The Top 10 Biggest Main Event Winnings Of All Time

Bracelet counts and one huge score get the headlines, but the WSOP Player of the Year race is decided over a much longer stretch of poker. If you want to know how the points actually accumulate, which events feed the leaderboard and which ones sit outside it entirely, these are the rules that settle the standings.

What the WSOP Player of the Year award is

It is an annual consistency award. VIP-Grinders describes the title as going to the player who accumulates the most points across eligible bracelet events throughout the World Series of Poker season, rather than to whoever books the single biggest result.

Poker Craze frames it the same way, presenting the award as recognition of consistency, volume and elite results across the entire World Series of Poker instead of one hot run. PokerNews counts the POY award among the most prestigious honors in poker and keeps an overview of the award, its history and its notable winners.

How points are earned

The scoring rule that matters most comes straight from the official WSOP Player of the Year page: each player earns POY points only once per event, and those points are based on their final overall finishing position. One event produces one scoring line, and the value attached to it is set by where the player finished overall in that field.

That is the detail newcomers to the race most often miss. The leaderboard is built from finishing positions in eligible events, each counted a single time, which is why the race rewards a long schedule of solid results rather than a single spectacular day.

Which events count — and which do not

Eligibility does as much work as scoring. The WSOP states that non-open events and online bracelet events do not count toward Player of the Year standings, and it names Industry Employees, Seniors, Super Seniors, Tag Team and Ladies events among those that fall outside the race.

Points accumulate across eligible bracelet events only, so an entry on that excluded list does nothing for a player’s position on the leaderboard. Anyone building a summer schedule with the award in mind needs to check an event’s status against the official list before treating it as a scoring opportunity.

What is different about the 2026 race

The stakes changed this season. In an update dated Jul 16, 2026, VIP-Grinders reports that the 2026 race marks the first time the award carries a $1,000,000 prize pool, with points counting across three festivals worldwide.

Live tracking has followed the money. On Jul 6, 2026, SoMuchPoker published live WSOP Player of the Year 2026 standings and a leaderboard covering the full POY rankings, the points formula and the $1M prize pool breakdown.

Where to follow the standings

• WSOP.com’s Player of the Year page — the official position on once-per-event scoring and on the event types excluded from the standings.
• SoMuchPoker — live 2026 standings and leaderboard, the points formula and the $1M prize pool breakdown.
• MyPokerCoaching (Jun 30, 2026) — how POY points work, how the format evolved and every past winner.
• PokerNews — an overview of the award, its history and its notable winners.
• MTTrack (Apr 19, 2026) — how points are earned, who competes and why the race matters every summer in Vegas.

Before you plan a schedule around the race

Two habits keep the maths honest. The first is to check eligibility before entry: if an event is non-open or online, the WSOP’s own rules place it outside the standings, however good the result. The second is to work from current figures. MyPokerCoaching notes that the POY format has evolved, so a point table copied from an earlier season is not a safe guide to what a finish is worth now; the official page is the reference to confirm against.

Key takeaways

• Points are earned once per event and are based on the player’s final overall finishing position.
• Non-open events and online bracelet events do not count toward the standings, including Industry Employees, Seniors, Super Seniors, Tag Team and Ladies events.
• The award goes to the player with the most points across eligible bracelet events over the season, a measure of consistency and volume rather than one score.
• The 2026 race is the first to carry a $1,000,000 prize pool, with points counting across three festivals worldwide.