Isaac Haxton has been crowned PGT Player of the Year 2023, taking the $50,000 bonus and Gold Plate after dominating the season-long leaderboard race with more than $7 million in winnings.
Haxton, 38-years-old and instantly recognisable with his youthful Harry Potter-esque looks and ever-present facemask, has long been considered one of the world’s elite NLH players. He reinforced that tag with four wins, 14 cashes and $7,243,295 in PGT events this past year.
His incredible season, which included a first-ever WSOP bracelet and a further $9.7 million worldwide, got off to a perfect start in the PokerGO studio at the Aria in Las Vegas.
There, in January, he defeated Cary Katz heads-up in the $50k PokerGO Cup to pocket $598,000, sparking a remarkable run.
Victory in the US Poker Open $25k added another $432,000 to the NYC-born pro’s bank balance, with his WSOP $25k High Roller summer win worth another $1,698,215.
His fourth, and biggest, PGT victory came in Super High Roller Bowl VIII in September, where he turned his $300k buy-in into a $2,760,000 payday after he beat Andrew Lichtenberger heads-up for the title.
The following month he came close to adding yet another trophy to his tally, narrowly missing out on the inaugural PLO version of the SHRB, a $100k buy-in producing an $836,000 runner-up spot behind Jared Bleznick.
A slew of further cashes saw him top the PGT end-of-season leaderboard, slightly behind Chris Brewer (who bagged the WSOP $250k SHR for a monster $5,293,556 cash) in money won, but well ahead in overall PGT points gained.
He missed out on the PGT Championship Cup earlier this week, falling in eighth as Daniel Smiljkovic went on to land the season-finale $1 million freeroll title.
Haxton, with $47,041,284 in career earnings, now sits in eighth place on the all-time money list, ahead of the likes of Fedor Holz, Phil Ivey, David Peters and Erik Seidel.
He will receive his 2023 PGT Player of the Year Gold Plate at the fifth Annual Global Poker Awards on February 24, broadcast live from the PokerGO Studio.
Before then, the world’s leading players will begin the 2024 PGT season with the PGT Kickoff series, which started on Friday.
