Stephen Chidwick Leading Two Poy Races In 2022
Stephen Chidwick is poised to take down two of the three major POY titles in 2022. He is currently leading the Cardplayer Player of the Year race and the PokerGo Tour POY race. Chidwick is virtually a lock to take down the Cardplayer title, but the PGT title is still up for grabs.
Meanwhile, the Global Poker Index POY 2022 race is in the home stretch, with Adam Hendrix leading. However, there are four players within 100 points of his lead.
Stephen Chidwick Leads Cardplayer POY Race
With about three weeks left in 2022, it appears that Stephen Chidwick has locked up the Cardplayer Player of the Year title. He presently has 6,499 points and a 1,000-point lead over Farid Jatten for second place. Chadwick has enjoyed a stellar 2022 with over $6.9 million in live tournament earnings.
For the Cardplayer leaderboard, Chidwick has $6.2 million in earnings. Cardplayer does not count all live cashes in its POY race. For the year, Chidwick has 25 final table appearances and five victories that count towards his POY status. He had a pair of seven-figure scores in 2022, including a victory Short Deck Main Event at the Titan Poker Series Madrid event.
Much of Chidwick’s success was in the high-stakes arena, and that has also helped him ascend the PokerGo Tour leaderboards. In the Cardplayer race, it is unlikely anyone will overtake him in the last three weeks. Farid Jattin and Alex Foxen are the closest in the race, with 5,473 and 5,417, respectively. Due to the way that CardPlayer awards points, there aren’t enough events in the year to give anyone a realistic shot of catching Chidwick.
Chidwick Also Leads Poker Go Tour Leaderboard
Stephen Chidwick also leads the PokerGo Tour POY leaderboard for 2022, but that race is much closer. Presently, Chidwick leads with 3,382 points, but players still have opportunities to catch him. Phil Ivey is second with 3,083 points, while Jason Koon has 2,833 points. Michael Duek and Sean Winter round out the top five.
There are five events left that count toward the PGT POY. This includes the WPT World Championship and three ARIA High Roller Events to be played this weekend in Las Vegas. Also, the PGT Championship freeroll is upcoming on December 21st. The freeroll takes the top 21 players on the PGT leaderboard and has them battle it out for a Winner Takes All prize of $500,000.
However, for Chidwick to lose the POY lead, he would have to whiff the ARIA events. That is unlikely, especially considering he has won five of those titles in 2022. However, there is still plenty of poker left to play, and the “poker gods” can sometimes be finicky.
Adam Hendrix Leads GPI POY 2022
The only POY title Stephen Chidwick will not take down in 2022 is the GPI POY 2022. Adam Hendrix is currently leading the GPI POY race with 3,513.87 points. However, the race is as tight as it gets, with Jeremy Ausmus, Chad Eveslage, Chance Kornuth, and Michael Watson all within 100 points.
The GPI uses a different structure for calculating its POY and limits results to 13 events. It also has limits on field size, which eliminates many small-field high-roller tournaments that would pad stats for other POY series. This modified structure gives all players a realistic shot of winning POY, not just high rollers. For example, Stephen Chidwick is only 10th on the list and is nearly 400 points behind Hendrix.
Hendrix only has $1.49 million in earnings this year, with his largest score a victory at the Wynn Summer Classic for $257,885. His only other victory in 2022 is a US Poker Open victory in March. However, his consistent performance over the year has positioned him atop the GPI POY leaderboard.
This race isn’t over. With multiple players within 100 points of his lead, it is possible that someone could leapfrog him by the end of the year. Also, Hendrix has not cashed in an event since early November. A December run by anyone in the top five could easily give them the GPI POY title.
