With the close of the 2025 World Series of Poker Main Event (and its final “preliminary” tournaments), we have come to the end of this year’s series. But one thing was up for grabs until the end of the road, and that was the WSOP Player of the Year race. In the end, the masterful year from an immediate induction into the Poker Hall of Fame and the year’s only triple bracelet winner could not overcome the spirited drive by a former POY.
Shaun Deeb is Your 2025 WSOP POY
In 2025, the WSOP introduced a retooled Player of the Year race to make it more dependent on strong finishes rather than just accumulating min-cashes. Instead of the thirteen finishes that had previously been counted, in 2025 it was reduced to ten cashes and one online cash. This puts more of an emphasis on finishing higher in tournaments rather than just racking up lowball finishes.
It took until the later stages of the 2025 WSOP for him to break through, but Shaun Deeb didn’t have a lack of effort. Deeb would be a terror throughout the run of the WSOP, earning seventeen cashes over the eight weeks in Las Vegas. Alas, only ten (and one online) tournaments could count, and Deeb made the most of those finishes.
His first four cashes were a bit on the low side, with the best finish of the first ten days of action a seventeenth-place finish in the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em/Pot Limit Omaha High Roller. From there, however, Deeb went on a rush, finishing third in Event #36 (the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Eight or Better) and in the runner up spot three days later in the $1500 Razz tournament. But this did not do enough to get him past Benny Glaser, who won three bracelets early in the WSOP schedule to post himself as the player to beat.
And that’s exactly what Deeb would do.
In the waning fortnight of the 2025 WSOP, Deeb would take down Event #79, the $100,000 Pot Limit Omana tournament for a $2.9 million score. Three days later, a second-place finish in a $1000 No Limit Hold’em tournament would add another $154,906 to his bankroll. That would be the last cashing finish that would count for Deeb, but that was enough to push him past Glazer.
Three Bracelets Aren’t Enough
Glaser’s run at the WSOP POY was a strong one…just not strong enough. In the first twenty days of the series, Glaser won three WSOP bracelets, an astounding run that nearly locked up the WSOP POY before the schedule had even begun. His victories in Event #8 ($1500 Mixed Game Dealer’s Choice), Event #15 ($1500 Mixed Omaha Eight or Better), and Event #56 ($2500 Mixed Triple Draw (Deuce to Seven, Ace to Five, and Badhgi) Lowball), not only saw Glaser pick up over $600,000 but also pushed him to a commanding lead.
But Deeb showed that he was the man for the job. It is the second WSOP POY victory for Deeb, who has come close on several occasions after earning his first WSOP POY in 2018. Here is how the final standings came out, including another feather in the cap for our new World Champion Michael Mizrachi, who came up just short with the WSOP Main Event pushing him into third place overall.
1. Shaun Deeb (USA), 4194.1 points
2. Benny Glaser (United Kingdom), 4153.66
3. Michael Mizrachi (USA), 3804.96
4. Martin Kabrhel (Czech Republic), 3639.41
5. Scott Bohlman (USA), 3328.86
6. Brian Rast (USA), 3091.97
7. Joao Filipe Martins Vieira (Portugal), 3025.2
8. Daniel Negreanu (Canada), 2972.05
9. Klemens Roiter (Austria), 2813.15
10. Zdenek Zizka (Czech Republic), 2807.76
For his efforts, Deeb will receive a seat to the 2026 WSOP Main Event, a unique Player of the Year trophy, and a Player of the Year banner at Paris/Horseshoe that will fly in perpetuity in tribute to his second time winning the POY. That ties him with Negreanu, who won his two POYs in the first year of the award (2004) and again in 2013.
(Photo courtesy of PokerGO)
