Poker is a very competitive sport and it takes a lot of skill and commitment to be a force in the poker industry for a considerable period of time. There are always newcomers coming into the game and shaking things up. One of the ways to determine the best poker pros in the game is too look at the Hendon Mob’s All-Time Money list which serves as a guideline in recognizing the poker pros who have dominated the game.
The popularity of Texas Hold’em Poker in India is at its peak these days. The game not only reduces stress and enhances concentration, but also provides opportunities to win big money.
We take a quick look at the current list of top 5 poker pros:
1. Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu has held the top spot on this list for quite awhile. The Canadian poker pro is a member of the Poker Hall of Fame and is widely recognized by his peers as one of the greatest poker players of all time.
Negreanu has been playing professionally for more than two decades now and has $36,546,094 in life time winnings. The most recent addition to his bankroll was when he won $264,000 in Las Vegas at the US Poker Open Main Event.
The biggest win in his career was when he cashed-out $8,288,001 at WSOP's The Big One for One Drop event back in 2014.
2. Erik Seidel
Seidel is the number one ranked player on the US’s list of all-time career prize money and ranked number two on the global all-time money list.
He is just a few million short of Negreanu and has $33,538,037 in total winnings. Seidel has won eight WSOP bracelets, a WPT title and is a member of the Poker Hall of Fame. The latest addition to his cash earnings was during the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) 2018 when he cashed out with $260,260.
3. Daniel Colman
Dan Colman is one of the younger generation of poker pros who has managed to accumulate a massive amount of money in a short period of time. The 27 year old poker pro started out in online poker rooms and quickly progressed to live events.
His total career prize money now stands at $28,925,059 and his biggest cashout came when he beat Negreanu at the Big One for One Drop event in 2014 which led him to walk away with $15,306,668.
His most recent cash out was back in October 2017, when he walked away with the $200,000 first prize victory at the Poker Night in America King of the Hill.
4. Antonio Esfandiari
Esfandiari’s biggest claim to fame is that he scored the largest single payout in tournament poker history. This was back in 2012 when he won The Big One for One Drop event and walked away with $18,346,673.
He was the previous holder of the top spot on the all-time money list before Negreanu unseated him. Right now, his total lifetime earnings stand at $27,614,381. He has been playing since 2002 and has won two WPT championships along with three WSOP bracelets.
5. Fedor Holz
Another young player who has taken the poker world by storm is 24 year poker pro Fedor Holz.
He is the youngest poker player to be featured in the Hendon Mob’s top 10 all-time money list.
The German pro has earned $26,701,371 in his career till date.
For the last eight years, the largest tournament in the world has been the World Series of Poker Main Event. With the exception of 1992, the US$10,000 buy-in tournament increased in prize pool year-over-year from its start in 1970 until 2007 (the latter a result of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which reduced the number of players winning their seats via online play).
The first tournament to reach a million dollar prize pool was the 1983 WSOP Main Event. The WSOP Main Event of 2004 had the first prize pool of above $10,000,000.
The largest non Hold'em Tournament has been the 2008 WSOP $50K HORSE with a prize pool of $7,104,000 and the first prize of $1,989,120 going to Scotty Nguyen.[1]
Below are the 30 largest poker tournaments with respect to the prize pool in United States dollars and not number of entrants. This list includes live and online poker.
Currently, 14 of the 15 largest prize pools in history have been WSOP Main Events. The second largest prize pool outside of the Main Event is the 2012 WSOP event known as The Big One for One Drop, held from July 1–3. It featured a buy-in of US$1 million, the largest in poker history. Of the buy-in, $111,111 was a charitable donation to the One Drop Foundation, and the WSOP took no rake. All 48 seats available for that event were filled, resulting in a prize pool of $42,666,672, with over 5 million dollars donated.[2] The second largest pool for any event outside of the WSOP was the 2012 Macau High Stakes Challenge, with a HK$2 million (US$260,000) buy-in plus a rebuy option. The event drew a field of 73, of which 21 made a rebuy, resulting in a prize pool of HK$182,360,000 (slightly over US$23.5 million).[3]
All of the 30 richest tournaments to date were played in No Limit Hold'em.
