Jake Schwartz Leads WSOP POY Going into Main Event

Most years, the Main Event of the World Series of Poker is the culmination of the series. It is the final – or one of the final – tournaments on the schedule with points that could affect the Player of the Year leaderboard. Of course, the WSOP Europe events can shake it up as well, but most players know where they stand as the Main Event brings the Las Vegas series to a close.

This year is, obviously, different in so many ways from years past. The 2021 WSOP Main Event is Event 67 out of 88 total events. Events with restricted fields like ones dedicated to casino employees, women, seniors, and tag teams are excluded. However, the 10 online events offered in October and November for players in Nevada and New Jersey do count. That puts the official total of qualifying events at 93.

Some of those tournaments that haven’t even started yet can have a significant impact on the POY race.

At this point, however, the only tournament running is the Main Event. It will not reach the money until next week. This is a rare time during the 2021 World Series, one that allows us to look at the POY leaderboard without daily fluctuations.

Current POY Standings

It is a fairly tight race. Not only are the top 10 players fairly close to each other, there are others in the top 25 with a lot of momentum and potential.

Another day, another big change in the #WSOP POY race! @golferjosh won his 4th bracelet (2nd of the 2021 series) and jumped into the 2nd place spot. @Jake11291 still holds the top spot while @KevinGerhart slips into 3rd.

Top 10 list found in the thread! pic.twitter.com/qKDrVz4V0b

— PokerNews (@PokerNews) November 6, 2021

Current NL VELO Standings

This is a new leaderboard this year, and it bears the name of one of the WSOP’s primary sponsors this year – Velo. This listing tracks only No Limit Hold’em bracelet events, both live at the Rio and online for Nevada and New Jersey players in October and November.

There are some crossovers from the Player of the Year to this NL leaderboard, but not all of them make both lists.

Other Interesting Stats

These contests are worth more than recognition, as each leaderboard offers $25K in cash prizes. The winner of the POY and NL Velo leaderboards will each win $15K, with second place winning $7,500 and third place taking home $2,500.

At this point in the 2021 WSOP, three players have each won two bracelets during this series: Anthony Zinno, Kevin Gerhart, and Josh Arieh.

As for the most cashes, Daniel Zack tops the list with 15 thus far, though Daniel Negreanu and Roland Israelashvili each show 14 cashes. Shaun Deeb and Jake Schwartz each have 13, and Ben Yu has 12.

Tournament earnings so far in this series track bracelet events only. Shaun Deeb tops that list with $1,341,353 on the books. Michael Addamo of Australia followed with $1,132,968, and Daniel Lazrus is next with $1,023,837.

Ladies Championship winner Lara Eisenberg is – so far – the only woman to win a bracelet this year. She tops the earnings list, too, with $118,094. However, JJ Liu registers the most cashes with ten so far, followed in a distance by Kindah Sakkal with 6.

Obviously, considering travel restrictions and general pandemic insanity, the United States is leading all of the WSOP categories:

USA = 56 bracelets

Taiwan = 2 bracelets

Canada = 2 bracelets

France = 2 bracelets

Israel = 2 bracelets

The US shows more than $85M in earnings. Canada is second in that category with $3.3M, followed by France with $2.9M and Israel with $2.4M. The UK shows $1.9M, Russia with $1.5M, and Australia with $1.3M. Those are the only countries weighing in with more than $1M.

By cashes, the USA is also far ahead with 11,668. Canada is second there as well with 528, followed in the distance by France with 225 and Israel with 204.