A look at the 2013 Player of the Year winners

For eight years (from 1997 through 2004) only Cardplayer Magazine handed out a Player of the Year award to the top performing tournament player in the game, and then in 2005 Bluff Magazine developed their own formula and the two entities went another seven years before a third company, the Global Poker Index, threw their hat into the POY ring this year.

So with three Player of the year awards now up for grabs (as well as the World Series of Poker Player of the Year award) there are plenty of opportunities for a number of poker players to leave their mark on the tournament season, and this year it was Greg Merson (the winner of the Cardplayer Magazine and WSOP POY award), Dan Smith (the winner of the Global Poker Index POY award), and Marvin Rettenmaier (the winner of the Bluff Magazine POY award)  who took homed the honors.

Here is a look at the final leader-boards for each Player of the Year award from 2012.

Bluff Magazine Player of the Year leader-board (accurate as of December 30, 2012):

1. Marvin Rettenmaier – 1,348.52 points
2. Dan Smith – 1,261.01 points
3. Greg Merson – 1,157.55 points
4. Joseph Cheong – 961.42 points
5. Phil Hellmuth—915.64 points
6. Phil Ivey – 904.17 points
7. Jonathan Duhamel — 863.90 points
8. Mike Mizrachi – 855.07 points
9. Ole Schemion – 843.05 points
10. Antonio Esfandiari – 833.54 points

Bluff Magazine’s formula uses a player’s 2012 results along with 2011 results, with a higher emphasis placed on the 2012 results.

Cardplayer Magazine Player of the Year leader-board (accurate as of December 30, 2012):

1. Greg Merson – 5,100 points
2. Dan Smith – 5,040 points
3. Marvin Rettenmaier – 4,130 points
4. Kyle Julius — 3,752 points
5. Ole Schemion – 3,676 points
6. Joseph Cheong – 3,590 points
7. Antonio Esfandiari – 3,330 points
8. Phil Hellmuth — 3,210 points
9. John Dibella – 3,064 points
10. Oliver Speidel — 3,046 points

Cardplayer Magazine’s formula only looks at results from 2012.

Global Poker Index Player of the Year leader-board (accurate as of December 30, 2012):

1. Dan Smith – 1,158.27 points
2. Marvin Guido Rettenmaier – 1.077.09 points
3. Bertrand Grospellier – 913.35 points
4. Kyle Julius — 906.02 points
5. Andrew Lichtenberger – 889.57 points
6. Joseph Cheong – 848.91 points
7. Phil Hellmuth — 846.83 points
8. Jonathan Duhamel – 812.46 points
9. Jason Mercier – 810.89 points
10. Steve O’Dwyer — 800 points

The GPI has the most unique formula, breaking the year into quarters and using a player’s best results from each period only (basically rewarding quality over quantity).

WSOP Player of the Year final Leader-Board:

1. Greg Merson — 981.13 points
2. Phil Hellmuth — 889.33 points
3. Antonio Esfandiari — 683.10 points
4. John Monnette — 623.25 points
5. Phil Ivey — 568.70 points
6. Michael Mizrachi — 568.70 points
7. David (ODB) Baker — 517.13 points
8. Joseph Cheong — 501.75 points
9. Timothy Adams — 482.78 points
10. Andrew Frankenberger — 481.86 points