The Top 10 Earnings-Wise Poker Players of All Time
Poker offers substantial financial rewards. The best poker player in the game have ascended the ranks and amassed millions of dollars playing poker in real and virtual tournaments.
The top ten best poker players of all time are shown here, ranked by tournament winnings.
Commendable mentions
An honourable mention for numbers 11–20 first!
- US player Phil Hellmuth Jr.: $24.8 million
- US citizen Christoph Vogelsang, 19: $25 million
- $25.2 million belongs to John Juanda in Indonesia.
- United States’ Jake Schindler: $26,000,000
- US-based Isaac Haxton: $27.6 mil
- US businessman Antonio Esfandiari: $27.8 million
- Mikita Bodziakouski, a Belarusian, and her $28.5 million
- Daniel Colman, United States: $29,000,000
- United States’ Steve O’Dwyer: $30.4 million
- $31.3 million for Cary Katz in the US
Below are the current 10 greatest poker players in history (as of right now).
- $31.4 million is Jason Koon’s US salary.
Over $6 million in tournament winnings have been added to the already outstanding résumé of Triton Poker ambassador Jason Koon during his eventful year.
Frequently appearing in high roller tournaments on the Triton circuit, Koon’s two largest career earnings occurred in two short deck competitions. In just those two tournaments, Koon won both and took home a total of more than $6.4 million in cash.
At the 2021 U.S. Poker Open, Koon achieved his most recent significant win. With a $336,000 payday, the $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em event was won by the Triton Poker ambassador in third place.
- $31.7 million for Phil Ivey (US).
Phil Ivey, a player whose successes in high stakes poker extend beyond tournament play, is well-known to even casual followers of the game.
Despite being closely associated with the “poker boom” of the mid-2000s, Ivey’s record has four consecutive top ten tournament scores that have occurred since 2018. Remarkably, Ivey’s three highest earnings occurred in three separate years, in A$ 250,000 buy-in Aussie Millions events.
Current day Triton Poker hosts cash games and high roller tournaments where Phil Ivey regularly makes an appearance. A seventh-place finish in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event ($1,404,014) is among Ivey’s nine seven-figure cashes on his Hendon Mob résumé.
- Fedor Holz ($32.5), a German national
25, As far as poker players go, Fedor Holz is undoubtedly among the greatest ever. Holz experienced one of the greatest winning streaks in history in the 2016 and 2017 seasons, taking home $21 million in just that brief time. In the 2018 WSOP $1 million Big One for One Drop, Holz most recently came in second behind Justin Bonomo and won a huge $6 million consolation prize.
- $34.5 million for US-based David Peters
David Peters has been steadily moving up the all-time money list over the past few years, making him a regular on the high roller circuit and a formidable competitor in any tournament.
In contrast to his current play at buy-ins of five, six, and seven figures or more, Peters’ first payout occurred in 2007. In2019, he expanded his résumé with two more seven-figure payouts.
In 2020, the high roller tournament circuit had to take a break due to COVID-19, but in 2021, Peters is back to his winning ways. At the 2021 U.S. Poker Open, Peters won three events and achieved his second consecutive player of the series title.
6: Stephen Chidwick, England: $35.6 million
It’s widely believed that Stephen Chidwick is the greatest tournament poker player in the world, even by his colleagues in the high roller scene.
In the summer of 2019, during the 2019 World Series of Poker, the Englishman, who had been ranked #1 in the world poker index for a long time, broke through to win his first bracelet.
Over his career, Chidwick has cashed in seven instances exceeding $1 million. Chidwick’s largest occurred at the £1,050,000 Triton Poker Million for Charity, where he placed fourth and earned $5,368,947.
5: $57 million for Dan Smith (US)
Dan Smith has been steadily rising on the All-Time Money List despite not being a vocalist. A $1.04 million victory in the $100,000 NHLE Aussie Millions Poker Championship tournament in 2012 signalled the beginning of a new chapter in Smith’s career. At the 2012 EPT-8 in Monte Carlo, Smith excelled even more, winning three NLHE tournaments in four days.
Smith’s most recent earnings were $8,765,628 from his third-place finish at the Triton Million and $4 million from the 2018 WSOP Big One for One Drop.
Watch Smith compete in the $111,111 for One Drop World Series of Poker in 2016 here. After all, he earned $3,078,974: 4 and came in second place.
- $357.8 million for Erik Seidel (US)
Among the initial members of New York City’s Mayfair Clu0b, along with Stu Ungar, Dan Harrington, and Howard Lederer, is Erik Seidel, 61, who is referred to as the “old man” on this list. With an astounding 35 final tables and 92 cashes, including a second-place finish behind Johnny Chan in the 1988 Main Event, Seidel is an eight-time winner of the WSOP bracelet.
2011 Aussie Millions Poker Championship $250,000 Super High Roller NLHE tournament was Seidel’s biggest cash payout, coming in close to $2.5 million. The Poker Hall of Fame inducted him in 2010.
- $42.2 million for Daniel Negreanu, a Canadian
Until the 2018 World Series of Poker, Daniel “Kid Poker” Negreanu dominated the all-time money list for a considerable amount of time. It would be incorrect to discount Negreanu’s career, nevertheless. He’s made 38 final tables, cashed 108 times, earned six WSOP bracelets, and finished in 11th place at the Main Events in 2001 and 2015. At the 2014 Poker Hall of Fame induction, Negreanu was accepted.
A major factor in Negreanu’s remarkable success and rightful ranking among the greatest poker players of all time is his remarkable ability to read opponents with astonishing accuracy.
