January 04 2023, by Hans Kleinsman
2022 GPI PLAYERS OF THE YEAR ANNOUNCED
›› Song captures two titles
›› Andrews wins the crown
›› 79 players named National PoYs
LAS VEGAS, January 4, 2022 – The Global Poker Index (GPI) have released the names of all of their Player of the Year race winners from the 2022 poker season.
Stephen Song was the last player standing in one of the most entertaining GPI Player of the Year races in history. Several players would hold on to the #1 PoY rank throughout the year but Song waited until the very end to take the lead, winning the WPT Prime Championship at Wynn Las Vegas in one of the final tournaments of the season, taking the lead from his friend, Adam Hendrix, who was at or near the top of the table for most of the season.
Collecting a total of 3,543.72 GPI PoY points, Song finished just 17.24 points ahead of Hendrix in the race and just 46.25 points ahead of Jeremy Ausmus, who kicked off 2022 grabbing the early lead in the PoY race.
2022 GPI PoY Top 5:
- Stephen Song (USA)
- Adam Hendrix (USA)
- Jeremy Ausmus (USA)
- Chad Eveslage (USA)
- Farid Jattin (COL)
Cherish Andrews arrived at the Wynn for the WPT World Championship Festival trailing Angela Jordison in the race for the GPI Female Player of the Year title. She would leave Las Vegas leaving no doubt she should win the race following an incredible performance in three WPT events during her stay, including a victory and a trio of Top 6 finishes.
Three-time (and back-to-back-to-back) GPI Female PoY Kristen Bicknell would finish third in the race while reigning Female PoY Nadya Magnus finished a very respectable 14th on a reduced schedule.
2022 GPI Female PoY Top 5:
- Cherish Andrews (USA)
- Angela Jordison (USA)
- Kristen Bicknell (CAN)
- Jessica Vierling (GER)
- Christina Gollins (USA)
Amazingly, Song also wins the Mid-Major Player of the Year race, recognizing players involved in events with buy-ins up to $2,500 USD, becoming the very first person to ever win a pair of GPI PoY title in one year.
Song had such an impressively strong year overall, excelling in events with wide-ranging buy-ins.
The aforementioned Jordison also battled hard in this race, holding the lead heading into December, dropping to 3rd and finally ending up in the runner-up position.
Inaugural GPI Mid-Major PoY winner David Mzareulov finished 142nd in this year’s race.
2022 GPI Mid-Major PoY Top 5:
- Stephen Song (USA)
- Angela Jordison (USA
- Julien Sitbon (FRA)
- Jared Ingles (USA)
- Donovan Dean (USA)
Both Song and Andrews will be invited to accept their trophies at the Global Poker Awards ceremony at the PokerGO Studio at ARIA in Las Vegas – broadcast exclusively on PokerGO. An official announcement on the date for the 4th Global Poker Awards is expected next week.
Meanwhile, 79 players received GPI National Player of the Year honors. Familiar faces such as Mikita Bodyakovsky, Davidi Kitai, Farid Jattin, Koray, Aldemir, Sergio Aido, Stephen Chidwick once again collect National titles, joining a slew of first-time winners including Song and 2022 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Espen Uhlen Jorstad.
