2025 WSOP Player of the Year Race Reaches Halfway Stage

The 56^th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) had passed its halfway stage and with 50 events of the 100 that will take place this summer in the books, the heat is on in the 2025 WSOP Player of the Year race.

This year’s winner will receive a unique trophy, entry into the $10,000 buy-in 2026 WSOP Main Event and a banner on the wall of either the Horseshoe Las Vegas or Paris casino in Las Vegas.

So who is on top of the leaderboard as play continues in the second half of the WSOP?

British Star Benny Glaser Has a Clear Lead

With his third win in three weeks of action, British mixed games specialist Benny Glaser has enjoyed the summer of a lifetime.

Winning Events #8 and #15 (the $1,500 Dealer’s Choice event and Event #15, the $1,500 Mixed PLO 8 or Better events) then Event #56 may sounds like child’s play, but the experienced poker legend, who now sits on eight WSOP titles, says it hasn’t been easy at all.

The Player of the Year race has been pretty tough so far, even more than normal,” Benny says. “It’s very tiring and intense and I had a really rough couple of weeks after the [second] win. I essentially went 0 for 16 and it was kind of demoralising.

That all changed in the $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Event #56. Winning it for $208,552, Glaser was delighted and will be pushing hard for PY now.

I’m going to be trying my hardest this summer. I’ll be saving all my energy for the grind, even if it does mean taking a day off at some point. I’d planned a day off but then made day 3 of the $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw. The Day 3 will be helping my POY quest!

While his results have all been limited to in-casino memories made at the Horseshoe Lad Vegas or Paris, Benny knows that he’s ‘going to have to start’ playing online WSOP Events as well very soon.

I generally don’t enjoy it while I’m playing live at the same time but I’m going to have to. I’m going to be firing hard in all the tournaments I can.

Bohlman and Vieira Closest to the Leader

While Glaser is out in front, he is being hotly pursued by two modern greats of the game. The American player Scott Bohlman won Event #17, the $2,000 NLHE event for $436,044, and has cashed an amazing eight times since the start of this summer’s 56^th annual WSOP.

“It feels good, I have never won a big field No Limit Hold’em event in 25 years,” Bohlman said after the victory, before he responded to questions about whether he intended to pursue the Player of Year title in other events, he replied with a smile: “Whatever comes next.”

Since that event, Bohlman has bounced from one event to the next and may be the first player of the top 10 to close out the maximum 10 cashes available to WSOP POY challengers, with further cashes taking out an inferior score rather than adding to them.

Along with Bohlamn, however, Portuguese player Joao Vieira is remarkably close to Bohlman, sitting just 25 points behind him.

Vieira, who won the $100,000-entry High Roller Event #38 for over $2.64 million, and afterwards, his level-headed manner contributed to his success.

I know things can go up and down,” he said. “I just try to keep myself as level-headed as possible. Do my best, fight until the end I didn’t have time to complain about having to fight.

Vieira’s positive attitude is a huge contributory factor when it comes to his WSOP success.

I’m not thinking about what happened six months ago, or what’s going to happen in the next six months, just today’s event. Doing my best for 13 or 14 years and just showing up, showing up, showing up, grinding, being in the present, just working really hard. That’s where confidence comes from. Of course, results help.

Who Else Could Challenge This Summer?

With so many big names inside the top 10, Glaser and his closest rivals have challenges coming from all directions.

While the British pacesetter has 3,245 point, Viktor Blom is still a genuine challenge in fourth place on the leaderboard, with his 2,116 points amassed so far coming courtesy of six cashes and four final tables. The Swede has won an astonishing $892,000 in those events and another win could put him in the box seat. 

Americans Caleb Furth (2,021 points), Nick Schulman (1,961), Shaun Deeb (1,951) and Brian Rast (1,936) will all further chances to improve their scores in the coming days, while Glaser’s British compatriot Philip Sternheimer (1,910) has already broken his bracelet duck this summer.

Last but by no means least, Daniel ‘Kid Poker’ Negreanu is on 1,820 points and will be one to watch, with the Canadian hoping to improve on his best place of 11^th in the WSOP Main Event.

Here are the current 2025 WSOP Player of the Year standings after a thrilling first half of the action at Horseshoe Las Vegas ad Paris casinos have thrilled poker fans around the world.