The Global Poker Index (GPI) Player of the Year rankings have been revealed today, and it’s great news for our friends in Queensland and WA (and that’s if you count both Western Australia and Washington State). Without any further ado, PokerMedia Australia presents the 2022 GPI Australian Players of the Year!
2022 Australian GPI Player of the Year: YITA CHOONG
To quote the man himself, it was a pretty good effort for “someone who doesn’t win anything”, but the quiet achiever that is Yita Choong has had one helluva year on the felt, rising to prominence on the global stage after reaching the final table of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Millionaire Maker, where he was eliminated in fourth place by the tournament’s eventual champion, Yuliyan Kolev.
The result was not only the Western Australian’s biggest career score to date but also the foundation of an epic run into the second half of 2022, which included a runner-up finish in the Star Sydney Champs Main Event for AUD $268,734 before clinching that elusive victory and a further AUD $114,790 after taking out the Jackstar Super High Roller tournament at the APL Million.
Choong then capped off his year with three cashes at the WPT World Championship series at The Wynn Las Vegas, highlighted by his impressive 45th place finish in the USD $10,700 buy-in Main Event – the best result by any Australian in that tournament – which in turn increased his total career earnings moving beyond USD $1 million, and also a respectable 99th place finish in the worldwide GPI Player of the Year rankings.
2022 AUSTRALIAN GPI PLAYER OF THE YEAR – TOP 20 RESULTS
| Rank | Name | Points |
| 1 | Yita Choong | 2,507.16 |
| 2 | Sean Ragozzini | 2,163.25 |
| 3 | Yang Lei | 2,130.54 |
| 4 | Adam Kharman | 2,015.59 |
| 5 | Hussein Hassan | 1,880.34 |
| 6 | Ehsan Amiri | 1,864.66 |
| 7 | Jarrod Thatcher | 1,830.87 |
| 8 | Robert Spano | 1,780.74 |
| 9 | Michael Addamo | 1,727.33 |
| 10 | Michael Sleiman | 1,663.07 |
| 11 | Toby Giles | 1,648.75 |
| 12 | Daniel Hachem | 1,627.12 |
| 13 | Robert Damelian | 1,609.47 |
| 14 | Adrian Pacheco | 1,580.26 |
| 15 | Joe Sandaev | 1,573.75 |
| 16 | Chris Tran | 1,571.54 |
| 17 | Daniel Noja | 1,559.09 |
| 18 | Michel Bouskila | 1,524.14 |
| 19 | Najeem Ajez | 1,518.59 |
| 20 | John Perry | 1,512.86 |
2022 GPI Player of the Year: Stephen Song (USA) – 3,543.72 pts
2022 Australian Female Players of the Year: ANGELINA RICH* & JANET WYVILL
2022 also proved to be one of the best years for Aussie female players, capped off with several breakout moments on home soil: most notably, Jen Cassell‘s victory in the Star Gold Coast Champs Main Event, Michelle Psarras‘ big win at the WPTDeepStacks Sydney Opening Event, and APL Ambassador Jackie Glazier, who took out her signature tournament at the APLPT Tasmania series last June.
There were also plenty of consistent performances from the likes of Jade Mitchell, who became the first female player to complete the Aussie mid-tier Triple Crown, along with Elise Depauw, Zoe Charters, Suzy Khoueis, and JDub Poker‘s Janet Wyvill, who according to the data presented by GPI and The Hendon Mob (THM), was edged out for top spot by Angelina Rich, however PMA has since been informed by reliable sources that the information was incorrect.
Although Rich did spend some in Australia several years ago (her first major live victory was at the 2015 Aussie Millions, according to her GPI/THM profile), the American jeweller, artist and grinder has since moved back home to Seattle, Washington, and finished this year strongly with more than USD $130,000 in online earnings in the space of two months.
Rich also earned herself a min-cash in the WPT Ladies Championship at The Wynn Las Vegas last month, along with two more five-figure scores which included a final table appearance in the USD $1,600 buy-in Mid-Stakes Poker Tour (MSPT) Main Event at The Venetian in Las Vegas; coincidentally, Rich won the same tournament back in 2015 and in doing so, became the first woman to ever win an MSPT title.
Still, that’s not to take away anything from Wyvill’s accomplishments over the last three years, which has seen her string together a poker CV chock-full of single-digit placings, including a final table appearance in the AUD $10,000 buy-in NLH Super High Roller at the WSOP International Circuit series at The Star Gold Coast last month – her largest tournament cash to date.
More importantly, it also means that that Wyvill is, by virtue of citizenship, the ‘true blue’ #1 GPI Australian Female Player of the Year!
2022 AUSTRALIAN GPI FEMALE PLAYER OF THE YEAR – TOP 20 RESULTS
| Rank | Name | Points |
| 1 | Angelina Rich* | 1,381.10 |
| 2 | Janet Wyvill | 1,114.34 |
| 3 | Michelle Psarras | 1,009.01 |
| 4 | Elise Depauw | 966.38 |
| 5 | Suzy Khoueis | 957.87 |
| 6 | Jade Mitchell | 860.93 |
| 7 | Jennifer Cassell | 850.03 |
| 8 | Zoe Charters | 782.86 |
| 9 | Errolyn Strang | 759.71 |
| 10 | Jian Long | 756.39 |
| 11 | Belinda Oosthuizen | 706.99 |
| 12 | Anya Azimai | 699.14 |
| 13 | Debra James | 693.50 |
| 14 | Heidi May | 682.54 |
| 15 | Aroha Ngata | 647.60 |
| 16 | Luci Bonaccorso | 600.61 |
| 17 | Asti Savage | 549.53 |
| 18 | Jackie Glazier | 499.02 |
| 19 | Ria Renfrey | 496.94 |
| 20 | Vesna Pope | 492.12 |
2022 GPI Female Player of the Year: Cherish Andrews (USA) – 2,559.21 pts
Created in 2011, the Global Poker Index utilises a patented formula to calculate ranking points based on players’ results over their last three years of play and is also the custodian for the Global Poker Awards. For more information and full results for the 2022 GPI Player of the Year rankings, visit globalpokerindex.com.
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