The Global Poker Index (GPI) today announced the winners of its three major Player of the Year awards for 2023. The overall 2023 GPI Player of the Year award went to Pennsylvania's Bin Weng, who logged six major wins during 2023.
The GPI's 2023 Female Poker of the Year award went to Kristen Foxen, who extended her own record by winning this award for the fourth time. And in the 2023 Mid-Major Player of the Year category, Nick Pupillo held on in the closest of the three races, avoiding being overtaken by several players who technically had a shot to log a large points-earning score in 2023's final week.
Weng dominates 2023 POY chase
In the GPI's most prestigious category, the previously unheralded (at this level) Weng won the Overall Player of the Year honor in dominating fashion. He extended his lead in December with a win in a WPT World Championship event and was never seriously challenged over the last week's of the GPI race. Weng more than tripled his previous career tournament winnings during 2023 alone, and he ended the year atop the GPI's weighted global index of the game's currently best tourney performers.
Weng's final total in a scoring system that counts only a player's top 13 points-producing finishes came in at 5,008.99, more than 620 points ahead of the runner-up, Argentina's Jose "Nacho" Barbero. China's Ren Lin finished third, while current PokerGO Tour leader Isaac Haxton finished fourth, and Hong Kong's Danny Tang completed the top five:
2023 GPI PoY Top 5
- Bin Weng (USA) 5,008.99 pts
- Jose Nacho Barbero (ARG) -621.27
- Ren Lin (CHN) -748.05
- Isaac Haxton (USA) -840.37
- Daniel Tang (HKG) -901.85
Foxen wins Female Player of the Year Category again
2023 was another solid year at the table for Kristen Foxen (formerly Kristen Bicknell), who like Weng, had the Female Player of the Year award for 2023 all but locked up several weeks before 2023's official end of the GPI races.
Foxen, like Weng, cruised to the award by several hundred points over another previous Female GPI PoY winner, Nadya Magnus. In an oddity, Foxen posted no major live wins during 2023 but had seven final-table finishes in prominent poker tourneys throughout the year. The oddity is that Foxen did claim a major win in 2023, winning her fourth WSOP bracelet event, but it came in September's WSOP Online series and was thus not eligible to earn GPI Player of the Year points, which are awarded in live events only.
The defending 2022 GPI Female Player of the Year, Cherish Andrews, finished in sixth, just outside the top five:
2023 GPI Female PoY Top 5
- Kristen Foxen (CAN) 2,970.93 pts
- Nadya Magnus (USA) -403.96
- Kitty Kuo (TWN) -568.15
- Victoria Livschitz (USA) -728.91
- Maria Ho (USA) -875.84
Pupillo survives McEwen's late surge for Mid-Major award
In the 2023 GPI Mid-Major Player of the Year category, Nick Pupillo held on to top Preston McEwen by a scant 44 points. Pupillo took over the caetgory's lead with a mixed-games event win (his third major win of 2023) amid the WPT World Championship, then had to weather a deep run in another tourney by the eventual runner-up, McEwen. In that late-December event, McEwen had a chance to overtake Pupillo with a top-39 finish, but came up a few dozen spots short.
Pupillo ended up winning the mid-major honor by just 44 points in a category that traditionally goes to the year's final days before the winner becomes clear. The top five on the 2023 GPI Mid-Major Player of the Year leaderboard were as follows:
2023 GPI Mid-Major PoY Top 5
- Nick Pupillo (USA) 2,819.77 pts
- Preston McEwen (USA) -41.79
- William Kopp (USA) -126.18
- Ankit Ahuja (IND) -167.13
- Blake Bohn (USA) -279.46
Pupillo will join Weng and Foxen in being honored at the 2023 Global Poker Awards ceremony. That ceremony will take place in February or March at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas.
GPI announces Continental and National awards
The Global Poker Index also announced the winners of four Continental and 85 National Player of the Year awards for 2023. The Continental honors, a new wrinkle for 2023, went to Weng for North America, Barbero for South America, the UK's Steven Chidwick for Europe, and China's Lin for Asia.