2022 GPI Players of the Year
2022 GPI PoY | Stephen Song (USA) | 3,543.72 |
2022 Mid-Major PoY | Stephen Song (USA) | 2,580.18 |
2022 Female PoY | Cherish Andrews (USA) | 2,835.14 |
2022 GPI National Players of the Year
*Minimum 1,000 GPI PoY points required to be recognized as National PoY
Algeria | Omar Lakhdari | 2,011.04 |
Argentina | Jose “Nacho” Barbero | 2,661.64 |
Armenia | Aren Bezhanyan | 1,820.39 |
Australia | Yita Choong | 2,507.16 |
Austria | Daniel Rezaei | 2,295.40 |
Azerbaijan | David Mzareulov | 2,114.36 |
Belarus | Mikita Bodyakovsky | 3,006.73 |
Belgium | Davidi Kitai | 2,481.23 |
Brazil | Yuri Martins Dzivielevski | 3,017.11 |
Bulgaria | Simeon Spasov | 2,529.47 |
Canada | Mike Watson | 3,429.44 |
Chile | Nick Yunis | 1,951.72 |
China | Sen Mu | 1,535.99 |
Colombia | Farid Jattin | 3,466.67 |
Croatia | Sverko Gregor | 2,047.97 |
Cyprus | Yiannis Liperis | 2,357.79 |
Czechia | Roman Hrabec | 2,399.92 |
Denmark | Henrik Hecklen | 2,868.66 |
Dominican Republic | Francis Cruz | 1,708.51 |
Ecuador | Pablo Valdivieso | 1,124.16 |
Egypt | John Adel Fouad Basta | 1,135.21 |
Estonia | David Comeron Carrasco | 1,641.45 |
Finland | Toni Kaukua | 1,612.08 |
France | Julien Sitbon | 3,024.71 |
Georgia | Giorgiy Skhuluhiya | 1,919.03 |
Germany | Koray Aldemir | 2,435.11 |
Greece | Symeon Alexandridis | 2,473.96 |
Hong Kong | Daniel Chi Tang | 2,966.24 |
Hungary | Laszlo Bujtas | 2,266.40 |
India | Ankit Ahuja | 2,150.10 |
Iran | Milad Oghabian Langar | 2,005.09 |
Ireland | Stephen Kehoe | 2,168.90 |
Israel | Yuval Bronshtein | 2,677.03 |
Italy | Michael Rossitto | 2,265.29 |
Japan | Tamon Nakamura | 2,199.77 |
Jordan | Sultan Khair | 1,130.17 |
Kazakhstan | Dauren Zhaparov | 1,063.70 |
Kyrgyzstan | Kubanychbek Abakirov | 1,328.94 |
Latvia | Aleksejs Ponakovs | 2,059.70 |
Lebanon | Gabriel Akiki | 2,087.83 |
Lithuania | Vladas Tamasauskas | 1,670.71 |
Luxembourg | Felix Michel Weis | 1,235.12 |
Malaysia | Paul Phua | 2,836.28 |
Mexico | Jose Andres Guzman | 1,610.50 |
Moldova | Pavel Plesuv | 2,608.77 |
Montenegro | Vlado Banicevic | 1,245.43 |
Morocco | Mehdi Chaoui | 2,682.46 |
North Macedonia | Ilija Savevski | 1,642.47 |
Netherlands | David Hu | 2,459.16 |
Norway | Espen Uhlen Jorstad | 2,566.63 |
Panama | Jorge Hou Huang | 1,452.63 |
Philippines | David Erquiaga | 2,436.25 |
Poland | Jakub Michalak | 2,568.61 |
Portugal | Pedro Marques | 2,310.53 |
Puerto Rico | Ricardo Velasco | 1,258.24 |
Romania | Danut Chisu | 2,466.86 |
Russia | Artur Martirosyan | 2,604.27 |
Serbia | Aleksandar Tomovic | 2,033.32 |
Singapore | Andy Xueyan Li | 1,393.82 |
Slovakia | Marek Blasko | 1,694.23 |
Slovenia | Rok Gostisa | 2,134.00 |
South Africa | Ahmed Karrim | 1,780.44 |
South Korea | Jinho “YellOw” Hong | 2,908.87 |
Spain | Sergio Aido | 2,763.94 |
Sweden | Anton Wigg | 2,795.90 |
Switzerland | Alexandre Vuilleumier | 2,473.19 |
Taiwan | Pete Chen | 2,124.18 |
Thailand | Punnat Punsri | 3,172.78 |
Tunisia | Maher Nouira | 2,224.54 |
Turkey | Koray Korkmaz | 2,601.06 |
Ukraine | Andrey Lyubovetskiy | 3,069.49 |
United Arab Emirates | Basel Khabazeh | 2,054.47 |
United Kingdom | Stephen Chidwick | 3,323.61 |
USA | Stephen Song | 3,543.72 |
Uruguay | Francisco Benitez | 2,241.00 |
Uzbekistan | Aleksandr Pak | 1,474.98 |
Venezuela | Dorian Rios Pavon | 2,109.42 |
Vietnam | Tony Tran | 2,370.73 |
Congratulations to all of our 2022 PoY winners!
For further information:
Anthony Charter
PR & Communications Manager
About GPI/THM
Global Poker Index (GPI) is live tournament poker’s ranking authority – classifying more than 640,000 active players from over 100 countries across almost 30,000 festivals. GPI’s Hendon Mob Poker Database (THM) has archived over 514,000 live poker tournaments and 4 million individual results and is continually updated via real-time data collection from over 2,200 partner venues. Global Poker Index and The Hendon Mob are trading names of Mediarex Group, a global sports and entertainment organization, founded in Malta in 2012.
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