Is Michael Addamo the best player in the world?

Addamo starts 2021 with WSOP Circuit New Year Colossus victory

The wins just keep coming for Michael Addamo. On the heels of massive success in 2020, the Australian tournament crusher began 2021 by navigating his way through more than 8,700 players for his first major score of 2021.

Addamo came away with a $374,604 payday for his win in Event #15: $400 New Year Colossus at the GGPoker WSOP Winter Online Circuit Series. He topped a field of 8,725 entries, earning his first career WSOP Circuit Ring.

Addamo made a strong case as poker’s player of the year in 2020, and he’s off to an impressive start in 2021, just days into the new year. The player outdueled Tudor ‘hotsince93’ Lazar (2nd - $280,910) in heads-up play to seal the win.

Other top finishers included Don ‘Pikerdon’ McCall (3rd - $210,653), ‘benchplayer8’ (4th - $157,967), and Tenn ‘ViloAwo’ Tonts (5th - $118,459).

The $400 New Year Colossus finished up Sunday as the ongoing GGPoker WSOP Winter Online Circuit Series hits the home stretch.

GGPoker WSOP Winter Online Circuit $400 New Year Colossus Final Table Results

Place	Player Name*	Playing From	Prize
1	Michael Addamo	Australia	$374,604
2	Tudor ‘hotsince93’ Lazar	Hungary	$280,910
3	Don ‘Pikerdon’ McCall	Canada	$210,653
4	‘benchplayer8’	China	$157,967
5	Tenn ‘ViiolAwo’ Tonts	Estonia	$118,459
6	‘Hazes’	Austria	$88,832
7	‘minterofbtc’	Austria	$66,614
8	Rui ‘OilOctavius’ Sousa	Portugal	$49,954
9	Sparrow ‘FacelessMan’ Cheung	Hong Kong	$37,460

Was Addamo poker’s 2020 Player of the Year?

Addamo’s tournament prowess put him at or near the top of the list of 2020’s most successful players. PokerNews Chief Editor Will Shillibier recently picked the top player's success as online poker’s biggest story of 2020 in a December episode of The Orbit.

The 2020 success put forth by Addamo prompted Shillibier to choose him as poker’s top story of the year on the roundtable discussion show, in a 2020 that included the unprecedented storylines produced by the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on poker.

Addamo fast start to 2021 marks the second straight year in which the Australian has produced big results in the opening weeks of the year. He kicked off 2020 with a pair of six-figure wins, taking down the Aussie Millions $50k Challenge for $741,752 and the Australian Poker Open Event #7 for $862,311 last January.

He followed up with another big score in the partypoker MILLIONS Sochi Super High Roller Series $100,000 No Limit Hold’em event (5th, $336,000). The world’s live tournament poker economy was halted by COVID-19 shortly after that big finish in Sochi, but Addamo continued the success in the online streets.

He finished second in the online Super High Roller Bowl at partypoker in June, adding a $1,187,500 payday to his growing list of 2020 accomplishments.

Two months later, Addamo came up just short of his third career WSOP bracelet at the GGPoker WSOP Online Bracelet Events series. He came home with a runner-up finish in the $10,000 Heads Up No Limit Hold’em Championship for a $223,488 score.

Addamo rounded out his incredible 2020 with a win in the WPT World Online Championships Super High Roller ($1,284,113), as well as a second-place finish in the EPT Online Turbo High Roller ($139,942).

Does the player's success in the last year-plus make him the best poker player in the world right now? If the Global Poker Index rankings extended to include online results, Addamo would be at or near the top of the 2020 Player of the Year list.

Other players producing outstanding 2020 results included Artur Martirosian, David Yan, and Niklas Astedt. Addamo’s current run, however, puts him at the top of the list of the world’s best poker players.

Featured image source: Flickr/World Poker Tour