Adrian Mateos Wins 2024 Card Player Player of the Year Race

For the second time in the previous decade, Adrian Mateos completed atop the remaining rankings in the annual Card Player Player of the Year race introduced by Global Poker. Eight years after incomes his first POY award in 2017, the 30-year-old Spanish poker professional strung collectively 21 remaining desk finishes, incomes three titles and cashing for greater than $11 million in POY earnings on his option to securing the 2024 POY honors.

With this win, Mateos turned simply the third participant to have earned the award a number of occasions in the post-Moneymaker period, becoming a member of the likes of Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu (2004, 2013) and Stephen Chidwick (2019, 2022).

“To become a multi-time Player of the Year award winner means a lot to me because I think, in poker, consistency is one of the most important skills and the key to success. I’m very proud of being able to win in multiple years,” Mateos instructed Card Player after sealing the deal.

Mateos has been a prime participant on the circuit since earlier than he was allowed to play in most American casinos, having earned his first large reside victory by taking down the 2013 World Series of Poker Europe foremost occasion at the age of 19.

Over the previous decade, Mateos has not failed to complete inside the prime 200 in the year-end POY standings. Six of the previous ten years he has ended up inside the prime 20, with two outright wins alongside the method. While this was his largest 12 months but, in phrases of earnings, Mateos didn’t attribute that uptick in prize cash to any specific enchancment in his recreation.

“I didn’t do something too particular this 12 months. I feel I’m at a extremely excessive stage proper now, however I already reached this stage by working very arduous for greater than 12 years. Compound curiosity works like this. When you do the proper factor for a few years, at one level every little thing aligns… luck and preparation meet and also you get a extremely good end result. This 12 months has been luckier than different years and that made me one of the largest winners of the 12 months.“

Mateos is a four-time WSOP bracelet winner, a European Poker Tour foremost occasion champion, and two-time Triton Poker victor. While his trophy case retains increasing, Mateos shouldn’t be fixated on capturing a specific piece of {hardware}.

“My goal in poker has been always the same, which is to be a better player every day. That’s my main goal. I try to work every day towards improving in every aspect of my game technically and also improving in live poker as well. That’s the main goal. But also I want to have really good results. I already have many of the most important trophies in the world, but I want to keep winning more and more.”

With $54.5 million in complete profession earnings, Mateos is now ranked seventh on poker’s all-time cash listing. He trails present chief Bryn Kenney ($74.1 million) by simply over $19.5 million however hopes someday to beat that deficit and declare the prime spot.

“One of my biggest goals, which I know will be pretty difficult to achieve, but I will try, is to be number one on the all-time money list. I need many more years of working really hard, but I will be there. Let’s see what happens.”

At 30, Mateos is the youngest participant inside the prime 10 on the event earnings leaderboard. His place on that prestigious listing was bolstered by his enormous eight-figure 12 months on the circuit in 2024. Without additional ado, here’s a nearer take a look at Mateo’s POY-winning run over the previous 12 months.

How Mateos Captured His Second Card Player POY Title

Mateos didn’t report a single reside money throughout the month of January final 12 months. He made up for misplaced time with a trio of final-table finishes in excessive curler occasions at EPT Paris, recording a sixth-place end in the €10,200 thriller bounty adopted by a pair of runner-up showings in €25,000 buy-in tournaments. All instructed, he accrued $511,920 and 830 POY factors throughout these scores.

His first outright win of the 12 months got here at the Triton Jeju competition. He beat out a discipline of 185 entries in the $30,000 eight-max occasion to earn $1,175,000 and 1,176 factors. This was his first-ever Triton title. He managed yet another money at that collection, putting third in a $40,000 thriller bounty occasion for one more $381,000 and 784 factors.

Mateos’ greatest month of the 12 months was undoubtedly May. While he managed one final-table end at EPT Monte Carlo (sixth place in a €25,000 for $63,504 and 112 factors), the actual heavy lifting was completed at Triton Montenegro. Mateos shared with Card Player that this fortnight was his favourite stretch of the 12 months.

“I ran insanely good, making four final tables, winning one title, and earning the biggest cash of my career,” he famous. “Also, I performed some money video games and had good leads to these, too. It was a loopy two weeks and proper after that, I went to play on-line and had my two largest on-line scores in the similar week. So, it was like tremendous loopy three weeks for me, one of the craziest [runs] of my profession.”

