Daniel Negreanu wins 2019 WSOP Player of the Year
Daniel Negreanu wins 2019 WSOP Player of the Year, his third time winning the award

Daniel Negreanu has won the 2019 World Series of Poker Player of the Year award. Negreanu racked up 24 cashes across WSOP and WSOP Europe, earning 4,074.88 points to win the award for a record third time.

2019 WSOP Player of the Year Final Standings

  1. Daniel Negreanu – 4,074.88
  2. Robert Campbell – 3,961.31
  3. Shaun Deeb – 3,917.32
  4. Anthony Zinno – 3,322.00
  5. Phil Hui – 3,186.17
  6. Dan Zack – 3,126.13
  7. Dario Sammartino – 3,091.03
  8. Kahle Burns – 2,983.37
  9. Dash Dudley – 2,860.79
  10. David ‘ODB’ Baker – 2,808.51

The competition took until the very end of WSOP Europe, with Negreanu battling with Robert Campbell and Shaun Deeb for the honor. Negreanu had the lead, Campbell was second, and Deeb third in the race entering the final event, the WSOP Europe €550 Colossus, but bust outs from Negreanu and Campbell left an opening for Deeb to win. To secure his second WSOP Player of the Year title in as many years, Deeb needed to finish fifth or better in the event. Keeping all of those following along on the edge of their seats, Deeb reached Day 3 with 11 players left and the sweat was on.

Deeb came into Day 3 of the €550 Colossus with a stack of 32 big blinds, but he quickly lost a chunk of chips when Alessandro Pezzoli doubled through him. Pezzoli got the best of him for a second time, and then Deeb found all of his chips in the middle against Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier on the QcTc9sTd board. Deeb had the Jh9d to Grospellier’s Jd8d. The Ah completed the board and Deeb was out in 11th place, falling short of the gold bracelet and back-to-back WSOP Player of the Year glory.

That meant Campbell officially finished the 2019 WSOP season with 3,961.31 points in the race, which was 113.57 short of Negreanu and good for second place. Deeb finished on 3,917.32 and officially in third place.

The victory earned Negreanu his third WSOP Player of the Year award. He won the award in 2004 with one gold bracelet, five final tables, and six in-the-money finishes. In 2013, he was WSOP Player of the Year once again, on the foundation of two gold bracelets, four final tables, and 10 cashes. Although he did not win a bracelet in 2019, Negreanu reached five final tables among his 24 cashes, including two runner-up finishes.

Negreanu’s 2019 WSOP Results

Event Finish Prize POY Points
$10,000 NL Super Turbo Bounty 6th $52,099 379.7
$600 NL Deepstack 485th $1,257 57.9
$1,500 NL 2-7 Single Draw 29th $2,780 44.6
$600 PLO Deepstack 381st $875 51.9
$3,000 Six-Max NL 106th $4,514 54.7
$1,000 NL Double Stack 523rd $2,164 62.0
$600 WSOP.com NL Knockout Bounty 46th $1,652 190.4
$10,000 Seven Card Stud 2nd $151,700 488.3
$1,500 NL Super Turbo Bounty 155th $1,762 56.1
$1,500 PLO-8 152nd $2,330 52.6
$10,000 Razz 5th $69,223 379.1
$1,500 Limit Hold’em 20th $4,360 192.3
$1,000 WSOP.com NL Championship 36th $4,734 213.1
$3,200 WSOP.com NL High Roller 72nd $6,310 53.8
$1,500 PLO Bounty 42nd $3,553 210.8
$100,000 NL Super High Roller 2nd $1,725,838 630.2
$3,000 H.O.R.S.E. 36th $4,734 48.7
€550 PLO 59th €787 41.5
€25,500 Short Deck High Roller 16th €39,943 56.4
€25,500 NL Platinum High Roller 10th €48,929 217.7
€1,650 PLO/NL Mix 37th €2,392 44.6
€25,500 Mixed Games Championship 6th €54,287 352.9
€2,200 PLO 20th €4,127 92.2
€550 Colossus 195th €2,036 103.3

Negreanu’s run to a third WSOP Player of the Year title started way back at the end of May, when he reached the final table of the second event of the World Series of Poker. It was the $10,000 Super Turbo Bounty tournament and Negreanu placed sixth for $52,099. He then strung together a series of smaller cashes before hitting a big score in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud event. In that one, Negreanu finished second to John Hennigan and picked up $151,700.

Just more than a week later, Negreanu was back at a WSOP final table, taking fifth place in the $10,000 Razz tournament for $69,223. He later closed out the summer in Las Vegas with a runner-up finish to Keith Tilston in the $100,000 Super High Roller for $1,725,838.

At WSOP Europe, Negreanu battled some illness to rack up seven more WSOP cashes. His best was a sixth-place finish in the €25,500 Mixed Games Championship for €54,287. He cashed two other €25,500 events in Rozvadov as well, all helping him earn more than 4,000 WSOP POY points.

All told, Negreanu won more than $2.2 million in prize money from his 24 cashes, which breaks down to an average of nearly $92,000 per cash. He is the first WSOP Player of the Year to win the award without winning a WSOP gold bracelet that year.

WSOP Player of the Year History

Year Winner Bracelets FTs Cashes Winnings
2004 Daniel Negreanu 1 5 6 $346,280
2005 Allen Cunningham 1 4 5 $1,007,114
2006 Jeff Madsen 2 4 4 $1,467,852
2007 Tom Schneider 2 3 3 $416,829
2008 Erick Lindgren 1 3 5 $1,348,528
2009 Jeff Lisandro 3 4 6 $807,521
2010 Frank Kassela 2 3 6 $1,255,314
2011 Ben Lamb 1 4 5 $5,352,970
2012 Greg Merson 2 2 5 $9,785,354
2013 Daniel Negreanu 2 4 10 $1,954,054
2014 George Danzer 3 5 10 $878,933
2015 Mike Gorodinsky 1 3 8 $1,766,487
2016 Jason Mercier 2 4 11 $960,424
2017 Chris Ferguson 1 3 23 $428,423
2018 Shaun Deeb 2 4 20 $2,545,623
2019 Daniel Negreanu 0 5 24 $2,207,446