The Global Poker Index (GPI) yesterday announced the winners of the Player of the Year for 2024. The most coveted honour of all belonged to David Coleman from New Jersey (USA), who eventually beat Jesse Lonis by the slightest margin to claim the the GPI Player of the Year award. The Spanish star Adrian Mateos rounded out the podium, clinching the third spot on the GPI POY leaderboard, ahead of the Chinese poker pro Ren Lin (4,074.93) and Mike Watson (4,026.29) who rounded out the top five.
Other major GPI honours belonged to female poker pro Cherish Andrews and Han Feng with the former collecting her second career GPI Female Player of the Year after beating the two-time defending GPI Female POY winner Kristen Foxen. Andrews also came close to clinching the 2024 GPI Mid-Major POY title, eventually finishing runner-up to Texas native Han Feng.
In all three categories for the GPI race, the winners were decided by totaling the top 13 qualifying results for the GPI leaderboard in 2024. The Mid-Major award was limited to tourneys featuring buy-ins of $2.5k or less.
David Coleman’s Journey To Winning 2024 GPI Player of the Year
David Coleman finished 2024 with an impressive 4,383.70 points, just less than 10 points ahead of Lonis (4,374.38). The newest GPI Player of the Year had a year to remember. According to The Hendon Mob, he racked in over $5.2 million in live cashes in 2024 on the back of 48 cashes, six victories and 28 final table finishes. This more than doubled his previous live earnings. Colman’s top three cashes in 2024 included a $730,300 score in July for winning a $25,000 buy-in WPT Alpha8 Trifecta event.
This New Jersey pro finally ended the year on a big note, earning a hefty $890,000 for sixth place in the WSOP Paradise $100k Triton Main Event. Following his late surge in the year, he managed to move ahead of his tough competitor Lonis, who also had a remarkable year on the felts.
2024 GPI Player of the Year Top 10 Standings
| Place | Player | Points |
| 1 | David Coleman | 4,383.70 |
| 2 | Jesse Lonis | 4,374.38 |
| 3 | Adrian Mateos | 4,312.44 |
| 4 | Ren Lin | 4,074.93 |
| 5 | Mike Watson | 4,026.29 |
| 6 | Punnat Punsri | 3,942.21 |
| 7 | Alex Foxen | 3,878.44 |
| 8 | Artur Martirosyan | 3,764.56 |
| 9 | Stephen Chidwick | 3,752.44 |
| 10 | Dylan Weisman | 3,729.00 |
Santhosh Suvarna Shines for India Among GPI National Player of the Year Winners
Players from over 90 different countries represented their nations in the GPI points leaderboard, scoring at least 1,000 points to win GPI National Player of the Year (NPoY) for 2024. Three players won their countries’ first-ever GPI National POY honours, including Afghanistan’s Amani Ezatulla, Iceland’s Steinn Thanh Du Karlsson, and Jersey’s Eddie Quinn.
There were tight races for the NPoY and we saw several players etching their names as the first-time NPoY winners, including India’s poker super star Santhosh Suvarna (3,145.42 points), who beat two-time POY India winner Ankit Ahuja to win the POY India race.
Suvarna had an incredible year. He scored 11 final table finishes and two victories, including winning the WSOP 2024 Super High Roller for a career-best $5,415,152 and the €25k No Limit Hold’em EPT Paris for $ 377,669. His other notable scores of the year included a $503,085 score for 5th place finish in the WSOP 2024 $50K PLO High Roller and a $396,254 for his 5th place finish in the Super High Roller in Barcelona. He ended the year with $209,420 for his 8th place finish in the WSOP Paradise High Roller.
His top-notch performance helped him to end the year ahead of Ankit Ahuja (2,565.90 pts) and Abhinav Iyer who rounded out the podium with 2,086.44 pts. Here is a quick look at the top rankers on the GPI POY India.
Global Poker Index POY India Leaderboard 2024
Among other NPoY winners were from Asia were the likes of Indonesia’s Alfie Poetra (1,784.05), Japan’s Masashi Oya (3,005.11 points), Macau’s Manlok Chan (1,956.46 points), Vietnam’s Quang Huy Nguyen (2,210.54 points) & Taiwan’s Justin Chi Jen Chu who scored 3,028.01 points.
The complete list of the GPI’s 2024 National POY winners is available on GPI’s official website. Coleman, Andrews, and Feng will now be attending the 2024 GPI Awards ceremony in Las Vegas to receive their honors in person.
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