After 2020 is the "lost year" of the poker tournament, 2021 is not a good start either. So far, in 2021, there have been some World Poker Tour events and some smaller events in Las Vegas and Sochi... That's it. However, if we are to host a poker tournament this year, someone will have to win the "Poker Player of the Year" award, right?

WPT champion Liu has an advantage in the CardPlayer rankings

On the poker rankings of "The Card Player" magazine, Qing Liu was able to take the top spot early, partly because of his work in WPT events. Not only did he win the $5,000 WPT Venice Main Event for more than $250,000, but he will also complete the final game at the final table of the WPT Gardens Poker Championship in 2020 (yes, you read that right) The final table ended the night after he won the Venetian match. So far, Liu has made full use of the time in 2021, won two events, and finally won the championship of five other events, cashing a total of nine times. This put him at the top of the card player rankings with 3071 points.

Sung-Joo-Hyun, the 2021 Wynn Classic champion, has a very hot start to 2021. He not only won the Wynn event, but also won another championship with two 6-figure scores in the Venice deep stack in February. These titles and two other wins made him a net 2,172 points, ranking second.

A familiar face appeared in position #3. Former world champion Joseph McKeehen has been able to enter this position, winning a $10,000 ticket in the Wynn Classic, and second only to Liu in the WPT Venetian. He scored a good 2,000 points in the tournament poker year. Considering the amount he played at the time, (if anything resembles a stable tournament poker schedule), he should be able to stay near the top for a year.

The following are the top five in the CardPlayer ranking:

1. Qing Liu, 3071 points
2. Sung Joo Hyun, 2172
3. Joseph McKeehen, 2000
4. IlyasMuradi, 1620
5. Fernando Rodriguez-Vazquez, 1488
One problem is that the Global Poker Index started with the annual player tournament. Players are all appearing in the 2021 rankings, but looking at the players’ resumes does not indicate where their scores come from. In fact, in their 2020 rankings, many players' results look like they have moved directly from the previous year's numbers to 2021.

According to the GPI Player of the Year selection, Nick Pupillo topped the list. So far, Pupillo has 9 cash accounts in 2021, but there are no points in the 2021 standings. Nevertheless, looking at GPI POY, he still tops the list with 2195.13 points. It is worth noting that Pupillo ranks third in the 2020 GPI POY. In the 2020 GPI Player of the Year selection, the "first place" player was Giorgiy Skhuluhiya, Georgia (near Russia, not in the southeastern United States). Skhuluhiya has only one game in the 2021 game, but he was ranked second with a score of 2152.97 points.

This seems to be some of the GPI computer errors that are being resolved, just list their "temporary" and highly unofficial top five, which is the ranking so far in 2021:

1. Nick Pupillo, 2195.13 points
2. GiorgiySkhuluhiya, 2152.97
3. Anatoly Zyrin, 2109.64
4. Martin Zamani, 2026.12
5. FaridJattin, 1976.23
Will there be any competitions for these two top-ranked organizations in the future? In the next month or so, there will be at least some events in the WPT. The ARIA Casino in Las Vegas will also hold the first installment of their high-stakes series next week. But once it reaches the end of April, the schedule becomes a bit sparse. As the epidemic continues to disrupt the schedule, how many tournaments including the World Series of Poker will be held in 2021? It’s hard to have a second consecutive "lost year"