2025 is right here, with a brand new yr of thrilling poker event motion to comply with. That implies that the 2024 Card Player Player of the Year race is in the books. We already coated the Tenth-Sixth place finishers in the last standings, with this yr’s official POY award winner to be introduced in the coming days.
In this story we’ll do a deep dive into the Fifth-2nd ranked gamers from the year-end POY standings offered by Global Poker. These 4 stars made 83 last tables, with greater than $26.2 million in mixed whole earnings gained from these scores.
5. Michael Watson
Total Points: 7,958
POY Earnings: $7,663,989
Titles: 4
Final Tables: 17
Michael Watson wrote his title in the historical past books this yr by changing into the newest addition to the elite quick checklist of Poker Triple Crown winners. The membership consists of gamers with at the very least one World Series of Poker bracelet together with victories in World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour major occasions.
The Canadian poker professional has been a power on the dwell circuit for practically 20 years. He scored the first leg of this trifecta when he received the 2008 WPT Bellagio Cup IV for $1,673,770. As for the EPT, he took down each the 2016 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure ($728,325) and the 2022 EPT Monte Carlo major occasions ($801,885). He lastly sealed the deal in a WSOP occasion this summer time, taking down the WSOP Online $1,000 no-limit maintain’em six-max championship to earn $138,327 and the long-awaited {hardware}.
While that win might be the headline story for Watson in 2024, it didn’t depend in direction of his success in the POY standings. Watson made 17 POY-qualified last tables this yr, cashing for greater than $7.6 million throughout these scores.
He ended up with 4 titles in POY occasions, together with a seven-figure win ($1,023,000) in the $30,000 Triton Montenegro eight-max occasion and a $660,478 rating as the champion of a €10,300 excessive curler at EPT Barcelona.
Watson additionally scored the two largest paydays of his profession in ultra-high-stakes occasions. He completed third in the $150,000 buy-in at Triton Jeju for practically $1.9 million and fourth in the $200,000 invitational occasion at Triton Montenegro for an additional $1.8 million. The Toronto, Ontario resident now has greater than $30.6 million in whole profession earnings, which is sweet for fifth place on the Canadian all-time cash checklist.
4. Punnat Punsri
Total Points: 8,478
POY Earnings: $7,164,933
Titles: 2
Final Tables: 19
Thailand’s Punnat Punsri got here into 2021 with simply 10 dwell poker cashes to his title, totaling $131,000 in earnings. In the 4 years since, he has collected greater than $20 million in cashes whereas establishing himself as a power to be reckoned with at the highest stakes the event world has to supply.
In 2024, Punsri managed his second consecutive calendar yr with greater than $7 million in POY earnings. The 32-year-old made 19 last tables, coming away with two titles alongside the method. The two outright wins got here earlier in the yr. He first took down a smaller occasion at the Malaysia Poker Dream VIII collection for $176,858 in February. Roughly six weeks later he bested a subject of 190 entries in the $50,000 buy-in seven-max occasion at the Triton Jeju competition for $2,010,000 and 1,428 POY factors. This was his second profession win on the nosebleed-stakes tour.
Punsri recorded two different seven-figure scores in 2024. He completed third in a $125,000 buy-in at Triton Monte Carlo for $2,045,000 only a few days after a runner-up displaying in a $50,000 buy-in there that earned him $1,021,000.
Another second-place end noticed Punsri fall one spot shy of securing his first WSOP bracelet. He navigated his method by means of 1,042 entries in the $5,000 eight-max occasion to make it right down to heads-up play with Matthew Alsante, who ultimately triumphed to stroll away with the {hardware}. While Punsri couldn’t seize that title, he did earn $523,648 and a pile of POY factors for his deep run.
3. Jesse Lonis
Total Points: 8,908
POY Earnings: $6,666,685
Titles: 3
Final Tables: 23
Right out of highschool, Jesse Lonis was working development in New York City. The Little Falls, NY native had picked up poker as a interest after studying the recreation from his grandmother and uncle and was dabbling in low-stakes money video games. He seemingly by no means would have imagined at the moment that inside a decade he could be a two-time WSOP bracelet winner and constant prime contender in the POY race.
Lonis is now 29 years previous, with greater than $14.6 million in profession event earnings. 2024 was his greatest yr but, in phrases of prize cash. Eight of his prime ten scores had been remodeled the previous 12 months, together with two of his three profession seven-figure scores. His largest payday this yr got here when he took down a $50,000 buy-in at Triton Monte Carlo for $1,502,000 and his first trident trophy.
This was one of three titles on the yr for Lonis. The first two got here in the spring. He received a $10,500 excessive curler at the Wynn Millions for $193,140 after which triumphed in a $10,500 at the U.S. Poker Open for $252,450 roughly a month later.
Lonis made 23 last tables in whole. His second-largest rating of the yr got here in the $50,000 no-limit maintain’em occasion at the WSOP. He completed second for $1,358,633, narrowly lacking out on his third profession bracelet. He additionally got here fairly near successful two large-field major occasions this yr, putting third in each the Lucky Hearts Poker Open and the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown.
Lonis accrued practically $6.7 million throughout his final-table runs this yr, which accounts for practically half of his whole profession earnings. His last rating of third on this yr’s POY standings is a brand new private greatest. He has now completed inside the prime 50 for 4 straight years, with progressively higher last rankings every year. Those finishes had been: forty third (2021), thirty first (2022), 18th (2023), and third (2024).
2. David Coleman
Total Points: 9,698
POY Earnings: $4,737,165
Titles: 5
Final Tables: 24
David Coleman got here into 2024 with no single dwell event trophy, regardless of having thousands and thousands of earnings and several other shut calls collected throughout greater than a decade of high-level play. The 31-year-old poker professional based mostly out of Las Vegas ended the yr with 5 POY-qualified victories, having gone on a title spree in the first half of the yr to place an emphatic finish to his drought. With these wins and 24 whole final-table finishes, Coleman got here fairly near capturing the 2024 POY award, ending simply 476 factors outdoors of the prime spot.
Eight of Coleman’s prime 12 scores on the circuit had been made this previous yr, together with his three largest paydays but. He saved the greatest for final in that regard, ending sixth in the WSOP Paradise Triton $100,000 major occasion for a career-high $890,000 windfall. His next-largest rating got here in a win. He beat out a subject of 117 entries in the WPT Alpha8 Trifecta $25,000 buy-in excessive curler for $730,300.
Coleman’s first 4 POY-qualified wins all got here in the first 4 months of the yr. He kicked issues off rapidly, taking down the Card Player Poker Tour Venetian $1,600 buy-in major occasion for $115,989. Less than per week later, he triumphed in a $5,300 buy-in at the PokerGO Tour Kickoff collection for an additional $120,150. In early February he got here out on prime in a $15,000 buy-in at the PokerGO Cup for $302,400. Then, in April, he was the final participant standing in a U.S. Poker Open $10,000 buy-in, a win which was good for $202,300.
Coleman bought his begin in poker grinding on-line in his residence state of New Jersey. After this profession yr, he has established himself as a participant to observe on the dwell scene shifting ahead. The $4.7 million in POY earnings he collected in 2024 account for greater than half of his lifetime haul, which is approaching $9 million.
Photo credit: PokerStars, Triton Poker, PokerGO, and WPT.
