Dan Zack, a New Jersey resident, is this year's World Series of Poker (WSOP) Player of the Year (POY). He had only one close rival who would catch him.
Zack garnered 4,530 points in the POY competition, which were almost 500 more than those of the second player and over 1,250 more than the other contenders. Still, he cashed $1.45 million in 16 WSOP tournaments.
The player stated after the WSOP Main Event that he has aspired to win the awards for several years as he battled with other talented players for it each year. He was elated to get it after being stressed in the series.
The POY award has a personalized banner that hangs during the WSOP at Paris and Bally's, a $10,000 seat for the 2023 Main Event, and a custom trophy. Zack advanced to four final tables in the 2022 WSOP and won two more gold bracelets.
He won his second bracelet in the $10,000 buy-in Omaha Eight-or-Better tournament after beating Dustin Dirksen in seven hours of intense play and went home with $440,757 and the title. Zack won his third WSOP bracelet in the $10,000 Triple Draw event that earned him $129,670.
Zack's POY Journey
The Player of the Year signed up for the $250,000 buy-in Super High Roller tournament, being optimistic that he would win the POY award. He advanced to the final table and won $488,095 after finishing eighth.
Zack has consistently performed well in the POY race of late, as he has made 89 WSOP cashes since 2014. Ryan O'Leary, a Twitter influencer, stated that Shaun Deeb and Daniel Negreanu are the only players who have amassed more POY points than Zack in the past decade. Yet, the points formula changed recently.
The POY race includes open bracelet tournaments such as the online events that take place in New Jersey and Nevada.
The Other Top POY Contenders
Daniel Weinman was the only other poker pro to amass over 4,000 POY points. He began the race by finishing as a runner-up in the $1,500 Stud event, winning $255,359 and his first bracelet in the $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament.
The Georgian cashed in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship and finished fourth in the $1,979 Hall of Fame bounty tournament. He got $665,000 after making 19 cashes.
Koray Aldemir was an unexpected performer this summer. He won the 2021 WSOP Main Event and started this year's series by finishing fifth in the $100,000 High Roller and finishing sixth in the $25,000 High Roller the next week.
The 32-year-old player finished sixth in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship and fourth place in the $10,000 Razz event. He earned $1.18 million from 14 cashes.
Shaun Deeb didn't win a gold bracelet this summer despite earning $380,000 from 18 cashes. His best score was $94,606 he won after finishing fourth in the $10,000 Triple Draw event.
He finished fifth in a $10,000 Stud Eight-or-Better tournament after several days. Deeb has 134 WSOP cashes so far, thus being the 35th player in the series standings.
David Peters improved his POY rank after recording several impressive results. He kicked off this year's WSOP by winning $1,441,810 and his fourth bracelet in the $10,000 Buy-In Bounty High Roller tournament.
Then, he finished fifth in the $50,000 High Roller and fifth in the $3,000 Six-Max No-Limit Hold'em tournament. Peters has over $43.3 million in poker career tournament earnings.
