Weekly Update: January 13 – 19
Coming out of a busy week on the tables the 2025 Player of the Year (POY) race continues to be the nerve-centre of major upheavals. The rankings take seven parameters into consideration including the tournaments played, cashes picked and the number of final tables that you made it to. Your Return of Investment (ROI) as a player, winnings and victories also play a major role in how you rank.

We know that the POY Leaderboard will reflect innumerable changes as the year progresses, but it’s exciting to watch who is competing to what dimensions. Specially since there is a 5 Crore (CR) prize pool to dig into, including cash prizes and exclusive travel deals!

Delhi Dominates as Rajneesh Thakur ‘msdhoni’ Makes it to #1, Kritarth Pant & Jitish Juneja Also Make Impressive Strides
For Rajneesh Thakur ‘msdhoni’ to crush the Leaderboard is unsurprising. The seasoned hand had appeared on Rank #4 last week, climbing a solid 24 ranks. Thakur who is renowned as the 2022 APT Main Event runner-up and is also a former The MoneyMaker runner-up, kept the momentum going, and rallied up the volume. He played 44 tournaments, securing cashes in 27 of them for 5.32 LAC in weekly winnings.

Making a 3-rank climb Thakur stands firm as The POY Top Gun with a POY Score of 997 – a straight jump of 50 points!

His prominent finishes include:

  • 2nd in Wednesday’s Big PLO-5 for 1.60 LAC
  • 3rd in Tuesday’s Big PLO-5 for 1.22 LAC

Goa’s Bhanu Prakash KC ‘Chennaino1’ held the fort strong at #2, with a super cash-out rate earned by cashing 49 of 72 tournaments played. While Bhanu secured 6.47 LAC in cashes, he improved his POY Score to 995, becoming our Mega Crusher of the Week.

Aditya Sharma ‘adi1108’ made deeper intrusion into the top-10 spinning up by 6 positions with a POY Score of 991 that reflects a 53-point rise. Sharma entered 58 events and secured 3.42 LAC from 21 ITM finishes.

Our Poker Supernova of the week is Jitish Juneja aka ‘jitish’ currently ranked #6 with a POY Score of 967.

The 21-year old Delhi lad currently pursuing B.Tech from BITS Pilani has trailblazingly made his entry into the top-10, jumping a fantastic 151 positions!

Juneja’s POY Score also reflects an increase of 88 points – the highest among the top-10 ranked players.

Delhi’s own Kritarth Pant ‘AgentJack’ threw the ball out of the park emerging as our Ace Shot of the Week. The midstakes regular achieved stunning victory in Sunday’s BSS SuperStack for a career-best 8.36 LAC, climbing 2,036 POY ranks into the Top-20 with a POY Score of 939! Incidentally Pant had won the (1000X) BSS Superstack for 7.27 LAC in Oct 2023. His weekly score is a super impressive 9.03 LAC – the highest collective winnings over the week!

The POY Top 10

Rank Player Name Tournaments Played ITM Finishes Weekly Winnings POY Score
1 (↑3) msdhoni Rajneesh Thakur 44 27 5.32 LAC 997 (+50)
2 (~~) Chennaino1 Bhanu Prakash KC 72 49 6.47 LAC 995 (+7)
3 (↑6) adi1108 Aditya Sharma 58 21 3.42 LAC 991 (+53)
4(⬇3) shakespeare Ayush Mehta 33 14 24,044 988 (-5)
5 (↑21) pk0822 Pradeep Kumar 75 51 92,074 983 (+59)
6 (↑151) Jitish Jitish Juneja 54 30 22,121 967 (+88)
7 (⬇4) Pwin1 Pankaj Kumar 76 31 50,752 964 (-5)
8 (↑60) tripleyes Solasubbu Solaiappan 80 33 46,940 951 (+48)
9 (⬇4) M3ssy Chandan Rai 35 15 2.63 LAC 946 (+1)
10 (⬇2) Aman Parakh ‘KarmaPoker’ 18 10 1.16 LAC 944 (+3)

Check out the factors that play a crucial role into evaluating your POY rankings:

  • Return on Investment (ROI): Your profits relative to buy-ins, adjusted for the log value of your average buy-in.
  • In the Money (ITM): The number of times you finish in the money, multiplied by the log value of your average buy-in.
  • Tournaments Played: The total number of tournaments you play in 2025.
  • Winnings: Total prize money won in tournaments throughout the year.
  • Final Tables: Number of times you make the final table, multiplied by the square root of participants in those tournaments.
  • 1st Rank: Number of tournament victories, multiplied by the square root of participants.
  • Biggest Score: Your highest single tournament score of the year.

That’s a wrap for Week #3 of 2025. Stay tuned for more updates as players battle for a spot at the top of the 2025 POY rankings!

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