Most Money Won In Poker Tournament
Many people out there dream about winning a million dollar prize in a poker game, but a look at the record of poker tournaments over the years reveals that many players have actually won much bigger prize money from the game.
TLDR; Poker Tournament Tips. The list of common mistakes beginners make when playing poker tournaments is pretty lengthy. Follow these poker tournament tips to avoid these mistakes. As a result, you'll see that you're making more money in poker as your results improve. All Time Money List; All Time Inflation Adjusted; All Time Most Popular Player; Global Poker Index; Global Poker Index Player of the Year; Most Followed Players; Most Popular Players in the last seven days; Last 12 Months; Exclusive Rankings for Poker 52 Magazine. French Players Last 12 Months; 2019 French Players; 2018 French Players; 2017. The following article explains this crucial tournament poker tip in more detail; Equity Realization. Tip 8: Don't Miss Double And Triple Barrel Opportunities 'One and done' is the plight of many aspiring tournament poker players. Everyday at the tables I see players missing profitable opportunities to double, or even triple barrel.
Has the thought of winning $5 million… $10 million… or even $18 million in one poker tournament ever crossed your mind? The simple truth is that such huge poker wins are actually possible.
Just so everyone knows, I'm not a Poker pro and although I've been playing over 17 yrs I was never able to push on. I've always gambled and often found myself basically gambling with any big scores ( for me ) if I won the tournament.
The $10,000 Main Event in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) has been the largest poker tournament for the past 10 years and within these years, some of the biggest poker tournament winners have emerged from this tournament.
Most poker tournaments are held online these days. NewCasinosUK.com has hundreds of brand new casino sites which hold regular tournaments where players can enter and win some serious cash in the process.
When you get online, you’ll realize that the biggest web based poker win ever was in the main event of the 2010 _Online Poker World Championship _(WCOOP). The tournament was hosted by PokerStars and had a buy-in of $5,200. Up to 2,443 players took part in it, and it garnered a prize pool of $12.22 million. At the end of the day, Tyson “POTTERPOKER” Marks won the first prize of $2.3 million.
It’s good to note that 12 of the 15 biggest poker wins are from the Main Event of the World Series Poker. Below, we’re going to take you through the 5 biggest poker wins of all time, in regards to the prize money for first place.
5. 2014 WSOP Main Event
The 2014 tournament kicked off on the 5th of July and ran till the 14th. However, in November, the final 9 players came back to slug it out for the grand prize. The event involved a field of 6,683 at the beginning, with a pool of $62.8 million. But at the end, the grand prize was won by the Swedish poker player named Martin Jacobson. He went home with a cool $10 million and a bracelet. The second place was taken by Felix Stephensen, and he went home with $5.15 million.
4. 2006 WSOP Main Event
Of course, the main event of the 2006 World Series Poker is reputed as the largest tournament the world of poker has ever witnessed. This is because it had a total number of 8,773 entrants and an amazingly huge pool of up to $82,512,162. The number of players involved necessitated four different starting days. From the four groups, it was stripped down to two, and later to one, before getting to the final table with nine players on august 8.
The championship was won by Jamie Gold on the 10th of August, landing $12 million as the prize money. The second place was taken by Paul Wasicka and he won $6.1 million. From day four, Gold had a good chip lead, taking out 7 opponents out of the 8 at the final table. Before the final game, he was the clear chip leader and to knock out Paul and head home with his tens, he applied the Q-9 and table talk.
The Big 3
The 3 largest events in poker were never part of the WSOP main event – In fact, they are all events by the non-profit organisation known as One Drop Foundation.
The foundation was founded by Guy Laliberté – who’s also the founder of Cirque du Soleil -and their mission is to provide crisis ridden parts of the world with safe drinking water. For every buy-in form in each of the events, $111,111 is donated to the foundation.
The biggest buy-in for the foundation was the $1 million buy-in for the Big One for One Drop yearly NLHE event which is also part of the WSOP. This event offers the world of poker not only the biggest buy-in, but the biggest pay out too. The Big One for One Drop event kicked off in 2012 and the largest of all single poker payouts happened on the debut edition.
3. 2014 Big One for One Drop
Dan Colman has the second largest win ever witnessed in the history of poker. The event garnered a total prize money pool of $37.3 million, and to go home with the $15.3 million first place prize money, Colman had to defeat up to 42 other contestants. Second place was taken by Daniel Negreanu who went home with about $8.29 million and that placed him at the top of the All Time Money List. This tournament made his total live winnings to exceed $36.5 million. This event also turned dramatic in the last hand because of the huge pot that Colman won from Negreanu in the past few hands with A-4.
2. 2018 Big One for One Drop
Most Money Won In Poker Tournament Today
Number 2 of the highest poker wins of all time is the most recent in the list has a history that excites most enthusiasts.
The final event had Fedor Holz defeated by Justin Bonomo to win the $10 million first place prize money and add one more bracelet to the one that he has already won in the tournament. With this win, Bonomo was sent to the top of the All Time Money List, knocking Daniel Negreanu from the top spot that had been there since 2014. It placed Bonomo’s all-time live winnings at a whopping $43 million.
1. 2012 Big One for One Drop
This respected event of the WSOP garnered 48 entries in 2012 with a prize pool of up to $42.67 million. The biggest win went to Antonio Esfandiari, and he went home with the $18.35 million prize money. This stands as the highest single pocket payout in the history of poker tournaments.. One significant thing here is that during the final hand, Esfandiari hit a 7-5 offsuit to defeat Sam Trickett and his Q-6. Antonio was a very excited man after that, as anyone would be taking home almost $20 million!.
Other Poker Tournament Wins To Note
It’s good to note that there are some non-NLHE tournaments that have garnered huge wins in the past too. The 2008 WSOP $50,000 H.O.R.S.E event had a win of $2 million grand prize after a long list of controversies.
