Sean Winter Joins The Top Three In The 2019 Card Player Player of the Year Race

Summer is now in the rearview mirror, but that hasn’t stopped things from heating up in the 2019 Card Player Player of the Year race, sponsored by Global Poker. With just four months remaining in this year’s battle for the POY title, the picture of the top contenders is starting to come into focus. Here is a look at the players who made the biggest moves inside the top 20 over the past month:

1st – Stephen Chidwick (5,751 points)

British poker pro Stephen Chidwick overtook the lead in the 2019 Card Player Player of the Year race in late July. In the first week of August he made two more POY-qualified final tables, adding another 500 points to his totals. Chidwick has already cashed for more than $5.7 million in POY-qualified events, and that doesn’t even include the nearly $5.4 million he earned for finishing fourth in the £1,050,000 buy-in Triton Millions London charity invitational. Chidwick has accumulated 13 final-table finishes and three titles so far this year, including winning his first World Series of Poker bracelet in the $25,000 pot-limit Omaha high roller. As a result of his continued excellence on the live tournament scene, he looks like the player to beat heading into the later stages of the 2019 POY race.

3rd – Sean Winter (4,988 points)

Sean Winter outlasted a field of 809 entries in the 2019 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open $5,250 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event, securing the top prize of $698,175 and 1,824 POY points. This was the Florida native’s third title and tenth final-table finish of 2019. Winter started his 2019 campaign off by winning the $25,000 high roller event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $495,210 and 588 points. He then made five final tables at the 2019 U.S. Poker Open, including a win in the $10,500 buy-in short deck event at that series. All told he cashed for $899,860 and 1,708 POY points across those five events.

In May Winter placed second in the European Poker Tour Monte Carlo €25,000 high roller, adding another $436,352 and 700 points. He now has more than $2.6 million in year-to-date earnings With success in both large field main events and high rollers, Winter has climbed into third place in the overall POY standings.

4th – Paul Phua (4,907 points)

Paul Phua has made 11 final tables in 2019, many of them in the very highest stakes events of the year. Along the way, he has accumulated more than $10.8 million in year-to-date earnings, with $4.3 million in cashes made in the first few weeks of August alone. Phua finished second in the £100,000 no-limit hold’em main event at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series London for $3.1 million USD, and then just days later placed fourth in the £100,000 short deck main event for another $1.2 million.

Less than a week after that he finished fourth in the €25,500 buy-in high roller at the partypoker LIVE MILLIONS Europe for another $126,000. Phua now sits in fourth place on the overall POY leaderboard as a result of his incredible run on the live high roller circuit.

6th – Shannon Shorr (4,383 points)

Shannon Shorr is having one of his most consistent years on the live tournament circuit in recent memory. Shorr has been on the scene for more than 13 years now, and he has accumulated more than $7.8 million in live cashes along the way. Just shy of $1.1 million of that has been earned in 2019, with Shorr having made eight final tables with one title won already this year. That victory came in the €1,100 no-limit hold’em hyper-turbo event at the European Poker Tour Barcelona series. Shorr outlasted a field of 81 players in the last-chance event to win $23,987 and 192 points.

Shorr’s three largest scores of the year have all been runner-up finishes. He placed second in the World Poker Tour Gardens Poker Championships main event, the Borgata Spring Poker Open main event and a $5,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event at the WSOP. Shorr currently occupies the sixth-place spot in the rankings.

12th – Sam Greenwood (3,636 points)

Canada’s Sam Greenwood secured his ninth career seven-figure tournament score by placing fifth in the £100,000 Triton London no-limit hold’em main event in early August, earning $1,100,440 USD and 550 points. The massive event drew a field of 130 total entries, creating a prize pool worth more than $14.8 million USD.

After his stellar August, Greenwood kicked off September with a bang by placing third in a €25,000 high roller at the EPT Barcelona series for another $223,865 and 336 points. The two big scores were enough to catapult Greenwood into 12th place on the overall leaderboard. He now has career lifetime live tournament earnings in excess of $20.3 million.

13th – Joseph Cheong (3,612 points)

Joseph Cheong is perhaps most famous for finishing third in the 2010 World Series of Poker main event for $4.1 million, but the American poker pro is hardly a one-hit-wonder. Cheong has accumulated more than $10 million in additional live tournament earnings outside of his run to the November Nine.

So far in 2019 Cheong has made nine final tables and won three titles, including his first WSOP bracelet. In early August he finished seventh in the SHRPO $5,250 main event won by Sean Winter, adding another $115,300 and 450 points. The score was enough to move him into 13th place in the overall rankings, with 3,612 points and more than $1.1 million in live cashes already accrued this year.

Here is a look at the current top 20 in the 2019 POY race standings:

Click here to check out the complete standings in the 2019 Player of the Year race sponsored by Global Poker.

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