results count, but Racener’s longevity suggests that if the title is up for grabs with a few events to play, he knows how to grind out some deep runs more than most.

Then there is Phil Ivey. The enigma of poker has won his 11^th WSOP bracelet in 2024 and looks poised to play more events as the series marches towards its climax. Will Ivey still have the appetite for posting another deep run during week seven of the marathon WSOP schedule? That is perhaps the only question mark next to the name of the poker ‘GOAT’.

Which Recent Previous Winners Are in Contention?

The WSOP Player of the Year has a fascinating history. Incredibly, in the past 20 years of competition, no-one has ever won more than one Player of the Year title. In the past decade alone, retaining the WSOP POY award has been a hard-fought dream of every winner. It has proven impossible to achieve.

Here are the recent previous winners of the WSOP Player of the Year.

As you can see from the list above, in six of the ten years, there have been more than 10 cashes attributed to the winner, something that this year would not be feasible. The amounts of money have varied wildly – no winners in the past decade have cashed for half of Chris Hunichen’s 2024 winnings, for example – as have the number of bracelets being won. In three of those years, a single bracelet has been enough, for example. In 2024, this almost certainly will not be the case.

From the players outside the current top five, Shaun Deeb (6^th) has the best shot. The 2018 WSOP Player of the Year has reached plenty of final tables so far but has been unable to convert them into even podium place results, let alone outright victories. He and Josh Arieh will doubtless threaten the top places of this year’s race if either of them win their seventh WSOP bracelet – especially if it is in the Poker Players Championship – but they need to start winning soon to have any chance.

With outside bets such as Brazilian online poker legend Yuri Dzivielevski (1,983 points), PokerStake player David Prociak (1,952) mixed game specialist Robert Mizrachi (1,903), Swedish star Viktor Blom (1,800), Daniel Sepiol (1,803) and the recent five-time WSOP winner Nick Schulman (1,890) all still possibilities, the 2024 WSOP Player of the Year race is going to the wire.

Who’s our money on? Don’t forget that you can still put your money where you mouth is and more importantly where your chose poker heroes’ skills are by heading to our WSOP portal and investing in your chosen poker pick to win YOU money this summer.

With thanks to PokerGO for their official WSOP photography. The 2024 World Series of Poker is available to watch exclusively on PokerGO. Subscribe today and watch all the drama play out in Las Vegas!