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World Series of Poker Announces New POY Rules

Written by Jennifer Newell
Last updated on

As the World Series of Poker prepares to say the first of many “shuffle up and deal” commands for the summer, WSOP executives making announcements and putting out new information all over the place. This announcement is about the Player of the Year race. And the new rules couldn’t be simpler.

Player of the Year Qualifications

As published by the WSOP, there are three new rules for players who want to qualify for the Player of the Year leaderboard:

  1. A player must show at least five qualifying results.
  2. A player can only use their top 10 qualifying results for points.
  3. Only one online bracelet result can be used as a part of the qualifying results.

The reasons for the limitations are clear. The people who typically win or rank high on the POY leaderboard are ones who play massive schedules, both online and live. And to cash in events, they will often reenter as many times as allowed, as money is often not an issue.

For example, the 2023 WSOP POY was Ian Matakis, who earned his points through an online bracelet win, several deep runs in online events, and a couple of live final tables. At the same time, Josh Arieh won two live bracelets and finished fourth in the POY race.

Overall, the POY was skewed toward players with seemingly unlimited bankrolls and time. This year, the points will focus heavily on live events and calculate only the best cashes. A player still has to compete for more than just a weekend or two to accumulate at least five qualifying scores, but the overall system appears to be a bit fairer for everyone.

Nevada Players Only

Many of the same restrictions of years past still apply.

As in 2023, the only qualifying play is at the 2024 WSOP in Las Vegas from May 28 to July 17, and the only online series that qualifiers is the Nevada/New Jersey bracelet events. Since only one of those can qualify, players who want to compete for the Player of the Year award will still need to play in person at the Horseshoe and Paris in Vegas.

This also means that WSOP Europe and WSOP Bahamas bracelet events will not qualify. When the summer series ends, there will be a Player of the Year – end of story. Players from outside of North America must fade the taxes and expenses to travel to Vegas if they want to compete for POY.

Other exclusions are not surprising, as they have never qualified due to exclusivity in registration requirements: Casino Employees, Seniors and Super Seniors events, Ladies Championship, and Tag Team.

In addition, players reentering in multi-flight events can only use the final results to calculate points. Some events allow players to cash in each flight, but only one result per event will qualify.

Pages to Bookmark

There will be two pages to bookmark for players watching or competing in the Player of the Year race. The first is the POY leaderboard, which will be updated daily. The second is the payout calculator, which can be used to try to estimate points.

Note that the winner of the POY race will receive a seat to the 2025 WSOP Main Event (worth $10K), a trophy, and a POY banner with their name and face to be displayed in subsequent years in the Paris/Horseshoe WSOP tournament area.

Jennifer Newell

Jennifer Newell

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Jennifer Newell is a freelance writer at LegalUsPokerSites. She has two decades of experience in the iGaming industry. She is a respected poker media member, contributing to publications and websites like USA Today, PokerStars, and PokerScout. Her knowledge spans gambling legislation and the broader online gaming world. She has spent years advocating for diversity, most notably gender equity in the traditionally male-dominated poker sphere.

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