| Event | Prize Pool (US$) | Winner | 1st Prize | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 WSOP Main Event | $82,512,162 | Jamie Gold | $12,000,000 | [4][5] |
| 2019 WSOP Main Event | $80,548,600 | Hossein Ensan | $10,000,000 | [6] |
| 2018 WSOP Main Event | $74,015,600 | John Cynn | $8,800,000 | [7] |
| 2010 WSOP Main Event | $68,799,059 | Jonathan Duhamel | $8,944,310 | [8] |
| 2017 WSOP Main Event | $67,877,400 | Scott Blumstein | $8,150,000 | [9] |
| 2019 Triton Super High Roller Series - Triton Million | $65,660,000 (£54,000,000) | Aaron Zang | $23,100,000 (£19,000,000) | [10] |
| 2011 WSOP Main Event | $64,531,000 | Pius Heinz | $8,711,956 | [11] |
| 2008 WSOP Main Event | $64,333,600 | Peter Eastgate | $9,152,416 | [12] |
| 2016 WSOP Main Event | $63,327,800 | Qui Nguyen | $8,005,310 | [13] |
| 2014 WSOP Main Event | $62,820,200 | Martin Jacobson | $10,000,000 | [14] |
| 2012 WSOP Main Event | $62,021,200 | Greg Merson | $8,527,982 | [15] |
| 2009 WSOP Main Event | $61,043,600 | Joe Cada | $8,547,042 | [16] |
| 2015 WSOP Main Event | $60,348,000 | Joe McKeehen | $7,680,021 | [17] |
| 2007 WSOP Main Event | $59,784,954 | Jerry Yang | $8,250,000 | [18] |
| 2013 WSOP Main Event | $59,708,800 | Ryan Riess | $8,359,531 | [19] |
| 2005 WSOP Main Event | $52,818,610 | Joe Hachem | $7,500,000 | [20] |
| 2012 WSOP Event 55 – The Big One for One Drop | $42,666,672 | Antonio Esfandiari | $18,346,673 | [21] |
| 2014 WSOP Event 57 – The Big One for One Drop | $37,333,338 | Dan Colman | $15,306,668 | [22] |
| 2016 Monte-Carlo One Drop Extravaganza | $27,437,564 | Elton Tsang | $12,248,912 | [23] |
| 2019 PokerStars NL Hold'em Players Championship | $26,455,500 | Ramon Colillas | $5,100,000 | [24] |
| 2018 WSOP Event 78 – The Big One for One Drop | $24,840,000 | Justin Bonomo | $10,000,000 | [25] |
| 2004 WSOP Main Event | $24,224,400 | Greg Raymer | $5,000,000 | [26] |
| 2012 Macau High Stakes Challenge Super High Roller | $23,511,128 | Stanley Choi | $6,465,560 | [27] |
| Super High Roller Bowl 2015 | $21,500,000 | Brian Rast | $7,525,000 | [28] |
| 2016 WSOP Event 67 – High Roller for One Drop | $19,316,565 | Fedor Holz | $4,981,775 | [29] |
| 2013 WSOP Event 47 – One Drop High Roller | $17,891,148 | Anthony Gregg | $4,830,619 | [30] |
| Super High Roller Bowl 2017 | $16,800,000 | Christoph Vogelsang | $6,000,000 | [31] |
| 2007 WPT Championship | $15,495,750 | Carlos Mortensen | $3,970,415 | [32] |
| 2013 GuangDong Ltd Asia Millions Main Event | $15,376,897 | Niklas Heinecker | $4,456,885 | [33] |
| 2011 Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure | $15,132,000 | Galen Hall | $2,300,000 | [34] |
Notes[edit]
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^Dalla, Nolan (June 30, 2012). 'The Biggest One—World's Most Spectacular Poker Extravaganza Starts Sunday'. World Series of Poker. Retrieved July 3, 2012.
- ^Peters, Donnie (August 31, 2012). 'Stanley Choi Wins Macau High Stakes Challenge for US$6,465,746'. PokerNews.com. Retrieved October 21, 2012.
- ^'2006 WSOP Main Event payouts'. WSOP. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^https://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/event.php?a=r&n=541550
- ^[1]
- ^wsop.com
- ^http://www.wsop.com/tournaments/payouts.asp?grid=1352&tid=15673
- ^https://triton-series.com/triton-super-high-roller-series-london-2019/
- ^'PIUS HEINZ WINS 2011 WSOP MAIN EVENT CHAMPIONSHIP'. WSOP. 8 November 2011. Retrieved 9 November 2011.
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^'Level 4 concludes: officially the largest main event in the last five years'. WSOP. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
- ^Poker News Daily
- ^pokernews.com
- ^'2009 WSOP main event prize pool'. WSOP. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
- ^'Event #68: No-Limit Hold'em MAIN EVENT'. 2015 World Series op Poker Chip Counts. World Series of Poker. Retrieved July 15, 2015.
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^'2013 44th Annual World Series of Poker, Event #62: No-Limit Hold'em Main Event'. WSOP.com. Retrieved July 20, 2013. Click on the 'Prizepool' tab for the first prize.
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^Dalla, Nolan (July 3, 2012). 'Antonio Esfandiari Pulls Off Amazing Trick by Winning One Drop'. WSOP.com. Retrieved July 4, 2012.
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^[2]
- ^[3]
- ^[4]
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^[5]
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^Hendon Mob
- ^pokerstarsblog.com