January 03 2024, by Hans Kleinsman
2023 GPI PLAYERS OF THE YEAR ANNOUNCED
›› Weng dominates on way to GPI crown
›› Foxen extends record to four
›› Pupillo survives the charge
›› Over 80 earn National titles
LAS VEGAS, January 3, 2024 – The Global Poker Index (GPI) have announced the champions of their Player of the Year races for the 2023 live tournament poker season …
2023 GPI PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Bin Weng had a few challengers to the 2023 GPI PoY title, but in the end, it wasn’t much of a race as Weng dominantly closed things, collecting over 5,000 GPI points to earn his first-ever PoY victory.
Weng was red-hot on the US poker circuit in 2023, earning 6 wins, 20 Top 10 finishes, and 55 total results during the year.
His wins included a pair of WPT titles – the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown in May and the WPT EveryOne for One Drop in Las Vegas in July – two other titles at Wynn Las Vegas, the WSOP Circuit Main Event ring at Horseshoe Las Vegas and a victory at the return of major tournament poker at Borgata in Atlantic City to kick off 2023.
2022 GPI PoY Stephen Song finished 43rd in this year’s race.
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
2023 GPI FEMALE PLAYER OF THE YEAR
Canadian great Kristen Foxen has added a fourth title to her resume. Just a few years after going on a record-setting back-to-back-to-back run, Foxen wins the GPI Female Player of the Year title once again, defeating a fellow former GPI Female PoY winner, Nadya Magnus.
Foxen’s 2023 included 7 Top 10 finishes and 21 results – she ended the season with a 33rd place finish at the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas.
2022 GPI Female PoY Cherish Andrews finished 6th in this year’s race.
2023 GPI Female PoY Top 5
1. Kristen Foxen (CAN) 2,970.93 pts
2. Nadya Magnus (USA) -403.96
3. Kitty Kuo (TWN) -568.15
4. Victoria Livschitz (USA) -728.91
5. Maria Ho (USA) -875.84
2023 GPI MID-MAJOR PLAYER OF THE YEAR
In the closest race of the year, Nick Pupillo fended off a late charge from Preston McEwen to win the Mid-Major title by just 41.79 points.
Pupillo earned consistent results at multiple buy-in levels in 2023. His 3rd place finish in the Mid-States Poker Tour event at Venetian in late November proved the clincher in the race for Mid-Major PoY.
2022 GPI Mid-Major PoY Stephen Song finished 14th in this year’s race.
2023 GPI Mid-Major PoY Top 5
1. Nick Pupillo (USA) 2,819.77 pts
2. Preston McEwen (USA) -41.79
3. William Kopp (USA) -126.18
4. Ankit Ahuja (IND) -167.13
5. Blake Bohn (USA) -279.46
Weng, Foxen, and Pupillo will be invited to accept their GPI PoY trophies at the Global Poker Awards, presented at the PokerGO Studio ARIA in Las Vegas, broadcast exclusively on PokerGO. An announcement on the 5th Global Poker Awards is expected soon.
2023 GPI NATIONAL PLAYERS OF THE YEAR
A total of 85 players earned the minimum 1,000 points necessary to be recognized as their country’s National Player of the Year, including Stephen Chidwick, who is crowned UK Player of the Year for the fourth straight year…
2023 GPI Players of the Year
| 2023 GPI PoY | Bin Weng (USA) | 5,008.99 |
| 2023 GPI Female PoY | Kristen Foxen (CAN) | 2,970.77 |
| 2023 GPI Mid-Major PoY | Nick Pupillo (USA) | 2,819.77 |
| GPI PoY: North America | Bin Weng (USA) | 5,008.99 |
| GPI PoY: South America | Jose Nacho Barbero (ARG) | 4,387.72 |
| GPI PoY: Europe | Stephen Chidwick (UK) | 3,904.93 |
| GPI PoY: Asia | Ren Lin (CHN) | 4,260.94 |
2023 GPI 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 | Ting Yi Eric 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 |
Congratulations to all of 2023 GPI 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 over 30,000 festivals. The Hendon Mob Poker Database (THM) has archived over 569,000 live poker tournaments and 4.6 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. For more information, visit http://globalpokerindex.com/ and http://thehendonmob.com/
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