The inevitable is now official: Bin Weng is the 2023 World Poker Tour Player of the Year. The Philadelphia (by way of China) poker pro was virtually unstoppable at the poker tables in 2023 with wire-to-wire success throughout the year including earning more than $6.6 million for the year with three seven-figure scores and making history by securing the chip lead in back-to-back WPT final tables.
“Winning a WPT title was one of my dreams in poker. Accomplishing that goal was an incredible feeling,” said Weng. “Adding the WPT Player of the Year title is a bonus I couldn’t have ever imagined.”
Weng finished the year with 2,175 POY points, the bulk of which (1,400 points) came from his victory in the 2023 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown in which he took home more than $1.1 million, which at the time was a new career-high score.
“This is the biggest dream to put my name on the Mike Sexton Cup,” Weng said at the time. “For me, it’s already a win. I’m very happy. I just called my wife and she was very proud of me…she was speechless. I don’t know how to describe all my feelings right now.”
The very next day, Weng returned with the chip lead at the final table of WPT Choctaw where ultimately he finished in fourth place, earning another $143,000 and 550 POY points. Add to that a deep run at WPT bestbet Scramble and a min-cash in the WPT Prime Championship and Weng had a vice-like grip on Player of the Year honors headed into the end of the year.
“I have seen a fair share of outstanding player performances throughout my years with the World Poker Tour,” said WPT CEO Adam Pliska. “However, Bin may have put on the best string of achievements that I have seen in a long time. And his skill is only matched by his humility.”
Weng’s accomplishments weren’t limited to the World Poker Tour as he racked up results nearly everywhere he went in 2023. It’s enough to also earn him the title of Global Poker Index Player of the Year. His early year highlights, outside of his back-to-back WPT final tables, included a victory in the Borgata’s $5,300 “The Return” for $1,000,000, a WSOP Circuit ring in Las Vegas for $227,344, and a runner-up finish in The Lodge $25,000 High Roller for $145,000.
However, the best was yet to come for Weng. In the summer, Weng topped the 1,676 runners in the $10,500 WPT EveryOne for One Drop at Wynn Las Vegas for a new career-high cash of $2,227,054. Had that special event counted for WPT POY points, the race would, in all likelihood, have been locked up by Weng in June.
“I don’t know what to say right now,” Weng said after his win. “I mean, I’m really, really happy for sure, and I’m really grateful right now for being this far in a short period of time.”
Weng continued to grind and put up big-time results. In October he scored his fifth title of 2023 by taking down a $1,600 Mystery Bounty event at Wynn Las Vegas for $159,078 plus bounties. Then he returned to The Borgata in November where he finished runner-up in their Fall Mini-Series $2,500 Championship Event for more than $134,000. Finally, as if to put an exclamation point on a dominant year, he closed out 2023 in the same way he started it. Weng chopped the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas $25,300 High Roller for $958,279.
“I’ll be honest with you…even though I have a few bigger scores in 2023, this is way different. This is the first one that’s a high roller, a $25K buy-in. I’ve been playing a few over the past couple of years and I never won one. It’s super tough, a lot of tough pros, and it does mean a lot to me.”
According to The Hendon Mob, Weng finished with 55 results for $6,647,556 good for 24th on the 2023 Money List.