There has been a great deal of controversy over the World Series of Poker’s Player of the Year race, but it has done one thing: completely reworked the two overall POYs in the game. A completely new list of contenders – save for a couple – has announced their intentions for the year-long race. The run begins now and continues to the end of 2026, when the final version of the WSOP and another tour’s World Championship will once again have an impact on the proceedings.
Alex Foxen Hanging Around Again
In 2018 and 2019, Alex Foxen won the CardPlayer Magazine Player of the Year race in a rather handy fashion. Ever since then, however, he has come up short in the efforts for a third title. Perhaps 2026 is the year that ends that drought, as Foxen used the 2026 WSOP to rocket up the standings.
At the start of the WSOP, Foxen was in seventh place on the CardPlayer POY, and he did absolutely nothing over the past few weeks to tarnish those efforts. Thirteen cashes in Las Vegas, including five final tables, a bracelet win, and a deep run in the Main Event, served Foxen well through the summertime festival. Overall, it also pushed him into the first-place spot on the podium for CardPlayer with 7,109 points.
A player who was a bit quiet during the Series was the leader of the CardPlayer POY before the WSOP, Brandon Wilson. How quiet was Wilson? He only had two points-earning cashes over the last couple of months despite earning six cashes; some of the efforts Wilson made, particularly in large buy-in tournaments such as the $250,000 Super High Roller, did not award points for min-cashes. He did get enough points to stay in the mix in second place, however, as he holds second with 6,835 points.
The true surge came from Eelis Parssinen, however. One of the double-bracelet winners at the WSOP in 2026, Parssinen came from nowhere as those two wins added more than 3,700 points to his resume. By the completion of the 2026 WSOP, Parssinen had done enough to move into third place on the CardPlayer POY with 6,081 points among his 22 cashes in 2026.
As we enter the second half of the tournament poker season, here is how the CardPlayer Magazine Player of the Year race stands:
1. Alex Foxen (Cold Spring Harbor, NY), 7,109 points
2. Brandon Wilson (Chicago, IL), 6,835
3. Eelis Parssinen (Finland), 6,081
4. Danny Tang (Hong Kong), 5,796
5. Jesse Lonis (Little Falls, NY), 5,689*
6. Daniel Rezaei (Leibnitz, Austria), 5,579
7. Nick Schulman (Manhattan, NY), 5,281
8. Punnat Punsri (Bangkok, Thailand), 5,054
9. Kristen Foxen (St. Catharines, Canada), 5,017
10. Aleksejs Ponakovs (Riga, Latvia), 4,928
(* – defending CardPlayer POY)
Kristen Foxen’s victory in the $25,000 Eight-Handed No Limit Hold’em tournament (Event #19) not only earned her more than $1.7 million but also thrust her into the Top Ten on the POY. That is important because no female player has finished in the Top Ten since 2013, when Vanessa Selbst concluded the season in third place.
Alex Foxen Rules GPI POY
Alex Foxen’s efforts are also being rewarded on the Global Poker Index Player of the Year countdown. After sitting in fifth place before the WSOP, Foxen has packed on another 1,200-plus points to his ledger to move into the first-place slot. How good has he been in 2026? The deep run in the 2026 WSOP Main Event DIDN’T EVEN COUNT on his 13-tournament resume as Foxen built a total of 4,471.13 points.
Rezaei has also been moving on up on the GPI POY. His WSOP efforts saw him move up to the second-place slot on the board despite not even being in the Top Ten before the Series. With a total of 4,339.42 points, he must be considered a contender. The threat may be coming from the third-place player, however. In 2025, Punsri was able to vanquish Lonis for the GPI POY, and he’s looking to repeat as the 2026 champion. With his 4,314.11 points, he is in prime position going into the second half.
Here’s how the Global Poker Index Player of the Year race is standing after the 2026 WSOP:
1. Alex Foxen (Cold Spring Harbor, NY), 4,471.13 points
2. Daniel Rezaei (Leibnitz, Austria), 4,339.42
3. Punnat Punsri (Bangkok, Thailand), 4,314.11*
4. Tony “Ren” Lin (China), 4,278.21
5. Artur Martirosian (Russian Federation), 4,201.21
6. Jesse Lonis (Little Falls, NY), 4,183.67
7. Brandon Wilson (Chicago, IL), 4,158.97
8. Quan Zhou (China), 4,084.88
9. Eelis Parssinen (Finland), 4,034.93
10. Aleksejs Ponakovs (Riga, Latvia), 3,956.3
(* – defending GPI POY)
Without a doubt, these players (and those looking to run them down) are going to have to participate in some of the bigger events if they are going to hold their edge. That means hitting the big World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour events and either pick the 2026 WPT World Championship in Las Vegas or the WSOP Paradise in the Bahamas in December. Those two events have become the final chance for players to stake their claims in the POY race, and success there can push a player over the top to the title.
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