Twenty-four-year-old poker pro Greg Merson from Laurel, Maryland has been honoured as the 2012 Player of the Year by the influential Card Player Media group.
Merson successfully kicked a serious drug habit just over one year ago before going on to win two World Series of Poker bracelets in the summer – the $10,000 buy in no-limit hold’em six max championship and the $10,000 no-limit hold’em main event – netting himself just over $9.66 million in the process.
This enabled him to successfully fend off a strong and sustained challenge from runner-up Dan Smith.
Las Vegas resident Smith won a remarkable six events in 2012 and made four other final tables collecting over $3.67 million along the way.
He fell just short of the Player of the Year title scoring 5,040 points – just 60 less than Merson.
A spokesperson for Card Player said, “Greg Merson is a worthy champion, joining the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Michael Mizrachi and Ben Lamb in the pantheon of greats who have secured the title with a year of outstanding poker triumphs. In Greg’s case it was in the face of additional adversity and his World Series of Poker victories will live long in the memory.”
The top 10 rankings in the 2012 Card Player Player of the Year title race were:
Greg Merson $9.66 million 5,100 points
Dan Smith $3.67 million 5,040 points
Marvin Rettenmaier $2.4 million 4,130 points
Kyle Julius $2.2 million 3,752 points
Ole Schemion $2.03 million 3,676 points
Joseph Cheong $1.06 million 3,590 points
Antonio Esfandiari $18.9 million 3,330 points
Phil Hellmuth $4.29 million 3,210 points
John Dibella $1.9 million 3,064 points
Oliver Spiedel $1.7 million 3,046 points