It’s no secret that the WSOP Player of the Year rankings are slightly weighted towards bigger buy-in events and through the holiday weekend, those bigger buy-in events are starting at the 2016 World Series of Poker. The $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship began Saturday and the $25,000 High Roller Pot Limit Omaha begins on Wednesday. The $111,111 High Roller for One Drop begins at the end of that week and if anyone is going to catch Jason Mercier at the top of those POY rankings, those events are going to play an important role.

Unfortunately for the chase pack, last year, Mercier cashed in two of those events, including a runner-up finish in the Pot Limit Omaha Championship. That means that not only will Benny Glazer, Max Silver and the rest of the top-five have to make deep runs, they’ll also have to stop Mercier, which has seemed like a nearly impossible task so far this summer.

After winning two bracelets in the course of a week, Mercier has continued to crush. He now has 10 cashes in 2016, including a cash at the end of last month in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship.

Glaser has gone for more quality than quantity, while also doing all his damage in mixed game events. After winning back to back Omaha Hi-Lo events, he’s added a $1,500 Mixed NLHE/PLO and $1,500 Seven Card Stud cashes. He sits second on the current POY standings with 1,352, well off the 2,121 pace set by Mercier.

While there is a gap at the top, Silver is making a push up the leaderboard, jumping into the top-three after being outside the top-ten a week ago. That’s because Silver has seemingly saved his best for the second half of the summer, pushing his cash total to nine and adding two deep runs in the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em event and the $10,000 PLO Championship. Throw in a 24th place finish in the $10,000 Six Max No Limit Hold’em Championship and Silver is proving himself across a wide variety of disciplines and buy-in levels.

The Brits are separated by just seven POY points but their podium spots aren’t guaranteed, as Michael Gathy is entering July on a rush. He won the $5,000 Six Max No Limit Hold’em event, good for his third career bracelet and then nearly won a forth, finishing runner-up to John Hennigan in the $10,000 Triple Draw Championship. The Belgian has never cashed in the above ‘big three’ events, so it will be interesting to see what his schedule is moving forward.

Prior to the start of the summer, Stephen Chidwick was pegged as one of the must watch players that could breakthrough to win his first bracelet. Unfortunately that win hasn’t come yet but he has recorded eight cashes, including two final table appearances. Primarily a mixed game player as well, he’ll certainly not only look to claim his first piece of WSOP hardware but also continue to move up the POY rankings.

WSOP POY Top 10

1. Jason Mercier – 2,121.69
2. Benny Glaser – 1,352.30
3. Max Silver – 1,345.39
4. Michael Gathy – 1,280.91
5. Stephen Chidwick – 1,278.09
6. Michael Watson – 1,273.05
7. Randy Ohel – 1,256.91
8. Martin Kozlov – 1,252.58
9. Michael Semenov – 1,214.69
10. Justin Bonomo – 1,197.99