Finally, it's time to wrap up our league for this year. The WSOP had a successful year, but ours was even more so, with our highest-ever number of entrants. Congratulations to all the winners. After being close a couple of times, Barrie won this one by a distance, but the battle between those trying to get into the second and third spots was much closer.
Barrie (r) celebrating his win with a friendOur points system is pretty simple, but it always strikes me as strange that someone who finishes 11th out of 5,000 entrants gets the same 1 point as someone who finishes 750th, while those a few places ahead get dramatically more. Something to consider next time maybe. Speaking of which, I might step back next time if someone else is interested in doing these updates.
It was a good year for the UK, punching above its weight in bracelets and final tables, but a spectacularly bad one for Canada, which usually does well. Nipun Java and David Bach won two bracelets each, making it the 18th year in a row that there have been multiple winners. Women's results were disappointing - after some real bracelets last year, all they won this time was the women's event and Liv got a bracelet for watching her partner play the Tag Team, while no women made the top 100 in the Main. The old guard had a surprisingly good Series, but the bracelets were mainly won by the 25-35-y-o pros, with a few throwbacks. James Moore won the same event he won last year. APAT almost had a winner, with Deborah Worley-Roberts taking a silver medal.
The Main Event was more interesting than recent years. I followed the final table updates for the first time in about four years and I'm sure I'm not the only one. This year will mainly be remembered as the year of Hesp, who will sweep up all the endorsements, while the other finalists are likely to largely be forgotten, even more so as we had an instantly forgettable winner. Okay, in fairness, I should mention that the ME was won by.......... er .......... no......sorry, it's gone.