Although he knew it would happen by the summer, Mike “BrockLesnar” Holtz officially secured the WSOP.com Player of the Year award in Nevada/New Jersey at the end of December.
The same online poker award in Pennsylvania went to Zach “CaptainLevi” Gruneberg. Both players have something in common beyond their online prowess — they’re also skilled live poker tournament players.
Nevada Online Poker Legend Does it Again
Holtz, who won the award in 2021, has been crushing it on WSOP.com Nevada for quite a few years now. If you play in the multi-table tournaments (MTTs) regularly, you’ll frequently see his screen name, “BrockLesnar,” among those who reached the money.
When PokerNews caught up with the online poker star during the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas, he gave himself -800 odds to win Player of the Year, essentially saying there wasn’t much of a shot he’d fall out of first place before the end of the year.
“I had (the lead) up to 10k or so points ahead in July but when December started we were 2,200 points apart, so I was very concerned about losing.”
As it turns out, he was spot on with his prediction, although Qinghai “011POKERDR” Pan did give him a bit of a race. Holtz finished the year with 95,306 points, about 6,000 more than Pan. No other player hit the 70,000 mark, with Krista “Pollux” Gifford in third place at 68,437 points. Gifford finished runner-up by a wide margin to Holtz in 2021.
“It feels fantastic to win Player of the Year again,” Holtz said. “I’m relieved after a long hard battle with ‘pokerdr’ that I came out on top. I had done really well early on and had a commanding lead from the start. I had (the lead) up to 10k or so points ahead in July but when December started we were 2,200 points apart, so I was very concerned about losing it at the last second.”
Holtz admitted chasing Player of the Year is “stressful” as it requires consistent positive results throughout the year and many hours of grinding. Contenders can’t take much time off or another player will pass right on by them. After winning it for a second time in three years, “Brock” said he will continue playing online and live, including some travel to certain events, but “won’t be going for Player of the Year” in 2024.
“I really want to get into content creation,” says the online poker crusher. “I think the vast majority of online pros are corny as hell. When you envision an online crushers setup you would think multiple monitors, charts everywhere, calming music, etc. For me the truth is I play on a laptop in my kitchen. I’m playing other video games at the same time and or watching TV. I’m playing with my dogs half the time and I’m doing this while I’m running over everyone in the player pool.”
Holtz, who also finished 15th in the live WSOP Player of the Year race last summer and has over $550,000 in The Hendon Mob results, beat some tough competition, including World Poker Tour (WPT) co-commentator Tony “Panoramic” Dunst (ninth place), and AJ “sacakewalk” Sacher, the defending champion.
For winning the award on the Nevada/New Jersey shared liquidity platform, Holtz received $10,000 in cash, a WSOP.com Player of the Year ring, and $1,500 in online tournament tickets.
2023 WSOP.com Nevada/New Jersey Player of the Year Standings
| Place | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike “BrockLesnar” Holtz | 95,306 |
| 2 | Qinghai “011POKERDR” Pan | 89,404 |
| 3 | Krista “Pollux” Gifford | 68,437 |
| 4 | Benjamin “MrLarryDavid” Felson | 59,726 |
| 5 | Josh “YoelRomeo” King | 56,354 |
| 6 | Aram “X69Podheiser” Zobian | 55,835 |
| 7 | “HuniDeGrande” | 55,177 |
| 8 | Jonathan “Art.Vandelay” Dokler | 54,488 |
| 9 | Tony “Panoramic” Dunst | 52,417 |
| 10 | AJ “sacakewalk” Sacher | 50,993 |
Mike Holtz Wins 2021 WSOP.com Player of the Year
Gruneberg Wins a Close Race in Pennsylvania
Over on WSOP.com Pennsylvania, the battle for Player of the Year was closer, but Gruneberg grinded it out to the finish line, thanks in part to a number of WSOP Circuit Online deep runs in the Fall.
“CaptainLevi” won his sixth WSOP Circuit ring in September when he took down a $215 buy-in no-limit hold’em online event for $7,769. He reached nine final tables in WSOPC online events during the last four months of the year.
“We have a really solid community of players in Pennsylvania that all know each other which to me adds to the fun and competitive nature of things like Player of the Year,” Gruneberg said.
Gruneberg, who racked up 45,147 POY points, faced a tough battle from “Albertcamus,” a player who finished just over 2,000 points off the lead. Justin “yumdubz” Vaysman took third place, quite a bit behind the top two performers at 31,763 points.
David “DrKool” Kuder was the first to ever win WSOP.com Pennsylvania Player of the Year in 2022. He had another solid year on the virtual felt, but inevitably finished in ninth place this time around (22,345 points).
Much like Holtz, Gruneberg received $10,000 in cash, a ring, and $1,500 worth of tournament tickets on WSOP.com. The 2023 champion, also like Holtz, is an accomplished live player as well. Even more accomplished. Gruneberg has over $2.2 million in live tournament cashes, including a $490,617 score for finishing runner-up to Jesse Sylvia in the 2016 WPT Borgata Poker Open.
Gruneberg said he decided to make a serious run at Player of the Year “a few months back.” Another player in his Pennsylvania Discord group who goes by the name “Tators” proclaimed he would win POY. That fueled Gruneberg’s fire.
“The journey was quite an exciting one because going into late November early December, I was buried by 4,000 points,” the PA champion stated.
Putting in the volume, playing well, and running hot at the right time sparked Gruneberg out in front at the finish line. He said he final tabled “80% to 90% of the events” in the latter months to take the lead and “never looked back.”
“DrKool” Wins First Ever WSOP.com PA Player of the Year
2023 WSOP.com Pennsylvania Player of the Year Standings
| Place | Player | Points |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Zach “CaptainLevi” Gruneberg | 45,147 |
| 2 | “Albertcamus” | 42,955 |
| 3 | Justin “yumdubz” Vaysman | 31,763 |
| 4 | “ArnoldSlick” | 28,389 |
| 5 | Casey “sdddave” Hatmaker | 24,585 |
| 6 | Michael “FutureWhale” McNicholas | 23,962 |
| 7 | Dean “TheRealYoshi” Morrow | 23,433 |
| 8 | “Griffith_” | 22,860 |
| 9 | David “DrKool” Kuder | 22,345 |
| 10 | Andrew “LoveToLose” Porter | 22,182 |
