WSOP Player of the Year Update

After finishing 22nd in the first event of the 2014 World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific, George Danzer overtook Brandon Shack-Harris as the WSOP Player of the Year leader. Shack-Harris also finished in the money in that event, but he only managed a min-cash and is currently 1.7 points behind Danzer.

Daniel Negreanu currently sits fourth with 519.08 points, but he hasn't been able to put anything together through three events so far. Fortunately for him, there's still seven events to go, plus some bigger buy-ins that the reigning Player of the Year could make some noise in.

Last year, Negreanu became the first player to win the WSOP Player of the Year award twice, and he could make it a three-time accomplishment if he goes back to back this year.

Other notables who have made the trip Down Under that could factor into the race are Richard Ashby (413.55 points), Ismael Bojang (354.53 points), Phil Hellmuth (330.1 points), and Jeff Madsen (228.1 points).

Bruno Politano, who made this year's WSOP November Nine, has also made the trip and he has the potential to make things very interesting if he's able to put together a couple of results here in Melbourne. You see, the winner of the WSOP Main Event will earn 500 Player of the Year points, so if somehow Politano were to rack up 300 or so at this festival, the race could really come down to the wire.

The winner will receive a $10,000 seat into the 2015 WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas, and that's a prize that could potentially be worth millions of dollars.