GPI Rewind: The 2017-2021 Player of the Year

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May 04, 2026 6 min read

Four months of 2026 are behind us, and the Global Poker Index Player of the Year standings are taking shape. Although there is a lot of poker still to be played before the 2026 GPI Player of the Year emerges, PokerNews thought it would take a look back in history at some of the previous POY champions, and what results it took to see them climb to the top of the standings.

Last month, we looked back at the winners from 2012 to 2016. Today, we're focusing on the years 2017 to 2021. Stellar names such as Adrian Mateos and Alex Foxen secured titles, while a global pandemic and the live poker shutdown reshuffled the pack.

2017: Mateos Pips Kenney to the Post

2017 GPI Player of the Year Top 10

The 2017 GPI Player of the Year race went down to the wire, with superstar Spaniard Adrian Mateos edging out Bryn Kenney. When all results were accounted for and tallied up, Mateos was crowned POY by a mere 26.65 ranking points.

Mateos kicked off 2017 with a deep run in the $5,300 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event, where he reached the final two tables. A fourth-place finish in a World Poker Tour WPT L.A. Poker Classic side event followed in February before a runner-up finish in a $25,000 Aria High Roller earned him $186,000 in March.

Also in March, Mateos cashed three times at the PokerStars Championship Panama before he returned to the United States for the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown. Here, he was the runner-up in the $50,000 Super High Roller and walked away wth $413,567.

Only a month later, the Spaniard raked in a €908,000 prize after winning a €50,000 side event at the PokerStars Championship in Monte-Carlo. More six-figure scores followed throughout the year, including one worth $336,656. That sum stemmed from Mateos' victory in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Heads-Up Championship at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). In addition to the money, Mateos won his third bracelet, becoming the youngest-ever player to win three bracelets at only 22 years old.

In October, Mateos headed to Macau for the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series. While here, he finished fourth in the Main Event for HK$6,950,000 ($890,084).

Another eight $100,000+ prizes came Mateos' way before the end of 2017, and they proved enough to deny Kenney the POY title.

2018: Foxen Breaks Through 4,000 Points Barrier

2018 GPI Player of the Year Top 10

Alex Foxen racked up 24 cashes during 2018, which included five victories. The first of those wins came in February at the WPT L.A. Poker Classic, when he took down the $25,000 High Roller for $424,625. A trip to Macau less than a month later saw Foxen triumph in the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau Super High Roller for the equivalent of $963,880.

Foxen's third victory came in June at the Venetian in Las Vegas. The former tight end walked away with $239,000 after besting a 178-strong field in the $5,000 Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) event.

While Foxen had a disappointing 2018 WSOP – he only cashed twice – he got back to winning ways at the 2018 Seminole Hard Rock Poker Open, taking down a $2,650 buy-in event for $208,452, defeating his wife Kristen Foxen heads-up.

GPI Rewind: The 2012-2016 Player of the Year

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A fortnight later, Foxen finished third in a €50,000 High Roller and fourth in a €25,000 High Roller at EPT Barcelona and padded his bankroll with a combined €582,230.

In October, Foxen finished second in the £5,300 partypoker MILLIONS event in the United Kingdom, banking £720,000 ($937,706) after a heads-up deal with champion Ioannis Angelou-Konstas.

Foxen finished 2018 strongly with three top-four finishes at the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Las Vegas, including a win in a $5,200 side event worth $246,768. He then capped off a stellar year with a massive $2,160,000 score, his reward for a runner-up finish in the $300,000 Super High Roller Bowl at the PokerGO Studio.

2019: Foxen Goes Back-to-Back

2019 GPI Player of the Year Top 10

In 2019, Foxen became the first player to be crowned the GPI POY in consecutive years. After ending 2018 in hot form, Foxen carried that momentum into 2019. Three cashes, including a win, at the PCA saw Foxen start January with $904,040 in prize money!

A trip to the Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown in April saw Foxen come away with a $180,000 and $545,000 score before he banked €155,440 and €610,550 at EPT Monte Carlo during the same month.

Foxen cashed 10 times at the 2018 WSOP, including an impressive 40th-place finish in the Main Event that yielded $211,945.

His first victory of 2019 came in the $20,000 High Roller event at the WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble in Florida in October, where Foxen earned $182,440. Foxen won again before the end of the year, although he left it late. After cashing five times at the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic in December, Foxen won the $10,400 Main Event for $1,694,995; he finished second in that very tournament in 2017.

2020: COVID-19 Plays Havoc With the Rankings

2020 GPI Player of the Year Top 10

The global COVID-19 pandemic caused havoc with the GPI rankings in 2020, as most governments locked down their citizens, leading to live poker going into an unprecedented hiatus. However, before doors slammed shut, Georgia's Giorgiy Skhulukhiya won an event and then took advantage of relaxed rules in Russia in the latter part of the year to cash in more events.

Skhulukhiya won a $5,000 Main Event at the Merit Poker Western in Cyprus in January for $220,643 before a couple of cashes in Belarus in February. He also finished 16th in the €3,300 WPT Germany Main Event in February before the pandemic gripped the world.

Live poker returned, for some, in August. Sochi, Russia, opened its doors, and Skhulukhiya racked up another 12 cashes between August 6 and December 22. The largest of these results was a victory in the Sochi Poker Festival Super High Roller, which came with a top prize of $50,571.

Skhulukhiya won $353,163 in 2020, the lowest-ever haul for a GPI Player of the Year, and an unwanted record unlikely to ever be broken.

2021: Live Poker Returns, Imsirovic Comes Out On Top

2021 GPI Player of the Year Top 10

Live poker returned, albeit with restrictions, during the first few months of 2021, and Ali Imsirovic wasted no time in getting back to the tables. By the end of the year, Imsirovic had cashed for $6,094,964, which was and remains his best year in the live poker realm.

Imsirovic won two PokerGO Tour events in Las Vegas in February, totaling $530,170. Both of those events only had 14 entrants, but you can only beat what is in front of you.

More six-figure scores came Imsirovic's way in April, again at the PokerGO Tour. He won two $25,000 events and finished second in a $10,000 event, for combined prizes totaling $721,300.

The Bosnian then won a $10,000 event at the Venetian Las Vegas for another $200,200 in May before taking down a $10,000 PokerGO Tour event in June for an additional $217,800. Another two victories on the PokerGO Tour in July, plus a fifth-place finish, came with $545,500.

Between August and October, Imsirovic won four more PokerGO Tour events and reached the final table of four others. $529,000 was the largest score those results produced.

Imsirovic bagged himself a WSOP Circuit ring in a $5,200 online event in October, before continuing his PokerGO Tour domination with another win and two final tables in November. He then won $278,840 for a sixth-place finish in a $50,000 High Roller event at the delayed 2021 WSOP in Las Vegas, a result worth $278,840.

As 2021 drew to a close, Imsirovic won a $25,500 High Roller at the WPT Rock 'N' Roll Poker Open for $695,355 to cap off an impressive year.

Matthew Pitt hails from Leeds, West Yorkshire, in the United Kingdom, and has worked in the poker industry since 2008, and worked for PokerNews since 2010. In September 2010, he became the editor of PokerNews. Matthew stepped away from live reporting duties in 2015, and now concentrates on his role of Senior Editor for the PokerNews.

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• Tags Adrian Mateos Alex Foxen Ali Imsirovic Ari Engel Bryn Kenney Brock Wilson Chad Eveslage Chance Kornuth Nick Petrangelo Kahle Burns Stephen Chidwick Sergio Aido GPI Rankings GPI Player of the Year GPI