Players from 86 different countries who led their nations in GPI points in 2023 while also earning a minimum of 1,000 points were honored as GPI National Players of the Year. The 86 honorees marks an uptick from 2022, when 79 National Players of the Year were honored. The full list of honorees, is as follows:
2023 GPI National Players of the Year
Algeria - Omar Lakhdari 2,533.63
Argentina - Jose Nacho Barbero 4,387.72
Armenia - Aren Bezhanyan 2,426.56
Australia - John Perry 2,458.01
Austria - Daniel Rezaei 3,118.34
Azerbaijan - David Mzareulov 2,345.47
Belarus - Mikita Bodyakovsky 3,316.75
Belgium - Thomas Boivin 3,245.15
Bosnia & Herzegovina - Fikret Kovac 1,403.56
Brazil - Pedro Vinicius Garagnani 3,388.19
Bulgaria - Alex Kulev 3,432.44
Canada - Daniel Dvoress 3,633.63
Chile - Nick Yunis 2,137.62
China - Ren Lin 4,260.94
Colombia - Farid Jattin 2,856.03
Costa Rica - Federico Francisco Quevedo Diaz 1,140.20
Croatia - Sverko Gregor 1,765.21
Cuba - Carlos Bermudez 1,573.48
Cyprus - Yiannis Liperis 2,627.06
Czechia - Roman Hrabec 3,281.57
Denmark - Henrik Hecklen 2,837.61
Estonia - Tarmo Tammel 1,892.27
Finland - Eelis Parssinen 3,013.36
France - Fabrice Bigot Castagnet 3,151.36
Georgia - Giorgiy Skhuluhiya 2,853.50
Germany - Leon Sturm 2,935.85
Greece - Georgios Sotiropoulos 2,138.33
Guatemala - Mario Alejandro Del Valle Rivas 1,041.32
Hong Kong - Daniel Tang 4,107.14
Hungary - Norbert Szecsi 2,154.80
India - Ankit Ahuja 3,406.43
Indonesia - Jhon Hendri 1,790.41
Iran - Nariman Yaghmai 2,195.55
Ireland - Gary Thompson 2,184.06
Israel - Yuval Bronshtein 2,788.97
Italy - Michael Rossitto 3,172.18
Japan - Shimizu Nozomu 3,381.00
Kazakhstan - Baurzhan Akimov 1,967.61
Kyrgystan - Kubanychbek Abakirov 1,963.01
Latvia - Aleksejs Ponakovs 3,146.86
Lebanon - Rayan Chamas 1,958.16
Lithuania - Vladas Tamasauskas 3,028.23
Luxembourg - Sihao Zhang 1,499.13
Malaysia - Chin Wei Lim 3,302.88
Malta - Corel Theuma 1,632.73
Mexico - Angel Guillen 2,040.18
Moldova - Pavel Plesuv 2,361.85
Montenegro - Vlado Banicevic 1,065.13
Morocco - Mehdi Chaoui 2,789.90
Netherlands - Jans Arends 3,170.04
New Zealand - Natalia Rozova 1,548.54
North Macedonia - Ilija Savevski 1,689.89
Northern Cyprus - Dmitrij Pokhabov 1,159.20
Norway - Espen Uhlen Jorstad 2,905.01
Panama - Jose Severino 1,872.82
Peru - Diego Ventura 2,105.96
Philippines - James Mendoza 2,685.41
Poland - Dzmitry Urbanovich 2,047.02
Portugal - Joao Vieira 3,105.92
Puerto Rico - Fernando Rodriguez Vazquez 1,022.77
Romania - Mihai Niste 2,305.82
Russia - Artur Martirosyan 3,769.36
Senegal - Hassan Nashar 1,046.33
Serbia - Milos Petakovic 2,839.72
Singapore - Jun Hao Wu 2,472.73
Slovakia - Tomas Patka 1,866.33
Slovenia - Tjan Tepeh 2,021.76
South Africa - Ahmed Karrim 2,180.50
South Korea - Jinho “YellOw” Hong 2,942.35
Spain - Adrian Mateos 3,403.34
Sri Lanka - Sutharsan Ariyanayagam 1,033.34
Sweden - Martin Jacobson 2,169.18
Switzerland - Dinesh Alt 2,216.48
Syria - Ahmad Rami Naall 1,044.03
Taiwan - Eric Ting Yi Tsai 2,912.51
Thailand - Punnat Punsri 3,229.25
Tunisia - Maher Achour 1,820.34
Turkey - Orpen Kisacikoglu 3,356.34
Ukraine - Igor Yaroshevskyy 3,030.31
United Arab Emirates - Enrico Mosca 1,122.10
United Kingdom - Stephen Chidwick 3,904.93
United States of America - Bin Weng 5,008.99
Uruguay - Francisco Benitez 2,171.40
Uzbekistan - Valeriy Pak 3,081.85
Venezuela - Dorian Rios Pavon 2,518.24
Vietnam - Minh Phu Dao 2,753.89
