Back in May, we said that the two major Player of the Year races could be completely upended by the time the World Champion was crowned. To help prove this point, it was Ali Imsirovic who was riding high on both lists as the World Series of Poker began its festivities. All it took was a little bit of an underwhelming performance by Imsirovic in Las Vegas to allow fresh players to surge to the top and, as we begin the second half of the tournament poker schedule, those players will be the ones with the target on their backs.
Stephen Chidwick Tops Imsirovic on CardPlayer POY
It is not like Imsirovic went way down the standings, at least on the CardPlayer Magazine Player of the Year rankings. Over the eight weeks that the WSOP was in action, the defending Player of the Year was able to score a few cashes. The problem is that only one of them, his fourth-place finish at the WSOP $100,000 No Limit Hold’em Bounty Tournament, added any points to his total.
While Imsirovic was spinning his wheels in Las Vegas, Stephen Chidwick thrived on the tournaments. In June and July, the Brit was in the mix up and down the strip. Chidwick picked up some points in the $10,000 Short Deck Championship, but he really enjoyed hitting the Summer Aria High Roller Series. For ten days in July, Chidwick cashed in six events, racking up three wins in those events.
Those finishes are what has allowed Chidwick to surge past Imsirovic for the overall lead in the CardPlayer POY. It also has allowed the remainder of the Top Ten to draw closer to the top of the standings. Roughly 1300 points separate first from tenth place, just a solid final table finish or victory away from completely changing the positions.
1. Stephen Chidwick, 4901 points
2. Ali Imsirovic, 4683
3. Farid Jattin, 4527
4. Jake Schindler, 4322
5. Jeremy Ausmus, 4117
6. Joao Simao, 4014
7. Alex Foxen, 3911
8. Sean Winter, 3658
9. Chance Kornuth, 3636
10. Michael Duek, 3600
Imsirovic Takes Deep Drop on GPI POY as Ausmus, Kornuth Rise Up
Imsirovic’s fall is much more precipitous on the Global Poker Index Player of the Year rankings. This is because Imsirovic had all his points-ranking finishes in the start of the year (the GPI POY only takes the top 13 finishes for each player through their calculating system). Of the three finishes that Imsirovic accumulated during the WSOP, only one of them – that Bounty tournament – actually replaced one of his past finishes.
So, who was able to take advantage of replacing some of their past points? Ausmus was the big mover, with two WSOP events contributing new entries to his 13-event roster. Ausmus’ win in the Six Handed Limit Event was the big contributor, bringing him 344.89 points and replacing a lesser finish.
Kornuth also was able to make his move during the WSOP. Seven of his eleven finishes at the WSOP went on his overall total, making it a huge leap up the boards for Kornuth. For the overall lead, however, Ausmus was able to hold off Kornuth to sit on top of the GPI POY.
1. Jeremy Ausmus, 3277.16 points
2. Chance Kornuth, 3167.62
3. Farid Jattin, 3116.40
4. Stephen Chidwick, 3115.88
5. Adam Hendrix, 3088.74
6. Michael Watson, 3072.43
7. Ali Imsirovic, 3068.39
8. Alex Foxen, 2996.17
9. Sean Winter, 2931.44
10. Chris Brewer, 2905.01
For the record, poker’s new World Champion Espen Jorstad used his victory to move up to #17 on the CardPlayer table with 3300 points. To show the massive difference between the CardPlayer and GPI systems, Jorstad comes in at #385 on the GPI countdown with 1488.18 points and does not even have the 2022 lead for Norway (that goes to Jon Kyte and his 1641.78 points).
There is a bit of a rest for the players before the second half of the 2022 tournament poker season kicks into gear. Of course, the World Poker Tour has already gotten back into the swing of things with their WPT Venetian Las Vegas tournament at the close of the WSOP, but they will also have six more tournaments through the end of the year. The European Poker Tour’s also stepping up their schedule, with three events on their roster. While many may think the season is over after the WSOP, in reality it is only getting started.
