Daniel Negreanu Wins WSOP Player of the Year for Record Third Time
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
- Daniel Negreanu – 4,074.88
- Robert Campbell – 3,961.31
- Shaun Deeb – 3,917.32
- Anthony Zinno – 3,322.00
- Phil Hui – 3,186.17
- Dan Zack – 3,126.13
- Dario Sammartino – 3,091.03
- Kahle Burns – 2,983.37
- Dash Dudley – 2,860.79
- David ‘ODB’ Baker – 2,808.51
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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 
board. Deeb had the 
to Grospellier’s 
. The 
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 |