2025 is right here, with a brand new 12 months of thrilling poker match motion to comply with. That signifies that the 2024 Card Participant Participant of the 12 months race is within the books. We already coated the Tenth-Sixth place finishers within the remaining standings, with this 12 months’s official POY award winner to be introduced within the coming days.
On this story we’ll do a deep dive into the Fifth-2nd ranked gamers from the year-end POY standings introduced by International Poker. These 4 stars made 83 remaining tables, with greater than $26.2 million in mixed complete earnings gained from these scores.
5. Michael WatsonTotal Factors: 7,958POY Earnings: $7,663,989Titles: 4Final Tables: 17
Michael Watson wrote his identify within the historical past books this 12 months by changing into the newest addition to the elite brief checklist of Poker Triple Crown winners. The membership consists of gamers with not less than one World Collection of Poker bracelet together with victories in World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour predominant occasions.
The Canadian poker professional has been a power on the stay circuit for almost twenty years. He scored the primary leg of this trifecta when he received the 2008 WPT Bellagio Cup IV for $1,673,770. As for the EPT, he took down each the 2016 PokerStars Caribbean Journey ($728,325) and the 2022 EPT Monte Carlo predominant occasions ($801,885). He lastly sealed the deal in a WSOP occasion this summer time, taking down the WSOP On-line $1,000 no-limit maintain’em six-max championship to earn $138,327 and the long-awaited {hardware}.
Whereas that win might be the headline story for Watson in 2024, it didn’t rely in direction of his success within the POY standings. Watson made 17 POY-qualified remaining tables this 12 months, cashing for greater than $7.6 million throughout these scores.
He ended up with 4 titles in POY occasions, together with a seven-figure win ($1,023,000) within the $30,000 Triton Montenegro eight-max occasion and a $660,478 rating because the champion of a €10,300 excessive curler at EPT Barcelona.
Watson additionally scored the 2 largest paydays of his profession in ultra-high-stakes occasions. He completed third within the $150,000 buy-in at Triton Jeju for almost $1.9 million and fourth within the $200,000 invitational occasion at Triton Montenegro for one more $1.8 million. The Toronto, Ontario resident now has greater than $30.6 million in complete profession earnings, which is sweet for fifth place on the Canadian all-time cash checklist.
4. Punnat PunsriTotal Factors: 8,478POY Earnings: $7,164,933Titles: 2Final Tables: 19
Thailand’s Punnat Punsri got here into 2021 with simply 10 stay poker cashes to his identify, totaling $131,000 in earnings. Within the 4 years since, he has accrued greater than $20 million in cashes whereas establishing himself as a power to be reckoned with on the highest stakes the match world has to supply.
In 2024, Punsri managed his second consecutive calendar 12 months with greater than $7 million in POY earnings. The 32-year-old made 19 remaining tables, coming away with two titles alongside the way in which. The 2 outright wins got here earlier within the 12 months. He first took down a smaller occasion on the Malaysia Poker Dream VIII sequence for $176,858 in February. Roughly six weeks later he bested a discipline of 190 entries within the $50,000 buy-in seven-max occasion on the Triton Jeju competition for $2,010,000 and 1,428 POY factors. This was his second profession win on the nosebleed-stakes tour.
Punsri recorded two different seven-figure scores in 2024. He completed third in a $125,000 buy-in at Triton Monte Carlo for $2,045,000 just some days after a runner-up displaying in a $50,000 buy-in there that earned him $1,021,000.
One other second-place end noticed Punsri fall one spot shy of securing his first WSOP bracelet. He navigated his method by 1,042 entries within the $5,000 eight-max occasion to make it all the way down to heads-up play with Matthew Alsante, who finally triumphed to stroll away with the {hardware}. Whereas Punsri couldn’t seize that title, he did earn $523,648 and a pile of POY factors for his deep run.
3. Jesse LonisTotal Factors: 8,908POY Earnings: $6,666,685Titles: 3Final Tables: 23
Proper out of highschool, Jesse Lonis was working development in New York Metropolis. The Little Falls, NY native had picked up poker as a interest after studying the sport from his grandmother and uncle and was dabbling in low-stakes money video games. He probably by no means would have imagined at the moment that inside a decade he could be a two-time WSOP bracelet winner and constant high contender within the POY race.
Lonis is now 29 years previous, with greater than $14.6 million in profession match earnings. 2024 was his greatest 12 months but, by way of prize cash. Eight of his high ten scores have been remodeled the previous 12 months, together with two of his three profession seven-figure scores. His largest payday this 12 months got here when he took down a $50,000 buy-in at Triton Monte Carlo for $1,502,000 and his first trident trophy.
This was considered one of three titles on the 12 months for Lonis. The primary two got here within the spring. He received a $10,500 excessive curler on the Wynn Tens of millions for $193,140 after which triumphed in a $10,500 on the U.S. Poker Open for $252,450 roughly a month later.
Lonis made 23 remaining tables in complete. His second-largest rating of the 12 months got here within the $50,000 no-limit maintain’em occasion on the WSOP. He completed second for $1,358,633, narrowly lacking out on his third profession bracelet. He additionally got here fairly near profitable two large-field predominant occasions this 12 months, putting third in each the Fortunate Hearts Poker Open and the WPT Seminole Exhausting Rock Poker Showdown.
Lonis accrued almost $6.7 million throughout his final-table runs this 12 months, which accounts for almost half of his complete profession earnings. His remaining rating of third on this 12 months’s POY standings is a brand new private greatest. He has now completed inside the highest 50 for 4 straight years, with progressively higher remaining rankings every year. These finishes have been: forty third (2021), thirty first (2022), 18th (2023), and third (2024).
2. David ColemanTotal Factors: 9,698POY Earnings: $4,737,165Titles: 5Final Tables: 24
David Coleman got here into 2024 with out a single stay match trophy, regardless of having tens of millions of earnings and several other shut calls accrued throughout greater than a decade of high-level play. The 31-year-old poker professional based mostly out of Las Vegas ended the 12 months with 5 POY-qualified victories, having gone on a title spree within the first half of the 12 months to place an emphatic finish to his drought. With these wins and 24 complete final-table finishes, Coleman got here fairly near capturing the 2024 POY award, ending simply 476 factors outdoors of the highest spot.
Eight of Coleman’s high 12 scores on the circuit have been made this previous 12 months, together with his three largest paydays but. He saved the most effective for final in that regard, ending sixth within the WSOP Paradise Triton $100,000 predominant occasion for a career-high $890,000 windfall. His next-largest rating got here in a win. He beat out a discipline of 117 entries within the WPT Alpha8 Trifecta $25,000 buy-in excessive curler for $730,300.
Coleman’s first 4 POY-qualified wins all got here within the first 4 months of the 12 months. He kicked issues off rapidly, taking down the Card Participant Poker Tour Venetian $1,600 buy-in predominant occasion for $115,989. Lower than every week later, he triumphed in a $5,300 buy-in on the PokerGO Tour Kickoff sequence for one more $120,150. In early February he got here out on high in a $15,000 buy-in on the PokerGO Cup for $302,400. Then, in April, he was the final participant standing in a U.S. Poker Open $10,000 buy-in, a win which was good for $202,300.
Coleman bought his begin in poker grinding on-line in his dwelling state of New Jersey. After this profession 12 months, he has established himself as a participant to observe on the stay scene shifting ahead. The $4.7 million in POY earnings he accrued in 2024 account for greater than half of his lifetime haul, which is approaching $9 million.
Photograph credit: PokerStars, Triton Poker, PokerGO, and WPT.
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