In a dramatic finish to the year, the Global Poker Index has found its Player of the Year winners for 2024. Things remained unclear up until very last moments as several pretenders were separated by just a few points going into the final stretch.
When the dust settled, three players emerged victorious, picking up prestigious titles to conclude the POY race, coming out ahead of formidable opponents. Their names and respective categories in which they won are:
- David Coleman – the 2024 GPI Player of the Year Winner
- Cherish Andrews – the 2024 Female GPI Player of the Year
- Han Feng – the GPI Mid-Major Player of the Year winner
Winning a GPI PoY title is an impressive achievement, but what makes this year’s titles even more special is the fact that the race was very close across all three categories.
Coleman Holds Off Lonis to Seize the Day
The main GPI Player of the Year race was a particularly close one, with only ten points separating David Coleman, the eventual winner, and Jesse Lonis, who ended 2024 at the top of GPI rankings with the most points accumulated throughout the season.
However, Coleman managed to edge ahead thanks to 4,383.70 points that he accumulated across his top 13 finishes, wrapping up the year slightly in front of Lonis and his 4,374.38 points.
The past year was a good one for Coleman in terms of results, as he accumulated over $5.2 million in tournament winnings. Near the end of the year, he also captured his biggest career win, finishing sixth in the $100k WSOP Paradise Triton Main Event for $890,000.
Coleman also posted his second and third biggest careers scores during 2024, with a victory in the $25k WPT Alpha8 Trifecta #3 and a Triton event during the Jeju series back in March.
His success over the past twelve months was crowned with the GPI Player of the Year title, which will certainly provide additional motivation for Coleman to keep up the grind in the months to come.
Cherish Andrews Denies Kristen Foxen
After losing her title to Foxen in 2023, Cherish Andrews managed a comeback and became the 2024 Female GPI Player of the Year once again.
This was also a close race, but Andrews wrapped up the year with 100 points ahead of Kristen Foxen. Andrews also finished the year topping the overall 2024 GPI rankings.
The title is well-deserved, as this was the biggest year of Andrews’ career, which saw her win close to $830,000 across three victories and several six-figure paydays.
While missing out on the PoY title might be a disappointment for Foxen, she had an impressive year of her own, being inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame earlier in 2024. She also had her biggest career win, picking up $600,000 for her 13th place finish in the WSOP Main Event.
Han Feng Steals Second Title from Andrews
Just how big of a year 2024 was for Cherish Andrews is clear from the fact that she nearly missed out on picking the second GPI title – the Mid-Major Player of the Year.
Ultimately, however, it was Han Feng who came out ahead after posting an impressive run of his own. Over the course of the year, Feng had 60 cashes and several first-place finishes, which was enough to seal the deal.
This run provided Feng with over $900,000 in prize money, including two of his biggest career cashes coming from his triumphs in the WSOP Circuit Tulsa Main Event and Champions Club Fall Poker Open Main Event.
The 2025 Race Is On
With 2024 GPI titles awarded, it’s time for the players to start accumulating points for the year ahead. While January isn’t particularly rich in poker action, there are several tournament series taking place, which will be of special interest to those in the middling buy-in bracket.
We are looking forward to another year filled with poker action, big prize pools, and dramatic finishes that seem inevitable. The best of the best are always near the top and fighting for titles, proving that there is much more to poker than what meets the eye.
We’ll be doing our best to keep up with all interesting developments across the globe and bring you the most interesting stories and the biggest moments as they unfold and as players set out on the chase for the 2025 GPI Player of the Year titles.
