One of the closest races for WSOP Player of the Year ever came down to a handful of points as Shaun Deeb beat fellow PokerStake player Benny Glaser to the unique annual prize. As the last few events ticked by, Glaser had the chance for gold but fell just a few pay-jumps short in one event to end up second as ‘Team Lucky’ member Shaun Deeb became just the second man to win the POY award twice in his career.

A Nailbiting Climax

To say that the 2025 WSOP Player of the Year race was a photo finish is an understatement, with Shaun Deeb and Benny Glaser going right to the wire in an effort to top each other’s phenomenal efforts this series. From the start of the series, there looked to be one man in the race as Benny Glaser won not one, not two but three WSOP bracelets in an unforgettable summer for the British mixed game crusher.

Taking down the $1,500 Dealers Choice 6-Handed Event #8 for $150,246, the $1,500 Mixed Omaha 8 or Better 7-Handed Event #15 for $258,193 and the Mixed Limit Triple Draw Lowball (2-7, A-5, Badhgi) Event #56 for $208,552, Glaser’s three victories alone were worth $600,000 alone.

Sadly for Glaser but beneficially for Deeb, the fact that Glaser didn’t have 10 cashes for a longer time gave Deeb a chance to catch up and when the American took 1^st place in the $100,000 PLO High Roller Event #79 for $2.95 million, the biggest score of his poker career so far, followed by a runner-up result in Event #84, the race was well and truly on. A cash run to 19^th place in the $50,000 high roller Event #88 for Deeb put him in the driver’s seat but he cashed just once more in the Lucky 7’s Event #90.

Glaser had a chance to overtake his rival with a sprint finish.

Glaser Falls Just Short

With a handful of events to go, Glaser had a shot at victory. In some senses, his chances looked better, with any cashes he picked up late in the day adding to the ones he’d racked up, rather than replacing other scores, as Deeb had done. Deeb’s 18 series cashes were great but only the top 10 counted and Glaser knew that with each additional cash on the home straight, he was catching his quarry.

After picking up soe min-cashes, Glaser ran deep in the $1,500-entry Event #97, entitled ‘The Closer’. Could Glaser close it out? Well, not for the win, and while 114^th place was a super-strong performance for someone who had grinded the whole series, it was 70 places short of the required points to overtake Shaun Deeb.

Entering the $1,000 buy-in Event #100, the Super Turbo was Glaser’s final chance at glory, but he busted outside the money places and the title was Deeb’s. With both men finishing on over 4,100 points, the race was closer than ever and while Glaser fell just short of the POY award, his three bracelets and huge winnings still make it the most successful summer of his career.

Why Didn’t Michael Mizrachi Win the Title?

After winning both the $50,000-entry Poker Players Championship and the $10,000-entry WSOP Main Event World Championship, Michael Mizrachi should be Player of the Year. That’s the argument from many inside and outside the game who believe that due to his phenomenal finish to the 2025 WSOP, ‘The Grinder’ was the best player of the summer, so why didn’t his achievements merit the win?

To summarise, while Mizrachi grinded his way to a dozen WSOP cashes this year, only two of them were worth more than $13,386 and only three counted as deep runs. Mizrachi’s 25^th-place finish in the Battle of the Ages Event #59 saw him score that amount, but it was only in winning the Main Event for $10 million and the PPC for $1.33 million that he scored big.

Mizrachi’s amazing summer did see him awarded a permanent award that neither Deeb or Glaser have been honored with as yet – entry into the Poker Hall of Fame. Ironically, ‘The Grinder’ has gone this close before, with his PPC win and run to fifth place in the Main Event of 2010 seeing him lose out to Frank Kassela in that year’s Player of the Year race.

In a year where both Daniel Negreanu and Brian Rast both made the WSOP POY top 10, Shaun Deeb and Benny Glaser both have to wait to enter the Poker Hall of Fame with neither of them yet to turn 40, one of the pre-requisites for induction. A phenomenal summer for both PokerStake players has seen them enter poker’s history books all the same.

WSOP 2025 Player of the Year Leaderboard
Place	Player	Country	POY Points
1st	Shaun Deeb	United States	4,194.10
2nd	Benny Glaser	United Kingdom	4,153.66
3rd	Michael Mizrachi	United States	3,804.96
4th	Martin Kabrhel	Czech Republic	3,639.41
5th	Scott Bohlman	United States	3,328.86
6th	Brian Rast	United States	3,091.97
7th	Joao Vieira	Portugal	3,025.2
8th	Daniel Negreanu	Canada	2,972.05
9th	Klemens Roiter	Austria	2,813.51
10th	Zdenek Zizka	Czech Republic	2,807.76