- $53.2 million for US native Justin Bonomo
With his victory in the $1 million Big One for One Drop tournament at the 2018 WSOP, Justin Bonomo unseated the previous leader. Quickly moving him up to the top of the All-Time Money List was the $10 million reward. Though he now occupies the second slot on this list, Bonomo is always a threat to take the top spot again.
With victories nearly wherever he played in 2018, the 35-year-old Bonomo enjoyed a wild run. The May Aria Super High Roller Bowl $300,000 NLHE event saw this three-time WSOP bracelet winner win $5 million, and the Macau Super High Roller Bowl $HK 3 million NLHE event saw him take home another $4.8 million (HK $37.8 million). Overall, he won an amazing ten high roller events that year that took place all over the world. No signs of slowing down are evident in Bonomo.
- $56.4 million for Bryn Kenney (US)
With his largest career payday coming in August at the Triton Million, Bryn Kenney’s remarkable 2019 run has catapulted him to the top of this ranking. In that competition, Kenney earned $20,563,324 and placed third.
That was in 2007 that Kenney won his first live tournament. His remarkable winnings have continued to grow ever since. In the $1,500 10-Game Mix 6-Handed event in 2014, Kenney took home a WSOP bracelet. He has cashed 32 times and made seven final WSOP tables overall, including a 28th place finish in the Main Event of 2010. He cashed his biggest hand ever, almost $2 million, at the €100,000 NLHE Super High Roller 8-Max PokerStars Championship in Barcelona back in April 2017. Kenney has had numerous top-five results ever since then, all throughout the world.
At the PCA Main Event in 2015, Kenney displayed an incredible bluff.
Players in the Top Five Cash Games
Identifying the all-time top five cash game players is a more challenging undertaking than simply maintaining the Hendon Mob database, which is a definitive, comprehensive record of poker events played globally.
High-stakes cash game results from live poker rooms are impossible to track, and there is no comprehensive online cash game database in the poker world.
Some cash gamer’s peers see a small subset of them as the world’s most dangerous cash gamer. Examining five names that ought to be on any list of the top players in cash games at poker in the world is necessary.
The Loeliger, Linus “LLinusLLove”
Even while there is definitely disagreement about a list of the top five cash game players, high-stakes opponents would probably agree that Linus “LLinusLLove” Loeliger is their unanimous choice. In the last four years, Loeliger has advanced to the top of high-stakes online gaming, having participated in the 10NL online streets back in 2013.
Loeliger’s career cash game winnings at stakes of 50NL and above on PokerStars are $2.1 million, according to the Statname database. No-Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha hands are included in the database.
Loeliger’s stakes of 2,000NL or more account for more than $2 million of that amount. Given that Loeliger is a multi-site online poker player, those high stakes numbers probably only reflect a portion of his actual winnings.
“BERRI LOVE”
The greatest ever online cash game winner at PokerStars, according to Statname, is a Swedish player named “BERRI SWEET.” In the world’s biggest poker site, that résumé shows $4.5 million in earnings.
It is challenging to determine the exact amount of money that player “BERRI SWEET” has won in poker cash games because it is unknown what their genuine identity is. With just 20,000NL stakes, “BERRI SWEET,” who specialises in Pot-Limit Omaha, has earned $2.4 million.
According to Statname, “BERRI SWEET” won $324,ooo on PokerStars in April 2021. This is a respectable sum of money considering the state of the online cash gaming industry today.
“Freak Action”
Throughout their career on PokerStars, “ActionFreak,” a PLO specialist who goes by no true name, has made $2.1 million in profit. The screen name is an entity that is known to smash PLOs, but the true name is still unknown.
In the early months of 2020, “ActionFreak” announced his intention to compete against Phil Galfond in the RunItOnce Galfond Challenge. Galfond emerged victorious from the 15,000-hand tournament, but beating one of the best PLO players of the contemporary period in poker has to be seen as an upset.
Timofey “Trueteller” Kuznetsov
2018 saw the creation of a “Top 10 Cash Game Poker Players” film by Timofey “Trueteller” Kuznetsov and Doug Polk for Upswing Poker’s YouTube channel. The film features Polk and former Upswing coach Andres “educa-p0ker” Artinano talking about the players they ranked in the top ten cash games at the time.
Our ranking of the top five cash game players must include Artinano’s name, even though the video is already three years old. At the Bellagio in Las Vegas, where Bobby’s Room was formerly called, as well as Triton Poker cash games throughout the Asia-Pacific area, Timofey “Truetller” Kuznetsov now makes appearances in high stakes live cash games somewhat frequently.
Kuznetsov’s high-stakes online hand activity was monitored by Highstakes DB between 2011 and 2018. With the help of the sample, “Trueteller” made $3,095,168.
Red Baron Jonas Mols, aka “OtB”
An official online poker legend, the player going under the screen moniker “OtB_RedBaron” is well-known. Because “OtB_RedBaron” was such a crusher, Andres “educa-p0ker” Artinano originally created the “Crush the Baron” Upswing Poker course, which concentrated only on the tactics used and the database information presented by “OtB_RedBaron.”
Jonas Mols, a professional poker player from Belgium, uses the PokerStars online name “OtB_RedBaron.” Throughout the course of his tenure at PokerStars, Mols has made $1.7 million in gains, per Statname. Still, that sample isn’t representative of all the hands Mols has played on any given poker site, at any stake.
They are the greatest poker players in history as of right now!
