GPI reveals 2023 POY champs: A First for Bin Weng, A Fourth Female POY for Foxen, Nick Pupillo wins tight race for Mid-Major POY, Ren Lin is Asia’s best

As the Global Poker Index (GPI) unveiled the Players of the Year (POY) winners, it was a season of firsts, record-extending titles, and a banner year for poker with 85 players earning National titles and the Asian region notching 2 of the Top 5 positions in the POY rankings.

A first for Bin Weng

Chinese American Bin Weng entered the season without a major title to his name. While a competitive and consistent performer on tour, the 40-year-old was never really a contender until 2023 changed all that. Bing Weng dominated the competition, accumulating a total 5,008.99 points for his very first Player of the Year title on the back of three World Poker Tour titles, a WSOP Circuit ring, over $6 million dollars in prize money and then some.

Bin Weng burst out of the 2023 gates, winningThe Return Championship $5,300 buy-in no-limit hold’em event at The Borgata. He pocketed his first ever $1,000,000 cash and checked in his first 1,920 POY points. Weng never let his foot off the pedal.

Bin Weng then captured his very first marquee win at the inaugural World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event held in the newly-branded Horseshoe Casino Las Vegas. It gave him his first WSOP ring and banked $227,344 in prize money plus 912 POY points. But it was at the the World Poker Tour series that gave him the most success and left his closest rivals to the POY title biting the dust.

Rush at the WPT

Weng made an unprecedented final table appearances of two WPT main events, clinching, again, a career first title at the World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown before finishing 4th at WPT Choctaw a week later. He would add a total cash of $1,271,250. Bin Weng would finish his WPT campaign with a huge win at the WPT EveryOne for One Drop ($2.2M) and ending the season with a third title at the WPT World Championship High Roller ($958K). Bin Weng could not be caught in the POY race.

Bin Weng’s 2023 stats were worthy of the POY title with 20 Top Ten finishes including 16 final-table appearances, 6 wins, 52 in-the-money placements and a hefty $6,652,433 in total cashes.

Lucky four for Kristen Foxen

Canadian star Kristen Foxen has clinched a record-extending fourth GPI Female Player of the Year title by a narrow margin, accumulating 2,970.93 points. Foxen did a hat trick for the end year POY title winning first in 2017 then going back-to-back in 2019 and 2020 while still carrying her maiden name Bicknell.. Kristen Foxen edged 2021 GPI Female POY Nadya Magnus by just 403.96 points for the 2023 crown.

The Canadian’s outstanding year was built by deep runs at the PokerGo Studio and a final table finish at Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open (SHRPO) Hollywood, banking a year-best cash of $216,079. It was still a wide-open race until Foxen sealed the deal with a 33rd place finish at the WPT World Championship in Wynn Las Vegas giving her an insurance of 345.07 points.

Kristen Foxen’s 2023 featured 36 cashes, making 13 final tables, 7 of which were top 10 finishes. She tallied a total of just under $1.1 million in live tournament winnings. Although not considered for POY points, Foxen made history in September, when she also won a fourth gold bracelet at the 2023 World Series of Poker $888 Crazy Eights online event making her the only female player to achieve this feat. It was four for four for Foxen.

Nick Pupillo by a nose

In the tightest of races, the GPI Mid-Major Player of the Year was decided down the stretch by a mere 41 points. Nick Pupillo withstood a homestretch rally in late November from Preston McEwen at the WSOP Circuit stop in North Carolina. Pupillo however, gained the crucial points with a 3rd place finish at the MSPT Venetian to bag the Mid-Major title.

Nick Pupillo was impressive throughout the year with four final table finishes at the 2023 World Series of Pokerthat featured two third place finishes and winning his first-ever bracelet, ruling the Mixed Triple Draw event with a top prize of $181,978. He also made table finishes at the Venetian and ended his year capturing the $25,000 High Roller win at the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas. Pupillo earned $974,843 for the year to go with his title.

Asia-Pacific GPI National Players led by PoY: Asia Ren Lin

Eighty-Five players were recognized as their country’s National Player of the Year. Asia-Pacific was represented by thirteen players who earned the mandatory points. The region was led by China’s Ren Lin who was named GPI Player of the Year: Asia with 4,260.94 points. Hong Kong’s Daniel Tang followed close with 4,107.14. The two Asians ended up in the Top 5 in the overall PoY rankings with Lin placing third and Tang at fifth.

It was Daniel Tang who was leading Ren Lin at the tail end of the poker season, with the former at 4th position and the latter at 6th coming into the WPT World Championship. The Chinese player however, crucially took the 2023 WPT Alpha8 at Wynn Las Vegas in December to overtake Tang and snatch the Asian POY title. The high roller event also gave Ren Lin a career-best prize money of $1,045,781. Including this payday, nine of Lin’s top 10 cashes came in 2023.

Ren Lin took home 3 titles at the PokerGo Tour, WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown, Hollywood and the WPT Championship Las Vegas. The 38-year-old had 26 final table finishes all over the world in a breakout year that saw him win his career-first U.S. title in March at the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em – USPO #2 event and amassed a total of $5.4 million in 2023 tournament earnings.

Repeat National Winners

2022 GPI PoY: Asia titlist Punnat Punsri made it 3 years in a row as National Player of the Year for Thailand, finishing 6th in the Asia-Pacific rankings. Repeat National winners were Daniel Tang of Hong Kong, Ankit Ahuja of India and South Korea’s Jinho “YellOw” Hong.

GPI PoY Asia

1. Ren Lin – China – 4,260.94
2. Daniel Tang – Hong Kong – 4,107.14
3. Ankit Ahuja – India – 3,406.43
4. Shimizu Nozomu – Japan – 3,381
5. Webster Chin Wei Lim – Malaysia – 3,302
6. Punnat Punsri – Thailand – 3,229.25
7. Jinho “YellOw” Hong – South Korea – 2,942.35
8. Eric Ting Yi Tsai -Taiwan – 2,912.51
9. Minh Phu Dao – Vietnam – 2,753.89
10. James “Peng” Mendoza – Philippines – 2,685.41
11. Jun Hao Wu – Singapore – 2,472.73
12. Jhon Hendri – Indonesia – 1,790.41
13. Sutharsan Ariyanayagam – Sri Lanka – 1,033.34

2023 GPI Players of the Year

*Article by Mike Alcazaren