The tournament poker landscape has seen a major shift in recent years, with the rise and proliferation of the super high roller circuit completely changing the way live tournament performance is evaluated. With multiple tournament buy-ins of $25,000 or higher each and every month, the top players in the game have never had more access to small-field events that feature massive paydays up for grabs.
The growth of the super high roller circuit has made a big impact on poker’s all-time money list. With the game’s top players able to accumulate seven-figure scores at a previously unthinkable rate, the top 20 on the live tournament earnings list has been almost entirely overhauled in recent years.
At the start of 2013, when high roller events were just beginning to become more common, the top 20 on the all-time money list looked as follows:
Place | Player | Tournament Earnings |
1 | Antonio Esfandiari | $23,496,079 |
2 | Sam Trickett | $17,473,275 |
3 | Phil Ivey | $17,134,556 |
4 | Erik Seidel | $17,129,977 |
5 | Phil Hellmuth | $16,986,195 |
6 | Daniel Negreanu | $16,178,001 |
7 | John Juanda | $14,748,351 |
8 | Michael Mizrachi | $14,094,124 |
9 | Jamie Gold | $12,231,699 |
10 | Scotty Nguyen | $11,730,690 |
11 | Joe Hachem | $11,634,309 |
12 | Peter Eastgate | $11,122,953 |
13 | Jonathan Duhamel | $11,110,555 |
14 | Carlos Mortensen | $10,740,091 |
15 | Allen Cunningham | $10,503,845 |
16 | Men Nguyen | $10,324,007 |
17 | Bertrand Grospellier | $10,121,529 |
18 | Gregory Merson | $9,847,686 |
19 | Gus Hansen | $9,798,445 |
20 | T.J. Cloutier | $9,729,570 |
Most Money Won In Poker Tournaments
The list was topped by Antonio Esfandiari, who surged to the number one spot after winning the first-ever $1 million buy-in poker tournament in 2012, while the runner-up in that event Sam Trickett occupied the second-place spot. Much of the rest of the list is dominated by the biggest stars of the early 2000’s poker boom, including Phil Ivey,Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda, Michael Mizrachi, and Scotty Nguyen. The list was also overrun with modern-era World Series of Poker main event winners, including Jamie Gold, Joe Hachem, Jonathan Duhamel, Carlos Mortensen, and Greg Merson.
Only one player had surpassed the $20 million mark in earnings by the start of 2013, and three players inside the top 20 had accumulated less than $10 million total.
As of today, a player with exactly $10 million in live tournament earnings would only sit in 72nd place on the list! Four players have cashed for more than $10 million so far this year alone, and only one player inside the top 20 has less than $20 million in career earnings, with Isaac Haxton sitting just outside that mark with $19,666,117.
Here’s a look at the current all-time money list:
Place | Player | Tournament Earnings |
1 | Justin Bonomo | $43,449,427 |
2 | Daniel Negreanu | $38,663,630 |
3 | Erik Seidel | $34,635,757 |
4 | Fedor Holz | $32,992,603 |
5 | David Peters | $29,350,172 |
6 | Daniel Colman | $28,743,713 |
7 | Antonio Esfandiari | $27,166,934 |
8 | Steve O’Dwyer | $26,345,466 |
9 | Phil Ivey | $25,924,184 |
10 | Dan Smith | $25,906,008 |
11 | Bryn Kenney | $25,725,046 |
12 | John Juanda | $23,613,065 |
13 | Scott Seiver | $23,492,690 |
14 | Phil Hellmuth | $22,145,540 |
15 | Jason Koon | $22,129,827 |
16 | Jake Schindler | $22,050,360 |
17 | Brian Rast | $21,072,969 |
18 | Mikita Badziakouski | $20,873,402 |
19 | Sam Trickett | $20,823,458 |
20 | Isaac Haxton | $19,666,117 |
Only seven players from the 2013 list are still among the top 20, in Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, Antonio Esfandiari, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Phil Hellmuth, and Sam Trickett. All of these players remain inside the top 20 as a result of having added several million in earnings since 2013. The leading amount of money won at the start of 2013 ($23,496,079) would only be good for 13th place today.
Fedor Holz is one of many young high roller regulars inside the current top 20 who were essentially nowhere near the top of the list at the start of 2013. In fact, Holz had only made one live tournament cash by that time, for $19,288. He now sits in fourth place with $32,992,603.
With $43,449,427 in lifetime live earnings, Justin Bonomo is the current leader on the all-time money list. Bonomo is having an incredible 2018, having won 10 titles and cashed for more than $25.2 million so far this year. That is the most money won by any player in a calendar year, eclipsing the $22 million that Dan Colman won in 2014.
With it now being possible for multiple players to cash for eight figures in a single year, it seems likely that the of the all-time money list will see plenty of fluctuation moving forward. Phil Hellmuth lamented how the super high rollers have changed the top of the leaderboard during a sideline interview at the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl, which Justin Bonomo went on to win for $5 million. That event was the one that saw Bonomo take the top spot on the money list, and he had a response to Hellmuth’s comments after emerging victorious.
“The all-time money list is definitely not a clear ranking of the best player in the world right now, but it still means a lot,” said Bonomo. “Some guys say, ‘Oh, that’s just all about who plays the most high rollers.’ Well, I’m sorry to break it to you, Phil Hellmuth, but the people playing these high rollers are the best players in the world, and that’s why we are at the top of the list. Sure, somebody who plays more of these events will have an advantage [at accruing earnings], but it really does entail competing against the best players in the world nearly every single day, and I am proud of how I’ve done.”
While super high rollers might have once seemed like an unsustainable trend, with more than five years of growth it seems increasingly likely that these events will continue to take place for years to come.