• »News
• »Who Are The Biggest Poker Tournament Winners Of All-Time?

Biggest Online Poker Winners 2017 Results

The rise in popularity of High Roller and Super High Roller poker tournaments in recent years has had a dramatic affect on the all-time winnings rankings, as has the fact poker tournament players now have more opportunities than ever to grind away in major events around the world.

These days, you need almost $8.5 million in cashes just to break into the top 100 biggest poker winners of all-time, and a staggering $12.6 million to find yourself ranked in the top 50. The prize money some of the world’s best poker players have earned is astronomical, but who are the five biggest poker tournament winners of all time?

He cashed for $2,935,899 in 2015, for $7,955,398 in 2016, for $3,541,517 in 2017, for $10,785,013 in 2018 and already has $3,145,109 in 2019. Peters has a great shot to become the biggest winner of all time, but the following three will have a thing or two to say about that for sure. Erik Seidel - $34,799,930. Luzak is the biggest loser of 2017 at the online high stakes with $1,277,737 in the red. The Biggest winner of the last 2 years Alexander “joiso” Kostritsyn surprisingly booked a loss as well as the for many best Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em player in the world Dan “w00ki3z” Cates.

Justin Bonomo – $44,779,048

Justin Bonomo tops the charts with an almost unbelievable total of $44,779,048 in live poker tournament winnings. Bonomo already had more than $18 million in earning before he went on a massive heater during 2018 that saw the Fairfax, Virginia native get his hands on more than $25.4 million!

Part of that huge total stemmed from his victory in the Big One for One Drop event at the 2018 World Series of Poker (WSOP), a $1 million buy-in event. Bonomo was the last man standing and locked up the largest cash of his career, namely $10 million.

Daniel Negreanu – $40,045,583

Daniel Negreanu

Former PokerStars Team ProDaniel Negreanu was the former number one in the biggest poker tournament winners of all time until Bonomo went on his epic run. Negreanu is currently sat in second-place with $40,045,583 in winnings.

The Canadian, who resides in Las Vegas is regarded as one of the best all-round poker players of all time, one who has amassed six WSOP bracelets and two World Poker Tour (WPT) titles. Negreanu’s largest cash weighs in at $8,288,001, his reward for a second-place finish in the 2014 edition of the Big One for One Drop.

Erik Seidel – $35,373,831

Erik Seidel may not look like your stereotypical poker player, but do not let looks fool you because Seidel is an absolute beast, a beast who has earned $35,373,831 from poker tournaments. Among Seidel’s many achievements are eight WSOP bracelets, a WPT Main Event win and a victory in a Super High Roller event on the European Poker Tour (EPT) circuit.

Seidel was the runner-up in the 1988 WSOP Main Event, losing to Johnny Chan. This final hand made it into the famous 1998 movie Rounders.

Bryn Kenney – $34,908,320

Bryn Kenney

Born in Long Beach, New York, Bryn Kenney cut his teeth playing online poker where he gained a reputation for being a fearless opponent. It is a deserved reputation because Kenney fears nobody at the table, especially in No Limit Hold’em tournaments for any stakes.

There are still six months of 2019 remaining, yet Kenney is already guaranteed to have enjoyed his best year at the poker tables in terms of money won. Through June 20, 2019, Kenney has banked almost $9.3 million in winnings, an impressive figure helped by him winning back-to-back titles at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Montenegro that saw him return home with the equivalent of $3,605,235.

David Peters – $33,066,566

Ohio’s David Peters is probably the best poker player you have never heard of and it is not because of a lack of winnings as Peters currently sits in fifth-place in the biggest poker tournament winners of all-time listings with $33,066,566.

Peters tends to shun the limelight, not interested in the publicity that comes with winning poker tournament. Instead, Peters acts like a consummate professional, heads to casinos around the world and has an almost unnatural ability to build his stack.

Ten cashes of more than $1 million have helped Peters soar up the rankings, with his largest prize being worth $2,699,752 which he won for finishing second in a Super High Roller event in the Philippines that cost $200,000 to enter.

