Wide Open 2026 Card Player POY Race Going Into Critical Stretch

With simply over two months left in 2026, this 12 months’s Card Player Player of the Year race offered by CoinPoker is shaping as much as be some of the aggressive in latest reminiscence.

Punnat Punsri, the runner-up within the 2025 POY standings, leads going into one of many busiest stretches of the poker calendar. But his quest to enhance upon final 12 months’s shut name is much from a certain factor. There are six gamers inside hanging distance of the lead, together with Jesse Lonis, the participant who narrowly beat out Punsri for POY honors in 2025.

Just over a 12 months out from his Poker Hall of Fame induction, Nick Schulman is within the midst of among the finest years of his match poker profession, inside a single small money of the highest spot total. Brandon Wilson continues to show he’s a power to be reckoned with amongst excessive rollers in a breakout 2026 marketing campaign. Alex Foxen as soon as once more stands among the many most constant performers in match poker.

Eelis Parssinen’s proving that you just don’t have to be a no-limit maintain’em specialist to be a POY contender, because the pot-limit Omaha wizard is within the thick of the race as nicely. And then there’s Lonis, who’s searching for to do one thing that’s by no means been achieved in 30 years of this award – safe back-to-back POY honors.

Lonis would be a part of the likes of Adrian Mateos, Stephen Chidwick, and Daniel Negreanu among the many multi-time winners of the award.

With one final Triton Super High Roller Series cease, the World Series of Poker Paradise, the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas, EPT Prague, and a bunch of different main occasions to come back earlier than the tip of the 12 months, right here’s a take a look at how issues stand heading into the ultimate stretch.

1. Punnat Punsri

7,624 POY Points
Biggest POY Score of 2026: 2nd place, WSOP Europe €8,400 No-Limit Hold’em GGMillion$ High Roller (1,000 POY factors)
Other Highlights: third place, Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju $15,000 no-limit maintain’em (720 POY factors); sixth place, WSOP $3,000 no-limit maintain’em (660 POY factors); fifth place, Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju $100,000 no-limit maintain’em (650 POY factors); 1st place, Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju $30,000 NLH/PLO (504 POY factors)

The previous couple of years of Punsri’s poker profession have been nothing wanting outstanding. After ending in forty fourth place within the 2022 Card Player POY race, and twenty first the 12 months after that, Punsri ascended to fourth place in 2024. The 2025 Card Player POY race was finally determined by an quantity of factors that would simply be earned in a single remaining desk look, with Punsri falling simply shy of Lonis’ mark when the year-end standings had been tabulated. The Thai professional, the winningest match poker participant ever from his house nation, received his sixth profession Triton title in March and made deep runs throughout the board. To this level, Punsri has made a shocking 25 qualifying remaining tables in 2026.

2. Nick Schulman

7,556 POY Points
Biggest POY Score of 2026: 1st place, Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju $100,000 no-limit maintain’em (1,680 POY factors)
Other Highlights: 1st place, WSOP $1,500 H.O.R.S.E (912 POY factors); fifth place, WSOP $10,000 Big O (750 POY factors); 2nd place, WSOP $1,500 Badugi (700 POY factors); 2nd place, WSOP $10,000 deuce-to-seven triple draw championship (650 POY factors); 2nd place, Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju $50,000 no-limit maintain’em (595 POY factors)

Fifteen months in the past, Schulman was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. In the following interval of simply over a 12 months, Schulman has posted a few of the most spectacular outcomes of his profession. This summer time Schulman received his eighth profession WSOP bracelet, and knocked on the door for a ninth on a number of events. Schulman additionally beat his career-high rating, set all the best way again in 2005, when he secured his second Triton title and a first-place prize of $3,854,888 in Jeju this September.

3. Brandon Wilson

7,487 POY Points
Biggest POY Score of 2026: 1st place, EPT Paris €10,300 no-limit maintain’em  (1,500 POY factors)
Other Highlights: 2nd place, Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju $50,000 no-limit maintain’em (850 POY factors); 2nd place, Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju $150,000 no-limit maintain’em (800 POY factors); 1st place, PGT Last Chance $10,500 no-limit maintain’em (600 POY factors)

Wilson jumped out to a giant POY lead early on in 2026, courtesy of a PGT Last Chance victory, a pair of EPT Paris excessive curler titles, and two runner-up finishes at Triton Jeju again in March for simply shy of $3.2 million in complete. He put himself again into the 2026 POY dialog together with his Super High Roller Bowl XI victory in early October.

4. Alex Foxen

7,349 POY Points
Biggest POY Score of 2026: 1st place, WSOP $10,000 tremendous turbo bounty no-limit maintain’em (1,800 POY factors)
Other Highlights: 1st place, MSPT Poker Bowl $1,600 no-limit maintain’em (912 POY Points); seventh place, WSOP $25,000 pot-limit Omaha (630 POY factors); 1st place, Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju $75,000 pot-limit Omaha (612 POY factors); third place, WSOP $25,000 heads-up championship (539 POY factors)

Foxen has been near successful Card Player POY honors on a number of events, ending third in 2018 and 2025, and second in 2019. But 2026 could be Foxen’s finest alternative but to shut issues out. He received his fourth profession WSOP bracelet over the course of the summer time, and stands among the many prime contenders for WSOP POY honors as nicely. But Foxen additionally proved he can nonetheless tear by way of massive fields with smaller buy-ins, taking down an MSPT occasion at Venetian for one in every of his largest POY windfalls of the 12 months to date.

