Have you ever wondered who the most successful poker players of all time are? It is obviously impossible to track cash game play but tournament play can be tracked. Let’s look at the Top 10 all-time professional poker players in terms of money won in poker tournaments.
1. Antonio Esfandiari - $25 Million
2. Daniel Negreanu - $20 Million
3. Erik Seidel - $19 Million
4. Sam Trickett - $19 Million
5. Phil Hellmuth - $16 Million
6. Phil Ivey – $15 Million
7. Michael Mizrachi - $14 Million
8. John Juanda - $13 Million
9. Jamie Gold - $12 Million
10. Jonathan Duhamel - $12 Million
It is worth noting that Esfandairi leads this list due to one huge win in the Big One for One Drop poker tournament. That event in 2012 featured a $1 million dollar buy-in so the first place prize was huge. Esfandiari picked up $18 million for that win. Also, two other names on this list, Jamie Gold and Jonathan Duhamel picked up most of their winnings by winning the World Series of Poker main event. In fact, almost all of the winnings by Jamie Gold came from his win in 2006 when he won $12 million for taking first place. Duhamel has at least won something other than the main event as his first place prize in 2010 was about $9 million.