His first rating at the collection was a comparatively tame sixth-place end in a $25,000 buy-in for $209,500 and 364 factors. Four days later he completed in the similar spot in a $50,000 buy-in bounty occasion, including one other $245,000 and 374 factors. His remaining two scores had been the actual highlights, although.

One day faraway from the $50,000 bounty remaining desk, Mateos got here out on prime of a discipline of 159 entries in one other $50,000 buy-in, incomes his second Triton trophy together with $1,761,000 and 1,224 factors. He quickly hopped into the $200,000 eight-max foremost occasion, drew 93 entries to create a $18.6 million prize pool. He navigated his option to heads-up play, finally ending second for $3,292,000 and 900 factors. This narrowly edged out the $3,265,362 he earned as the 2021 WSOP $250,000 buy-in occasion champion to turn out to be his new highest payday.

Mateos managed two final-table finishes at the WSOP in Las Vegas. His first deep run got here in a $50,000 buy-in eight-max occasion, by which he positioned fourth for $681,554 and 663 factors. During the remaining days of the collection he positioned fifth in the $10,000 buy-in six-max occasion for one more $198,261 and 875 factors.

When requested if any shut calls stood out for him in 2024, Mateos pinpointed his tenth-place end in the $250,000 buy-in at the collection. “It was like $5 million for first and I was chip-leading with 12 left and busted in 10th place. So that was hard, a little bit, but made less hard because I just came from the best moment of my career one month earlier.”

While the WSOP was working, Mateos did handle one different remaining desk end in Las Vegas, putting second in a $10,500 excessive curler at ARIA for $85,000 and 200 factors.

The subsequent prime on Mateos’ world high-stakes itinerary was in Cyprus, which hosted this 12 months’s Super High Roller Bowl collection. He made 4 remaining desk finishes throughout the 10-event competition, putting fourth or larger throughout that choice of outcomes. He kicked issues off with a runner-up end in a $25,750 buy-in ($231,000 and 350 factors), then positioned third the following day ($262,000 and 272 factors). He then recorded two final-table outcomes on the similar day, ending fourth in the $100,000 buy-in for $420,000 and 240 factors earlier than taking down the $25,750 thriller bounty for $162,000 and 420 factors.

His run in Cyprus added 1,282 factors and $1,075,000 in POY earnings to his haul. With that, he entered the fall months in pole place in the factors race.

The remaining third of the 12 months noticed Mateos add solely 4 extra POY-qualified cashes. Three of these got here at the EPT Cyprus collection in October. He completed third in a $25,000 buy-in for $198,400 and 280 factors. Just a few days later, he led to the similar spot in the $50,000 buy-in for $555,758 and 340 factors. His penultimate final-table end of 2024 noticed him place second in one other $25,000 buy-in, cashing for $258,100 and 350 factors.

Mateos instructed Card Player that almost all of his reside poker journeys in 2024 had been worthwhile, with the marked exception of the Triton Monte Carlo collection in direction of the finish of the 12 months. He managed simply two cashes, together with one final-table end. His fourth-place exhibiting in the $30,000 turbo bounty occasion earned him $313,000 and 420 factors to deliver his remaining complete to 10,174 factors.

The remaining taking part in vacation spot of 2024 for Mateos was the WSOP Paradise in The Bahamas. He cashed in three occasions, along with his deepest run being an Eleventh-place end in the $500,000 buy-in Triton Million Invitational. From there, he headed off to spend time along with his household over the holidays and relaxation forward of his subsequent marketing campaign.

“The year was tiring for sure, but I’m used to it. This year wasn’t too different from the previous 12 years of my poker career. I have been always on the road, traveling a lot and playing a lot of hours. And this year the results were much, much better… It was the best year of my poker career by far,” stated Mateos.

“I just want to keep playing and keep winning. Being tired has never been something that would stop me. So until I lose the motivation, I will keep playing a lot of hours. My goal is to be one of the best poker players in the world and that requires a lot of work, and I’m ready to put in all the effort.”

Check out our in-depth take a look at the gamers who completed inside the prime ten in the 2024 POY race remaining standings, damaged into the Tenth-Sixth place finishers and the Fifth-2nd ranked contenders.

Mateos’ Top Ten Scores of 2024:

A take a look at the prime 20 in the remaining 2024 POY race standings:

The Complete List of Card Player Player of the Year Winners:

Header photograph credit: Danny Maxwell/Rational Intellectual Holdings Ltd., Joe Giron/Triton Poker, and WPT.