Coleman, Andrews, and Feng Win GPI Players of the Year
The numbers and results have been tabulated, and the 2024 GPI Player of the Year races are final. The winners are official! David Coleman wins the overall GPI POY for 2024, with Cherish Andrews becoming the GPI Female POY and Han Feng the GPI Mid-Majors POY.
David Coleman: 2024 GPI POY
As December got underway with its plethora of tournament options, the GPI Player of the Year race was a tight one. Jesse Lonis was on top of the global rankings for the year with 4,374.38 points. David Coleman was in second but closing in with 4,320.50 points, and Adrian Mateos was in a close third with 4,312.44 points.
Coleman, who hails from New Jersey, put in the work to climb one spot on the board. He played the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas and finished 15th in the PKO event and 11th in the Mystery Bounty tournament. Lonis played the Seminole Hard Rock Rock ‘n’ Roll Poker Open in Florida, where he took ninth in the High Roller, then jetted to the WSOP Paradise series to cash in two events, and then flew to Vegas for a final table finish in the WPT WC 8-Max. However, GPI awards points based on the top qualifying results for the entire year, and Coleman’s December finishes did the trick.
The final numbers for Coleman, whose lifetime live tournament earnings soared to $8.4M, showed 48 results for 2024, six of which were wins and 28 of which were top 10.
Cherish Andrews: 2024 GPI Female POY
Going into December, multiple-year winner in this category Kristin Foxen was leading the women with 2,863.48 points. Cherish Andrews was in second with 2,790.98 points, followed by Victoria Livschitz with 2,659.56 points.
Andrews knows how to accrue points in December, though, and did it this year by playing the Seminole Hard Rock and WPT WC. She final tabled the Deep Stack in Florida before going to Vegas and cashing in the WPT Prime Championship, Mystery Bounty, 6-Max, and NLHE, as well as final tabling the 6-Max. Foxen chose the Seminole to Bahamas route. While she final tabled the High Roller and cashed in the Deep Stack at Seminole and cashed the WSOP Paradise Main Event, it wasn’t enough to stop Andrews.
With a total of 36 results for 2024, ten of which were final tables and three of which were victories, Andrews took in more than $829K and the POY title. The totals gave her the biggest year of her career thus far.
Han Feng: 2024 GPI Mid-Major POY
This category was Han Feng’s to lose, going into December with 3,014.45 points. Cherish Andrews was a bit behind with 2,638.25, and she was closely followed by Steve Yea with 2,597.25.
Feng decided to dedicate his December to playing in Las Vegas, primarily in the WPT World Championship events at Wynn. He had five cashes there, though one was in the ClubWPT Gold Invitational Freeroll, which didn’t count for points as it was not an open event. The other four cashes were not big scores, the highest being 27th place in the Mystery Bounty, but he did secure his place as the Player of the Year in tournaments with $2,500 or lower buy-ins. Andrews had a good December, but there weren’t enough points there to overtake Feng.
While Feng’s name may not be a household one among poker fans (yet), the young player is certainly one to watch. He had his best year in poker thus far, eclipsing the $900K mark for the year and putting his career total close to $1.3M. His 49 results for 2024 included 19 top ten finishes, five of which were wins.
National POY Winners of Note
Every country with players accumulating at least 1,000 GPI points in a year will award a Player of the Year for that nation. In 2024, there were 90 countries that met that criterion. Afghanistan made the list for the first time in GPI POY history.
According to the GPI press release, notable winners who have claimed their nations’ titles multiple times included Farid Jattin of Colombia (10 times), Adrian Mateos of Spain (9 times), and Stephen Chidwick of England (9 times). Nick Yunis of Chili had another impressive year (8 times). And several players won their seventh national POY titles: Omar Lakhdari of Algeria, Jose Nacho Barbero of Argentina, Vlado Banicevic of Montenegro, Joao Vieira of Portugal, and Igor Yaroshevskyy of Ukraine.
David Coleman picked up the United States title as well as the overall GPI POY award.
Check out the 2024 GPI rankings, as well as the 2025 rankings and overall numbers, on the GPI website and using search boxes to choose gender or a particular country.