10 Biggest Poker Tournament Winners of All-Time

Place	Player	Country	Winnings
1	Justin Bonomo	United States	$44,779,050
2	Daniel Negreanu	Canada	$40,045,583
3	Erik Seidel	United States	$35,373,831
4	Bryn Kenney	United States	$34,908,320
5	David Peters	United States	$33,066,566
6	Fedor Holz	Germany	$32,556,379
7	Daniel Colman	United States	$28,925,059
8	Jason Koon	United States	$28,890,061
9	Antonio Esfandiari	United States	$27,728,436
10	Dan Smith	United States	$27,707,079

Poker is an exciting game. The adrenaline rush of pulling a big bluff, dragging in a huge pot, or winning a major title can be compared to a few things in things in this life. Over the years, we’ve witnessed numerous such moments and it’s hard to pick out the most important ones. Every big hand has its own magic.

When there are so many moments to choose from, making any sort of top list-type of an article is difficult. This article will focus on top 10 biggest poker wins. But, it won’t focus on the sheer cash amount. There are other things that make a poker win big even if the amount won doesn’t seem as significant in the overall scheme of things.

1. Chris Moneymaker Wins 2003 WSOP Main Event

Chris Moneymaker, the 2004 World Series of Poker champion, competes on the fourth day of the first round of the WSOP no-limit Texas Hold ’em main event at the Rio Hotel & Casino July 31, 2006 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

When an unknown accountant from Tennessee qualified for the 2003 WSOP Main Even via a satellite tournament on PokerStars, nobody could imagine how big of an effect this would have on the game of poker. The man with a catchy surname and not much else going for him in poker terms came to Las Vegas filled with dreams and hopes. His story wasn’t unlike one of the so many others coming to Sin City, looking for their share of luck.

However, Moneymaker stood out from the rest. He managed to outlast every single player in the Main Event, seizing the title and the $2.5 million prize to go with it. In an epic ending, he squared off against famous Sammy Farha and prevailed.

Thanks to television, Moneymaker’s story gave wings to hundreds of thousands around the globe. If a Tennessee accountant could do it, anyone could. In the years to come, the popularity of poker, online and offline, would keep growing, reaching unthinkable proportions. That 2003 Main Event changed the game of poker forever.

2. Antonio Esfandiari Takes Home Big One for One Drop

Back in 2012, a professional player Antonio ‘The Magician’ Esfandiari took home the biggest prize in tournament poker. Playing in the first $1,000,000 buy-in event, Esfandiari managed to be the last man standing in the 48-strong field consisting of top professionals and wealthy businessmen.

In the end, ‘The Magician’ took home a prize of $18.3 million, for a cool profit in excess of $17 million. To this day, this is the biggest single prize won in a poker tournament, and it is a record that won’t be easily surpassed.

3. Jamie Gold and a $12,000,000 Victory

rofessional poker player Jamie Gold competes in the Raising the Stakes for Cerebral Palsy Celebrity Poker Tournament at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino hosted by the One Step Closer Foundation to raise funds and awareness for people with cerebral palsy on June 19, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Following Moneymaker’s 2003 victory, fields in the annual WSOP Main Event kept growing. The 2006 Main Event saw the largest-ever WSOP ME field, gathering a total of 8,773 players and creating a massive prize pool of $82.5 million. Of this amount, $12,000,000 was reserved for the winner.

The man who took home that amount was Jamie Gold. Gold, who’s a TV producer and a talent agent, has been a regular fixture in poker tournaments over the years. However, he wasn’t a professional player. That didn’t stop him from outlasting the huge field to seize the prestigious title and the $12 million win.

Jamie’s victory will be remembered for a long time for reasons other than money, though. For the entire duration of the tournament, Gold kept talking, trying to extract information from his opponents. Without going into the merits of this strategy, one thing is certain. Watching Jamie Gold doing his thing at the tables was loads of fun.