5. Eelis Parssinen

7,000 POY Points
Biggest POY Score of 2026: 1st place, WSOP $25,000 pot-limit Omaha (2,520 POY factors)
Other Highlights: 1st place, WSOP $25,000 PLO/NLH (1,260 POY factors); third place, Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju $60,000 no-limit maintain’em (748 POY factors); 2nd place, Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju $75,000 pot-limit Omaha (510 POY factors)

Parssinen constructed his popularity as one of many true PLO match crushers, and rightly so. Despite predominantly sticking to his alternative, Parssinen has constructed himself into a real POY contender. That’s thanks largely to his back-to-back $25,000 buy-in wins on the 2026 WSOP, during which he claimed his second and third profession bracelets. Those wins got here in a straight-up PLO occasion and a break up format that mixed his four-card primary sport with no-limit maintain’em, a format during which he additionally excels. Like most of the different gamers on this record, the Finnish professional has additionally loved appreciable success in Triton occasions.

6. Daniel Rezaei

6,752 POY Points
Biggest POY Score of 2026: 2nd place, WSOP $50,000 no-limit maintain’em (1,275 POY factors)
Other Highlights: 1st place, Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju $60,000 no-limit maintain’em (1,122 POY factors); 4th place, WSOP $5,000 no-limit maintain’em (960 POY factors); third place, Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju $50,000 no-limit maintain’em (748 POY factors); 

The final two years have been a revelation for Rezaei, who’s made a outstanding affect on the excessive curler match scene of late. His 2026 POY bid comes on the again of two seven-figure scores. He received his first Triton title and $1,939,000 in Jeju again in March, and although Rezaei narrowly missed a second WSOP bracelet in as a few years, he nonetheless earned $1,517,782 for a second-place end in a $50,000 no-limit maintain’em occasion over the summer time.

7. Jesse Lonis

6,637 POY Points
Biggest POY Score of 2026: 2nd place, WSOP $5,000 pot-limit Omaha (1,520 POY factors)
Other Highlights: 2nd place, WSOP $3,000 T.O.R.S.E. (900 POY factors); 2nd place, King Poker Cup Series Jeju $100,000 no-limit maintain’em (700 POY factors); seventh place, WSOP $10,000 pot-limit Omaha (570 POY factors); 1st place, Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju $50,000 no-limit maintain’em turbo bounty quattro (510 POY factors)

Lonis added his fourth profession trident trophy at Triton Jeju again in March, however it’s largely been a 12 months of shut requires the defending Card Player POY. He narrowly missed out on a 3rd profession WSOP bracelet, in addition to a King Poker Cup title in South Korea. Lonis has managed three seven-figure outcomes so far in 2026, and he’s already confirmed himself able to massive wins late within the 12 months with POY prospects hanging within the stability.

8. Danny Tang

6,289 POY Points
Biggest POY Score of 2026: 1st place, Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro $100,000 no-limit maintain’em (1,440 POY factors)
Other Highlights: 2nd place, WSOP $2,500 blended triple draw lowball (1,050 POY factors); 2nd place, Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro $30,000 no-limit maintain’em (770 POY factors); third place, Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju $30,000 no-limit maintain’em (728 POY factors)

Tang secured a career-best $3,522,000 and his sixth Triton trophy in Montenegro again in May. The Hong Kong native narrowly missed out on a number of different Triton titles and a second profession WSOP bracelet, however Tang appears prone to be within the combine in relation to the large buy-in excessive rollers on the horizon in November and December.

9. Daniel Dvoress

5,892 POY Points
Biggest POY Score of 2026: 1st place, Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro $25,000 no-limit maintain’em (1,008 POY factors)
Other Highlights: 1st place, Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju $30,000 no-limit maintain’em (924 POY factors); 1st place, Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro $100,000 pot-limit Omaha (840 POY factors); 1st place, Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju $100,000 quick deck no-limit maintain’em (600 POY factors); 1st place, EPT Monte Carlo €25,000 no-limit maintain’em (504 POY factors)

Dvoress has been on an absolute tear in 2026, securing seven POY-qualifying victories together with 5 Triton trophies this 12 months alone. That features a trio of victories at Triton Montenegro. The Canadian now sits in a three-way tie for second-most Triton trophies within the tour’s historical past, with seven.

10. Klemens Roiter

5,625 POY Points
Biggest POY Score of 2026: 1st place, EPT Paris €10,300 no-limit maintain’em (1,250 POY factors)
Other Highlights: 2nd place, Triton Super High Roller Series Montenegro $100,000 no-limit maintain’em (1,200 POY factors); 1st place, Triton Super High Roller Series Jeju $20,000 no-limit maintain’em (936 POY factors)

Roiter, one in every of two Austrians within the prime 10 of the Card Player POY standings, received his long-awaited first Triton title in September. His largest money of the 12 months thus far, and Roiter’s career-best outcome, got here courtesy of a runner-up end to Tang within the $100,000 buy-in Triton Montenegro no-limit maintain’em occasion, price $2,377,000 and a wholesome 1,200 POY factors.

2026 Card Player Player of the Year Standings

Standings as of 10/15/26

Others in competition: Josh Reichard (eleventh), Ren Lin (twelfth), Maurice Hawkins (thirteenth), Bryn Kenney (14th), Adrian Mateos (fifteenth), Kristen Foxen (sixteenth), Artur Martirosian (seventeenth), Justin Liberto (18th), Aleksejs Ponakovs (nineteenth), Fahredin Mustafov (twentieth)

Photo credit: PokerGO Tour, World Series of Poker, Triton Super High Roller Series