Arieh and Ball Win WSOP 2021 Leaderboards
There were two leaderboard competitions during the 2021 World Series of Poker that ran from the end of September through November 23. The WSOP Player of the Year calculated points earned by players in all open events in the Las Vegas live series and the WSOP Online events scheduled during the same autumn time frame. At the same time, the No Limits Velo leaderboard used the same criteria except only for No Limit Hold’em tournaments.
People who won bracelets online – on WSOP.com in the US or GGPoker/Natural8 internationally – did not qualify.
And for the first time in recent memory, the WSOP Europe doesn’t count, either. Presumably, this is due to travel restrictions and the inability for many players to travel to Las Vegas and the Czech Republic to play a full slate of events.
Nonetheless, the players only participated. They didn’t make the rules.
The rules, by the way, noted that there was a $25K cash prize for each of the two leaderboards, with both awarding these to the three top finishers:
-1st place: $15K
-2nd place: $7,500
-3rd place: $2,500
Arieh Wins WSOP POY
This race was a tight one that kept players in suspense until the very last tournament of the series. Several players won two bracelets in the series, and others racked up quite a lot of cashes. But the placement of those cashes and other factors play into the final tally.
For example, Anthony Zinno, Michael Addamo and Kevin Gerhart each won two bracelets in Las Vegas this year, but none of them made it into the top ten of the overall leaderboard. Roland Israelashvili cashed in 20 events – more than any other player – but finished in 36th place on the POY leaderboard.
It looked like Josh Arieh was going to win…and there was a glitch. The WSOP had not been quick to apply points from online bracelet events to the leaderboard. So, when the last days of the WSOP played out, they had not attributed points from the last Sunday’s online event. Justin Bonomo brought it to everyone’s attention on Twitter.
Has online event #10 been added to the wsop PoY standings yet?
If not, @benyupoker is live to pass @golferjosh if he wins the 5k (he's currently chipleading with 30 left)
CC: @PokerNews @Kevmath
😲😲😲
— JustinBonomo.bsky.social 🇵🇸 (@JustinBonomo) November 23, 2021
There is no overall points spreadsheet to dictate how the WSOP awards points, only a “points calculator” on the website. And when a payout structure is confirmed for a tournament, the potential POY points appear as well. It’s certainly not easy for a casual player to track, but casual players don’t win the POY.
95 points! pic.twitter.com/qAtLTY8iqR
— JustinBonomo.bsky.social 🇵🇸 (@JustinBonomo) November 23, 2021
It all boiled down to Event 88 at the Rio, the $5K NLHE. Ben Yu finished the first day with the chip lead of the final field of 30. So, it was on the second and final day of that tournament that players, especially Josh Arieh, watched as Ben Yu made a deep run…but then busted in tenth place. Arieh kept his position. He did, in fact, win the WSOP Player of the Year title.
| Ranking | Name | Points | Results |
| 1 | Josh Arieh | 4194.59 | 12 cashes, 2 wins ($1,198,416) |
| 2 | Phil Hellmuth | 3720.01 | 10 cashes, 1 win ($1,251,845) |
| 3 | Daniel Negreanu | 3531.03 | 18 cashes, 0 wins ($1,451,299) |
| 4 | Ben Yu | 3345.92 | 19 cashes, 1 win ($1,018,867) |
| 5 | Jeremy Ausmus | 3272.57 | 9 cashes, 2 wins ($1,481,594) |
| 6 | Shaun Deeb | 3119.45 | 18 cashes, 1 win ($1,568,406) |
| 7 | Ryan Leng | 3042.21 | 9 cashes, 1 win ($1,251,136) |
| 8 | Dylan Linde | 2976.62 | 12 cashes, 1 win ($527,484) |
| 9 | Koray Aldemir | 2911.73 | 12 cashes, 1 win ($8,043,742) |
| 10 | Scott Ball | 2907.94 | 9 cashes, 2 wins, ($1,055,619) |
I have the best girlfriend and daughter ever!
Disclaimer: I couldn't figure out what 4194 was either! Can you? pic.twitter.com/jenWudJzbi
— Joshua Arieh (@JoshuaArieh) November 24, 2021
Ball Wins NLHE POY
It happened on the No Limits Velo leaderboard, courtesy of Velo as a main WSOP sponsor this year. Points for this category came specifically from open events of the No Limit Hold’em variety. It included only the live and online events available from September 30 to November 23 in Las Vegas (though the online bracelet events were available in New Jersey and throughout Nevada).
Ben Yu was the wild card in this race, too, up until the end. But Scott Ball and his two bracelets in Las Vegas took the top prize.
| Ranking | Name | Points |
| 1 | Scott Ball | 2863.11 |
| 2 | Koray Aldemir | 2670.11 |
| 3 | Cole Ferraro | 2606.61 |
| 4 | Jason Koon | 2603.10 |
| 5 | Ren Lin | 2528.08 |
| 6 | Ben Yu | 2441.01 |
| 7 | Michael Addamo | 2440.58 |
| 8 | Georgios Sotiropoulos | 2415.93 |
| 9 | Carlos Chang | 2318.73 |
| 10 | Romain Lewis | 2268.39 |
Beyond fortunate to have ran this pure. https://t.co/D0HmonEuC9
— Scott Ball (@EndGameScott) November 24, 2021
