Season 22 of the World Poker Tour brought a lot of excitement, many significant moments, and numerous large prize pools. Thousands of players around the globe competed in dozens of tournaments.
Out of those thousands, only one is selected each season to claim the coveted WPT Player of the Year title, and for Season 22, that honor went to Yunkyu Song.
Hailing from South Korea, Song posted some impressive performances during the last year, accumulating a total of 2,275 POY points. This put him over 100 points ahead of the runner-up, Dylan Smith, and more than 500 points in front of the third-place finisher, Eric Afriat.
Yunkyu Song’s Dominant WPT Performance
2024 was a big year for 25-year-old Yunkyu Song, a young South Korean player whose lifetime tournament winnings now stand at over $1.4 million, according to his Hendon Mob stats.
His WPT winnings over the past season contributed significantly to that number, as Song took home $540,000 thanks to three top-five finishes, including the victory in the WPT Prime Playground Championship, which netted him over $160,000.
In monetary terms, Song’s best result was his runner-up finish in the WPT bestbet Scramble Championship. For that result, he took home a cool quarter of a million.
Song announced a big year early in 2024, when he finished fourth in the $3,500 WPT Rolling Thunder Championship. The tournament took place in March and after picking up $105,000 and some always-needed confidence, he continued to the string of strong results.
In addition to the prestigious title, Yunkyu Song also gets $15,000 worth of WPT Passports, which will certainly help kick things off in the next season.
Smith, who finished in the second place, receives $10,000 in WPT Passports, while Eric Afriat will get $5,000 he can use for tournaments in Season 23.
New Battle Starts in February
The battle for the Season 22 PoY title was a close one right to the very end, but now that it is over, it is time for players to look to the next challenge.
The next season of the World Poker Tour will kick off in February with a WPT Prime festival and the WPT Championship in Cambodia. This will be the first opportunity to pick up valuable PoY points and get off to a strong start.
After that, there are several festival on the schedule for March, with a WPT Rolling Thunder Championship in California and two WPT Prime festivals in Cyprus and Australia.
So far, there are only two more events scheduled for the first half of the year, both taking place in the USA. However, as the year rolls on, we expect the World Poker Tour to reveal more stops, both for main WPT festivals and Prime events.
It will be another exciting season for players and poker fans alike as the World Poker Tour continues to go strong, crowning champions, honoring the best players, and dishing out huge prize pools that attract consummate professionals and recreational players alike!
