Mike Watson is having quite the 2024. After nearly two decades as a top tournament player on the poker scene, he finally earned his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet. With that victory, the 40-year-old Canadian became just the tenth player in the history of the game to have completed ’Poker’s Triple Crown’ in his career, with triumphs in World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour main events to go with his long awaited bracelet.
Watson has made 15 final tables so far this year, coming away with four live titles and his bracelet win in the WSOP Online $1,000 no-limit hold’em six-max championship. His latest win came in the 2024 PokerStars European Poker Tour Barcelona €10,300 buy-in no-limit hold’em high roller that concluded in the final days of that massive series. Watson outlasted a field of 431 entries to earn $660,478 and 1,800 Card Player Player of the Year points.
This score brought Watson’s POY point total to 7,564, which is currently good for third place on this year’s POY leaderboard presented by Global Poker. His POY earnings for 2024 now exceed $7.4 million.
Watson’s career tournament earnings have grown to $30,162,947, which is good for fifth place on the Canadian all-time money list.
The top 63 finishers earned a share of the $4.6 million prize pool in this event, with big names like 10-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel (20th), 2024 WSOP main event fifth-place finisher Boris Angelov (11th), two-time bracelet winner Jesse Lonis (8th), and bracelet winner Enrico Camosci (2nd) all running deep.
Lonis now sits just one spot below Watson in the POY standings. This was his 18th final table of 2024, with two titles won and 7,280 points accrued along the way.
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Michael Watson | $660,478 | 1800 |
| 2 | Enrico Camosci | $814,934 | 1500 |
| 3 | Rodrigo Araujo | $405,206 | 1200 |
| 4 | Jon Kyte | $311,633 | 900 |
| 5 | Markkos Ladev | $239,705 | 750 |
| 6 | Malcolm Franchi | $184,427 | 600 |
| 7 | Joshua Hopkins | $141,858 | 450 |
| 8 | Jesse Lonis | $116,328 | 300 |
| 9 | Enrico Coppola | $96,959 | 150 |
Photo credit: Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd. / Manuel Kovsca.