With November coming to a close and December soon following, it’s time to check out who is in contention for the Global Poker Index Player of the Year honors. With so many great players sitting on top of the leaderboards, once again, it’s going to come down to the wire.
Lonis holds lead
Jesse Lonis is in pole position to win his first GPI Player of the Year with 4,374.38 points, but he has some bona fide bangers breathing down his neck. David Coleman sits just behind Lonis with 4,320.50, Adrian Mateos is next with 4,312.44, Michael “Sir Watts” Watson with 3,974.97, and Punnat Punsri rounds out the top five with 3,920.74.
Lonis got here by cashing 48 times in 2024, including four victories, including an online World Series of Poker Circuit ring in a $320 buy-in event. The other three wins came in high roller events, most recently this month in the $53,000 buy-in event at Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Monte Carlo that was good for $1.5 million, which was his second-best tournament cash.
Coleman and his 43 cashes in 2024 are pushing Lonis. A tournament player who has been at it since 2015, all of Coleman’s wins (according to the Hendon Mob, which runs the GPI) came in 2024. Four of those were won at PokerGO high roller events. He also scooped his biggest lifetime cash in the $25,000 event at The Wynn Summer Classic, which was good for $730,300.
Just behind Coleman is Mateos, who has 32 cashes on the year. The $51 million dollar man won two nose bleed events this year, both spread by the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series: A $53,000 buy-in event in May was worth $1,761,000, and a $31,800 event in March was worth $1,175,000.
Don’t bet against Foxen
Kristen Foxen, who was just voted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame, leads the ladies in their Player of the Year race with 2,969.35 points. It’s really deja vu all over again, as Foxen is trying to win POY for a fifth time. If she holds off Cherish Andrews, she will have won it in consecutive years for the third time, as she is the reigning POY. She also took the trophy home in 2017, 2018, and 2019.
Andrews is going for her second GPI Player of the Year after wining it for her play in 2022. She has 2,875.86 points.
Behind them are Victoria Licschitz (2,506.25), Rania Nasreddine (2,407.43), and Angela Jordison (2,109.64), who came in second in 2022.
Mid-major prize
Cherish Andrews is also in the running to take home the prize in the mid-majors category, which only count tourneys with buy-ins of $2,500 or less. But again, she sits in second on the list with a month to go, 376.2 points behind Han Feng, who has 3,014.45.
Steve Yea (2,597.25), Luis Yepez (2,503.89), and Hugo Girard (2,459.32) are also in the hunt.
With dozens of tourneys still on the 2024 schedule, there is still plenty of opportunities for the contending players to rack-up points and go for the year-end honors.
