WSOP APAC - George Danzer wins 2014 WSOP Player of the Year race

We have reported before about George Danzer and Brandon Shack-Harris' epic race to win the prestigious Player of the Year award, but the final few events brought even more excitement. In the end, it was the German PokerStars Team Pro who claimed the victory and the $10,000 seat into the 2015 WSOP Main Event.

This year's WSOP Player of the Year race was most likely the most epic one so far. There have been a couple of years where multiple players had good chances to win the title, but it never came down to the final two events in the Series' schedule. Theoretically, several players could have won the title, but in reality it was George Danzer and Brandon Shack-Harris who were playing every tournament and really pushing themselves to win the title.

When the WSOP APAC began, Brandon Shack-Harris was leading the POY race, but not by much. The first event that shook up the standings was the A$1,100 No Limit Hold'em Accumulator tournament. Shack-Harris cashed in the event in 53rd place to increase his lead, but Danzer managed to finish in 22nd to overtake the lead.

Shack-Harris quickly retook his lead with a 6th place finish in the A$1,650 No Limit Hold'em Terminator event. After this Shack-Harris wrote the following on the 2+2 forums: "I final tabled the NL Terminator event and busted out 6th. This is good for a 40 point lead, and I basically feel like I've wrapped POY up."

A couple of days later, Danzer final tabled the A$1,650 Dealer's Choice event. He needed to finish 4th or better to jump into the lead once again, but eventually busted out in 6th place.

Shack-Harris had a minimal lead with the A$5,000 8-Game coming up, but Danzer not only made the money, he won the tournament and his third WSOP bracelet this year, while Shack-Harris didn't even make the money.

With only the Main Event and the High Roller to go, Shack-Harris needed a big score, he either needed to finish at least 2nd in the Main Event or cash in the Main Event and make a deep run in the High Roller. Shack-Harris finished in 17th place at the Main Event, and jumped straight into the actions of the High Roller, but was eliminated way before the final table.

Danzer could finally relax, and he congratulated Shack-Harris on his amazing performance.

Danzer had an amazing WSOP, he cashed 10 times, reached the final table five times, won three bracelets and $867,649.

Danzer is also only the 6th player in history to win three bracelets in one year, and will have a huge banner of himself displayed in the Rio with the other Player of the Year winners to honour his remarkable run in the series.