GEORGE DANZER WINS 2014 PLAYER OF THE YEAR
George Danzer is officially 2014 Player of the Year for the World Series of Poker. His performance at the WSOP in Las Vegas and WSOP APAC in Melbourne is one for the history books. He cashed 10 times, making five final tables in the process, and winning three bracelets.

His title earns Danzer a free entry into the 2015 WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas, and a banner that will adorn the walls of the WSOP tournament room.

Danzer is only the sixth player in WSOP history to win three bracelets in a single year. He joins Puggy Pearson, Ted Forrest, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, and Jeff Lisandro on that elite list.

Despite Danzer’s astounding WSOP performance this year, the Player of the Year race went down to the wire. He and Brandon Shack-Harris fought an intense, back-and-forth battle and goes all the way back to May. Shack-Harris jumped out to an early lead with a bracelet in the $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event. The massive 1,128-player field set a record for largest field in a non-hold’em tournament. He followed that with a 2nd-place finish in the $10,000 Razz tournament, beating every player in the field except one: George Danzer. That was also Danzer’s second final table of the summer, and the heads-up battle signaled a burgeoning rivaly.

The lead changed several times as the two fought back-and-forth all summer and into the fall at APAC. Danzer’s third bracelet gave him a solid lead, but Shack-Harris made a valiant effort to overtake him. He finished 17th in the APAC Main Event, the late registered for the High Roller tournament, his last chance to earn POY points. He seemed poised to make a deep run until a fateful hand—Shack-Harris got all his chips in the middle on the flop with trip queens against Sean Winter’s pocket aces. Unfortunately for Shack-Harris, an ace on the river turned a likely double up into an elimination. With that, Danzer’s Player of the Year victory was secure.

Here are Danzer’s 2014 WSOP Results:

5th Place — $70,308 — Event #5: $10,000 Limit 2-7- Triple Draw
1st Place — $294,792 — Event #18 $10,000 Razz
39th Place — $5,517 — Event #25: $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo
9th Place — $49, 061 — Event #32: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed
1st Place — $352,696 — Event 38: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo
48th Place — $3,759 — Event #47: $1,500 Ante Only No-Limit Hold’em
44th Place — $6,107 — Event #54: $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo
22nd Place — AU$4,754 — APAC Event #1: $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Accumulator
6th Place — AU$7,399 — APAC Event #6: $1,650 Dealers Choice
1st Place — AU$84,600 — APAC Event #8: $5,000 8-Game Mix