With just a few days of poker tournament action remaining in 2023 and no truly major events to be contested this week, Bin Weng, Kristen Foxen, and Nick Pupillo are poised to claim top honors in the Global Poker Index's 2023 leaderboard races.
Pennsylvania's Weng has been the most consistently dominant player of 2023, and that's reflected in his all but insurmountable lead in the race to be the 2023 GPI Player of the Year. Weng picked up his sixth major win of 2023 a week ago in the $25,300 NLH High Roller event at the WPT World Championship in Las Vegas.
The win was worth $958.279 and 515.60 GPI Player of the Year points, the latter of which replaced a 165.60-points performance among Weng's top 13 points finishes of 2023, among the primary criteria for counting toward a player's total. The win boosted his 2023 GPI POY points total to 5,008.99 and expanded his lead over second-place Nacho Barbero to more than 600 points.
Barbero, Isaac Haxton, Tony "Ren" Lin, and Danny Tang make up the rest of the GPI POY top five.
Foxen expands lead in Female POY race
In the Female Player of the Year category, Kristen Foxen also expanded her lead with a solid finish at the WPT World Championship. Foxen's 33rd-place showing in the WPT World Championship was worth 345.07 points. The showing replaced a 171.82-point finish in May in Florida, and moved Foxen to 2,970.93 points on the year. That lead also seems insurmountable, with second-place Nadya Magnus, at 2,566.97 POY points, more than 400 points back of Foxen's total.
The Female Player of the Year would be Foxen's fourth such honor in a ccategory she's dominated since the GPI introdcued its POY awards.
Pupillo boosts margin over McEwen
As is most often the case in the GPI leaderboard races, the tightest battle in 2023 has been in the Mid-Major category, where Nick Pupillo narrowly leads Preston McEwen, William Kopp, and others. As of the GPI's December 20th update, Pupillo had 2,819.77 points to McEwen's 2,752.74 in events with buy-ins of $5,000 or less.
Pupillo, though, logged a win in the $3,000 Dealer's Choice Championship at the WPT World Championship. The victory was worth 249.50 POY points and will add roughly 75 more points to Pupillo's lead. McEwen and others who closely trail Pupillo aren't technically eliminated but would need an amazing run somewhere this week to overhaul Pupillo.
McEwen also had a chance to overtake Pupillo but came up just short, cashing in a $1,500 WPT WC event at the Wynn. He was mindful of what he needed to overtake Pupillo as well:
It remains to be seen if McEwen participates in an event in south Florida this coming weekend that might conclude in time to be included in the GPI's tally of 2023 finishes.
