Last week, we looked at the two major Player of the Year races, provided by CardPlayer Magazine and the Global Poker Index. There are a couple of other POY battles that people are interested in, however. On one, the leader has been dominant during the “high roller” tournaments, but the other shows that the steady pace is the way to go about things, as the current leader isn’t making big scores, but she is fending off the five-time champion in the Women’s 2026 Player of the Year race.
Brock Wilson Leads the PGT POY
The PokerGO Tour Player of the Year race combines the “high roller” events that make up the PokerGO Tour. These tournaments, highlighted by PGT-specific events like the U.S. Poker Open, the PokerGO Cup, and other festivals, have begun to have an overt effect on the general POY races. However, they are also annotated for the PGT’s season-ending Champions Invitational, which will offer the Top 40 a seat in a million-dollar freeroll, and for the overall PGT Player of the Year.
Right now, life is rather good for Brock Wilson. Currently holding the edge in the PGT POY, Wilson has won four matches in the first half of the PGT season, earning almost a million dollars in prize money. More importantly, however, Wilson has gathered 1,219 points, good enough for first place on the PGT ladder.
The “mystery man” of the PGT is Qinghai Pan. A player who has clawed his way up through the Los Angeles poker scene, through the online ranks, Pan has exploded over the past couple of years to become a powerhouse in the game. The majority of his $2.2 million in earnings has come over the last couple of years ($1.6 million of it), and he has become a staple of the “high roller” circuit, good enough to take the #2 slot on the PGT leaderboard with 1,138 points.
Rounding out the podium finishers – at least for the first half of 2026 – is Yuri Dzivielevski. The Super High Roller Bowl winner has over $2 million in earnings just from the first half of the year, and the points he has earned put him in third place with 934 points. That barely ekes past Michael Berk and Andrew Lichtenberger, who are but a solid PGT finish from passing him.
As we get ready for the 2026 WSOP, the PokerGO Tour Player of the Year race lines up like this:
1. Brock Wilson, 1,219 points
2. Qinghai Pan, 1,138
3. Yuri Dzivielevski, 934
4. Michael Berk, 901
5. Andrew Lichtenberger, 863
6. David ‘Chino’ Rheem, 830
7. Clemen Deng, 774
8. Jeremy Ausmus, 771
9. David Coleman, 584
10. Brandon Wilson, 565
Victoria Livschitz Steady Pace Leads Women’s POY
In the past, when it came to the Women’s Player of the Year race, you could pencil in Kristen Foxen, and you would be right. Foxen, the five-time Women’s POY, has usually ended up atop the standings because she plays a larger number of “high roller” events and Main Events. This time around, however, it seems that the slow, steady pace is paying off more than the “big scores” on the PGT, with a player who has battled for the POY before taking over the top of the mountain.
Victoria Livshitz occasionally steps into the “high roller” circuit, but it is other events that have recently pushed her into prominence. So far in 2026, Livshitz has earned fifteen cashes to more than fill out her thirteen-tournament scorecard (the GPI, which annotates the Women’s POY race, takes the top thirteen finishers in calculating a player’s score). Most recently at the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown in Hollywood, FL, Livshitz earned her biggest score of 2026, a third-place finish in a $3,000 preliminary event, for slightly more than $53K and picked up 221.61 points for her POY-leading 1905.44 points.
In second place at this point is Thi Xoa Nguyen, who has been working over the Asian circuit for her finishes. A runner-up finish in March in a preliminary event of the Triton One schedule in Jeju, South Korea, earned Nguyen 413.8 points, making up almost a quarter of her 1885.30 points that leave her right behind Livshitz. Rounding out with the bronze medal is the current Women’s POY, Kristen Foxen, who probably isn’t really happy that there are challenges to her crown; Foxen is holding down third place, with 1,785.99 points.
Coming to the start of the 2026 WSOP, here are how the Women’s Player of the Year contenders are lining up:
1. Victoria Livshitz, 1,905.44 points
2. Thi Xoa Nguyen, 1,885.30
3. Kristen Foxen, 1,785.99
4. Yi Ye, 1,655.19
5. Congya Zhang, 1,460.20
6. Cherish Andrews, 1,433.60
7. Ebony Kenney, 1,377.27
8. Wenwen Chen, 1,298.14
9. Esther Taylor, 1,250.67
10. Yang Yang, 1,248.40