At the top of their game, professional poker players earn millions in tournament cashes, tour successes and high-stakes grinding in the card rooms along the Las Vegas Strip. But how much are the rich and famous of the poker world really worth?
Some of the best players are staked to enter major events and have to cough up as much as 50% of their winnings to backers. The tax authorities want their cut, too. So, who’s really raking in the dough?
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Bracelets Are Just the Beginning
A quick look at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) rankings in terms of total earnings (WSOP cashes alone) is revealing on several levels.
Antonio Esfandiari sits atop the list with nearly $22M, the bulk of that coming from the 2012 WSOP Big One for One Drop $1M buy-in tournament, which he won for more than $18.3M. Daniel Negreanu is close behind with more than $20.7M in WSOP earnings, followed by Phil Hellmuth, Dan Colman, and Justin Bonomo.
As for WSOP gold bracelets, Phil Hellmuth is the all-time leader with 17 of them. He won his 17th in a Super Turbo Bounty WSOP event in 2023. Of his $30M in lifetime total tournament earnings, nearly $18M of that came from WSOP events.
Second to Hellmuth for bracelets is a three-way tie. Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, and Phil Ivey each have 10 WSOP bracelet wins, followed closely by both Erik Seidel and Johnny Moss, each with nine. Men Nguyen and Billy Baxter each have seven. None of them, however are in the top 20 of WSOP earnings.
Members of the Top 20
The top 20 poker tournament winners, in terms of recorded cash earnings, is an ever-changing list. It is filled with players who compete in high-buy-in tournaments, mostly $10K and higher, with some playing buy-ins of up to $1M.
As of April 2024, Bryn Kenney sits atop the list with more than $65.2M in lifetime tournament earnings, followed by Justin Bonomo with $63.4M. Stephen Chidwick, Jason Koon, Dan Smith, Mikita Bodyakovsky, and Daniel Negreanu round out the top seven, each with more than $50M.
The rest of the top 20 are also high-stakes players, and the list includes names like Isaac Haxton, Erik Seidel, Phil Ivey, Fedor Holz, Sam Greenwood, Nick Petrangelo, and Alex Foxen.
The Hollywood Contingent
There are many well-known celebrities with an affinity for poker. Some of them participate in private home games, some even play in high-stakes cash games with poker pros. Most of them, however, do not play poker tournaments due to the time required. Actors, musicians, and athletes rarely have the time needed to dedicate themselves to tournament play.
The “celebrity” list of earnings finds Rick Salomon at the top with nearly $10M, followed in the distance by businessman David Einhorn with $5.2M. Sports investor Haralabos Voulgaris has nearly $3.5M in poker tournament earnings, and rapper Alejandro Andres Lococo of Argentina has more than $2.6M.
Gabe Kaplan is possibly the best known in the top 10, as his acting and comedy career was full of success, as has been his career as a poker player and commentator. Jennifer Tilly is also a regular in poker cash games and does occasionally play tournaments, too.
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