Cherish Andrews and Stephen Song Win GPI Player of the Year Awards

Summary

• Stephen Song won in both the overall Player of the Year and Mid-Major categories
• Cherish Andrews captured the Female Player of the Year title
• Both will receive their awards later at a ceremony held at ARIA Las Vegas

The Global Poker Index (GPI) finally announced the results of the 2022 Player of the Year race, and the two names who came out on top were Stephen Song and Cherish Andrews.

Song captured not just one but two POY titles. Apart from winning the overall GPI Player of the Year title, the American poker pro also dominated the Mid-Major Player of the Year race, a competition that covers player performances in events with buy-ins of up to $2,500.

Meanwhile, Cherish Andrews collected enough points late in the year to grab the number 1 spot from Angela Jordison in the Female Player of the Year leaderboard. She managed to hold on to her position and was ultimately crowned “GPI Female Player of the Year“.

While Jordison settled for a second-place finish in both the Female and Mid-Major races, 2022 turned out to be one of the biggest years of her professional poker career, just like Song and Andrews.

Poker power couple Alex Foxen and Kristen Foxen who both won back-to-back GPI Player of the Year titles in the past did not win one this time around, but the pair still made it to the top 10 of the overall Player of the Year and Female Player of the Year race respectively.

Tight Race

As the 2022 poker season was drawing to a close, Jordison was leading the Female Player of the Year race, 250 points ahead of Andrews. She climbed to the top after closing out November with three in-the-money finishes.

But the title was not meant for Jordison as Andrews scored three final table finishes at the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship series at Wynn Las Vegas in mid-December. That included a 2nd-place finish in the $10,100 High Roller for a career-best $259,200 and a victory in the $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em event for $131,912.

Song winning two titles was somehow unexpected as his name was nowhere to be found in the top 10 rankings during the earlier months. He catapulted to the top in December when he won the WPT Prime Championship at Wynn for $712,650. He had an impressive run in 2022, amassing $2,289,059 in winnings by cashing in 44 events throughout the US.

Song and Andrews will be honored at a ceremony to be held at the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Las Vegas. The date will be announced soon.