"Big Names" Held Off WSOP POY Leader Board...For Now

A week into the World Series of Poker, headlines have been made, bracelets have been awarded and some pretty spectacular stories have already been told. While we are likely a few weeks from the WSOP Player of the Year leader board taking serious shape, there are nearly 60 bracelet events and WSOP Europe still to go, we scoff at the idea that is it ever too early to begin POY coverage.

This year, King’s Casino Rosvadoz is the sponsor of the award, replacing the GPI formula that was used to calculate Player of the Year over the last two years. The player with the most POY points after the 71 events in Las Vegas, will be awarded a WSOP Europe Main Event seat, and the 2017 WSOP Player of the Year will be awarded a 2018 WSOP Main Event seat.

Through just over a dozen events, there are a handful of relatively unknown players atop the POY leader board. THE COLOSSUS III winner Thomas Pomponio sits atop the leader board, with 347 points, and Taylor Black, who finished runner-up to Pomponio in the 18,000-player field, is also second on the POY leader board. Mark Scacewater, who finished 19^th in Colossus and runner-up in the $333 WSOP.com ONLINE event, rounds out the top three.

The first big name on the leader board, two-time bracelet winner Ryan Hughes, sits 5^th thanks to a hot start to the WSOP. Hughes has five cashes, including a 5^th place finish in the $10,000 Heads-Up Championship and a 10^th place finish in the $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball event, and below him the names start to resonate with the rest of the poker community.

Italian Dario Sammartino, who finished 3^rd in the $111,111 High Roller for One Drop and cashed the $10,000 Heads-Up Championship, Doug Polk, who won the High Roller for One Drop, and Benjamin Zamani, who won his second-career bracelet earlier this week, are in the top ten.

Aditya Agarwal, despite not winning India’s first bracelet, has gotten off to a quick start with five cashes and a final table appearance, and Australia’s James Obst have spots in the top 15, while Daniel Negreanu, who has two podium finishes, is just inside the top 20.

With big buy-in and big field events coming up over the next few weeks, it will be interesting to see what kind of changes occur on the 2017 World Series of Poker Player of the Year leader board each week. Poker Central will be following it all, with updates coming every Friday. For a complete list of the 2017 World Series of Poker Player of the Year leader board, visit WSOP.com.

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