Poker pro Jason Mercier has won the 2016 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Player of the Year (POY) award for his phenomenal run at this year’s WSOP. Mercier finally clinched the first spot after his closest competitor Paul Volpe crashed out of the 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event earlier this week.
Volpe exited the main event finishing in 29th place and cashing out with $216,211. The elimination saw him receive 357.62 WSOP POY points which still left him short by 270 points which he needed to surpass Mercier. If Volpe had to have a better run at the Main Event he could have secured the much needed points to push Mercier for the title.
Volpe now has around 1,927 points from nine cashes that includes a win in $1,500 8-Game Mix which netted him a gold bracelet, and a 4th place finish in $1,500 Dealer’s Choice apart from his Main Event performance.
However with 11 cashes and almost 2,200 WSOP POY points, Jason Mercier leads the leaderboard comfortably. His key wins have so far been the $10K 2-7 No Limit and the $10K H.O.R.S.E. Some of his other major performances include coming in 2nd place in $10K Razz and 8th in $10K Omaha Hi-Low. His latest win was finishing in the money in $1,111 Little One for One Drop.
Max Silver is currently placed third on the leaderboard is Max Silver with 1,690 POY points. The highlights of his WSOP performance include finishing 10th in $5K Turbo No Limit Hold ‘em, 12th in $10K PLO and 33rd in $10K Main Event.
The remaining two players in the top 5 are John Monnette who is ranked fourth and Justin Bonomo who is in fifth place. Mercier has had a phenomenal year in 2016 on the poker circuit and is now ranked second on the Global Poker Index (GPI) ratings. His total career prize money now as per the Hendon Mob is close to $17,400,000. German Poker pro Fedor Holz is ranked number on the GPI as he has hit a purple patch in 2016 and won more than $10 million in career prize money this year.
Many expected Mercier to go on and win a couple more WSOP bracelets this year but after a strong start to the tournament, he found it hard to add to his tally of WSOP bracelets.
