By PokerListings.com
When Harrah's bought the World Series of Poker in 2004, it introduced the Player of the Year award to celebrate a player's high level of performance over the entire series.
The list of winners since is a who's who of poker icons, including Daniel Negreanu, Allen Cunningham, Erick Lindgren, Tom Schneider and Jeff Madsen - all of whom racked up multiple cashes, final tables and gold bracelets on their way to the POY title.
What it didn't include, however, was a way of factoring the biggest tournament of them all - the $10k Main Event - into the mix.
This year the WSOP is adding a bit of extra intrigue to the final two weeks as, for the first time ever, results in the Main Event will now be counted in the standings, making all open WSOP gold bracelet events eligible for Player of the Year points.
"We're confident the inclusion of the Main Event to the Player of the Year race will add some drama and excitement to the conclusion of this year's WSOP," said WSOP Vice President Ty Stewart.
"The race is wide open this year but, as the past winners confirm, the player who wins this award will clearly be one of the game's best for years to come."
Allen Cunningham: POY 2007.
Standard POY scoring allocates five points for cashing in an event, 10 points for getting to one of the final three tables of an event and 20 points for making it to the two final tables.
At the final table of a standard open bracelet event, the winner gets 100 points, second place gets 75 points, third place 60 points, and each place after five less points through to ninth place, which receives 30 points.
Shootout and heads-up tourneys award points slightly differently. For complete details, check out the official POY point system here.
The 2009 WSOP Player of the Year Award will be presented at a ceremony during the Main Event Final Table in November.
