The World Poker Tour (WPT) has revamped the scoring system it uses to calculate its annual Player of the Year award, with the changes going into effect for the just-underway 2022 calendar year of WPT events. Among the changes are that every WPT-branded event will count toward the redesigned POY chase, including not only each event at regular WPT stops, but each event at WPTDeepStacks events as well.
The new system took effect with the beginning of the WPT's first stop of 2022, the Lucky Hearts Poker Open at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. That $3,500 buy-in event began on Friday, kicking off Season XX of the WPT's long history. The tourney has a $2 million prize-pool guarantee.
“From Florida to Amsterdam, and Australia to Las Vegas, every time a player sits down to play a World Poker Tour branded event, they’re going to be competing to become Player of the Year,” said WPT CEO Adam Pliska. “This is yet another pillar in the 20th anniversary celebration for the WPT and the players.”
Increased prizepool brackets at heart of POY system changes
At the heart of the changes in the way the WPT calculates its POY winner are the number of prizepool brackets the WPT uses to calculate cumulative points. For 2022, the WPT has created ten different points-awarding brackets, based on the event's total prize pool. The lowest bracket covers events which build a prize pool of $500,000 or less, while the highest bracket includes the WPT's most elite events, those that generate prize pools of $10 million or higher.
The revised system expands upon the WPT's older format, which used only five prize-pool tiers to calculate POY points. As in previous years, all players who cash in a POY-eligible WPT event will be awarded POY points.
The POY revisions for 2022 also formalize the tiebreakers to be used. The four-point tiebreaker system is as follows:
- 1st tiebreaker - Most Titles
- 2nd tiebreaker - Most Final Tables
- 3rd tiebreaker - Most In The Points
- 4th tiebreaker - Most $ Won
As in 2021, the WPT's Player of the Year will award a cumulative $30,000 in prizes, in the form of "WPT Passport" tourney entries. The overall winner will receive a $15,000 WPT Passport in addition to the honor, while the second- and third-place finishers will receive WPT Passports worth $10,000 and $5,000, respectively.
The complete rules for the WPT's 2022 Player of the Year scoring system are available here.
Featured image source: World Poker Tour
