Poker Writer
Another year, another World Series of Poker Player of the Year (POY) debate featuring Phil Hellmuth and Shaun Deeb. This time, Deeb called the 17-time bracelet winner “very bitter” and set off a debate over whether “regular players” can win POY.
Shortly before the start of the WSOP main event, Hellmuth once again waded into the waters of debating the WSOP POY system. But in many ways, this debate is simply spinning its wheels.
This has been a long-debated topic for years, and it happened exactly a year ago, around this time of year, featuring the same players.
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Hellmuth Says POY Should Be About Money
Hellmuth recorded a video of himself while playing on the WSOP floor during the main event to give his opinion:
I think if you lose money, you should not win POY. What are we doing? If someone brings like $2 million it doesn’t give the normal person a chance … It’s not a fair system.
He also called out Deeb directly, saying, “It’s comical to me to hear Shaun act like he is 100% right. Shaun is never 100% right.”
The main tenet of Hellmuth’s argument is that the current POY system rewards players who can play as much as possible and have money to burn. Those who can buy in at unlimited levels, in other words. Someone like Deeb plays every event he possibly can, with his main goal being to win bracelets and POY rather than maximizing return on investment (ROI).
The system certainly benefits high-volume players, with Deeb sitting in third place in the current standings, just behind Alex Foxen and Naoya Kihara.
But Hellmuth says a player should not be a POY contender while in the red, financially. Many of the prolific players spend a lot of money on buy-ins, including rebuys, and could very well lose money while racking up POY points.
Deeb Lays Into Hellmuth on ESPN
Deeb, meanwhile, seemed more annoyed by the debate than anything. He once again had to defend a strong POY performance after many questioned his 2025 win. Deeb is in the midst of his main event run, which, at the time of this article, is still continuing.
Jeff Platt questioned Deeb about Hellmuth’s comments on ESPN’s Wednesday night coverage. Deeb did not hold back, calling out Hellmuth’s inconsistent arguments from year-to-year:
Phil moves the goalposts. Last year, he literally talked about how I shouldn’t win POY because Benny Glaser won more events and the Grinder won more prestigious events. And now all of a sudden, money is all that matters. He just changes it based on what makes him seem more important to everyone, and Phil can never win player of the year, and he can’t win bracelets anymore, so he is very bitter.
In Deeb’s mind, Hellmuth is constantly bringing up these issues with the system, just because he does not like the results and perhaps feels a bit threatened by Deeb inching closer to his total bracelet haul, winning his ninth a couple of weeks ago.
Rule Change Caps Volume Advantage
One thing Hellmuth seems not to acknowledge is that the WSOP actually did change the POY formula for the 2026 WSOP and did exactly what he is suggesting. The new formula for 2026 capped the number of results, counting only a player’s top 15. So, it eliminates the possibility of accumulating points solely through volume.
Daniel Negreanu pointed this out in reply to Hellmuth, comparing the system to tennis or golf rankings, where players have to do well in many tournaments to rise in the rankings:
One of the most important adjustments the WSOP POY made was to CAP the number of cashes that count. Volume still gives you an advantage, but this change lessens the advantage. The change directly hurt Shaun Deeb the most because he is willing to burn ROI to accumulate points.
Negreanu did concede that there could be an adjustment made regarding the number of bullets and POY points. This was the most interesting suggestion in his post. As he suggests, perhaps points could be deducted for failing multiple bullets in a tournament. For instance, one of the sports he compared the WSOP POY race to was tennis. Once a player loses in a tennis tournament, they are out and cannot just re-enter.
POY Top 50 Made Up of Well-Known Players
Hellmuth’s reasoning for his position is that it does not give “regular players” any chance to win. This point in his argument does have a kernel of truth. A perusal of the 2026 WSOP leaderboard shows that the top 20 are all prominent and well-known players.
The top 10 consists of multi-time bracelet winners and regular high rollers. The first name on the standings that may not be a household name for poker fans is Myles Mullaly, who sits at No. 13. But even he has more than $2.3 million in career cashes.
Going further down the standings, No. 38 Naseem Salem and No. 39 Justin Fawcett had just under $1 million in career cashes prior to their bracelet wins, which now puts each of them near $2 million.
How Far Can a ‘Regular Player’ Realistically Climb?
One case study for Hellmuth’s argument comes in the form of Hok Yiu Lee. Among the top 50, he had the lowest career earnings before the WSOP with a bit over $500,000, which he has now turned into more than $1.1 million with three seven-figure cashes at the WSOP.
The Hong Kong player has had an amazing run, finishing in the top three in three large-field events with more than 1,000 players apiece. But he has no realistic shot at winning POY, let alone threatening to win it, as he sits in 42nd place.
If Lee had finished the job in each of those three events and won the bracelet in all three, he would have nearly double his current total of 1,544 points, which would put him close to Foxen at the top with 3,004. So, the only path for a regular player who plays in a few smaller buy-in events only is to win as many as three bracelets, and even then, it may not be enough.
Photo Credit: WSOP
