George Danzer wasn’t exactly a nobody before the 2014 World Series of Poker began. In fact, the German had made six WSOP final tables entering the summer. But he also wasn’t on the same fame level as a Daniel Negreanu or even Jeff Lisandro. Perhaps all of that will change, though, since Danzer has picked up two gold bracelets at the 2014 WSOP.
His first came via the Event #18 $10k Razz Championship ($294,792), and his second, more-recent bracelet comes courtesy of the $10k Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo Championship ($353,696). Oh, and we might as well add that the German has also final tabled a $10k 2-7 Limit Triple Draw event ($70,308) and a $10k Six-Handed NLHE tournament ($49,061).
With five cashes overall – and four of them being very high quality – Danzer has jumped to the forefront of the 2014 WSOP Player of the Year race. Here’s a look at the top five point-earners with just over 20 events left:
1. George Danzer – 726.20 points
2. Brandon Shack-Harris – 474.00
3. Justin Bonomo – 413.63
4. Brock Parker – 406.25
5. Richard Ashby – 400.05
As you can see, there’s some clear separation between Danzer and those chasing him. So our question is, can anybody catch the German poker pro at this point? Looking back at the 2012 and ’13 POY races, the simple answer is yes.
Last year, Negreanu was the POY after earning 890.22 points, which is plenty more than Danzer has right now. In the 2012 POY race, Greg Merson racked up 981.13 points on the strength of his Main Event title and another bracelet win. So Danzer is probably going to have to rack up 2-3 more cashes or one more big finish if he wants to secure the POY.
But another thing to account for here is that only the WSOP APAC will run after the Las Vegas series – not the APAC and WSOP Europe. Furthermore, I wouldn’t count on another player like Merson winning the ME and another bracelet in the same year. It’s a pretty rare occurrence and we’re not dealing with 1992 field sizes any more.
In summary, you can expect Danzer to get a little more competition in his quest to win the POY if he goes on a cold streak.