4. Victoria Corren Mitchell Becomes the First Two-Time Female EPT Winner

The European Poker Tour (EPT) is one of the biggest, best-known poker tournament series aside from the WSOP. Although it is being discontinued as such, EPT will certainly be remembered for years to come. It created many great champions, produced hundreds of nerve-wracking moments, and gave us a lot of entertainment.

In the sea of champions, Victoria Corren Mitchell stands out as the only female player to win two EPT titles. First, in 2006 Victoria became the first-ever female EPT winner by triumphing in London. Then, in 2014, she repeated her success by going all the way in San Remo. These two wins combined brought her in excess of $1.5 million and, more importantly, added her name to the pages of poker history.

5. Martin Jacobson and an Even $10,000,000 Win

After Gold’s victory in 2006, WSOP Main Event never really saw such a huge field of players descend on Las Vegas. Prize pools were still quite significant, but they didn’t reach that magic $10 million mark. That’s why WSOP organizers decided to up the ante by offering $10,000,000 for the 2014 Main Event winner.

That amount eventually went to the Swede Martin Jacobson who outlasted the field of 6,683 players and took home the huge amount. One peculiarity about this year was that tournament organizers had to water-down the prize pool somewhat to meet the first place guarantee. Thus, runner-up Felix Stephenson won “only” $5.1 million for his second place finish.

6. $15,000,000 for Dan Colman

The WSOP 2014 saw another huge winner. That year was the second time the $1,000,000 buy-in Big One for One Drop was staged, once again attracting some of the game’s best to the tables. The field was slightly smaller, as 42 players showed up to play this time around, but it was still a prize pool of $37,000,000 to be distributed only among the few of the highest finishers.

The top prize of $15.3 million went to Daniel Colman, a player who built his reputation primarily at a virtual (online felt). Finishing runner-up that year was one of the best-known faces in poker, Daniel ‘KidPoker’ Negreanu, who banked just shy of $8.3 million.

7. Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey & Largest Pot in Televised History

Poker Pro Phil Ivey plays poker at Ante Up for Africa 2010 on July 3, 2010 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

We all love seeing high stakes televised cash games. Many believe that’s poker at its best, with high-pressure moments, huge bluffs, and missteps that can cost players high six figures. Over the years, we’ve seen a number of big pots take place, but one of them remains remembered as the largest one in televised history.

The hand was played between two of the game’s greats, Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan. Both well-known high stakes professionals, Ivey is certainly better known to the poker fandom. However, this particular pot didn’t go quite as planned.

The pot in question took place on Season 4 of the Million Dollar Cash Game show. The action was three-handed, but Patrik Antonius decided to sit this one out. Ivey and Dwan kept at it, and after they both had made straights on the turn, all the money went in, creating a $1.1 million pot. Dwan held the absolute nuts and Ivey was drawing dead with his smaller straight, making Dwan the man who took down the biggest pot in poker televised history.

8. Johnny Lodden aka ‘bad_ip’ High Stakes Adventure

We can’t discuss biggest poker wins without at least mentioning online poker, as this is a very big and significant segment of the game. Back in a day when online poker was still rather young, Johnny ‘bad_ip’ Lodden wracked havoc on the Prima network. He’s been known to play in the highest games available, and for a while, he was considered the biggest winner to hit the felt on the network. Although no one knows exact numbers, Lodden’s wins were measured in millions.

However, it all came to a crashing end for Johnny as he admittedly lost his entire bankroll on Prima. According to Lodden, the amount was in a vicinity of $10,000,000. Norwegian pro thus went from being one of the most feared online players around to being broke in a span of a couple of years. Lodden did manage to rebuild his bankroll later on thanks to a stake from a friend.

9. Largest Online Poker Pot ($1.3 million+)

High stakes action has been going strong at online tables for over a decade now, and many big pots have exchanged hands. There is no doubt that significant amounts of money went back and forth between the players on lesser-known rooms, away from prying eyes of curious railbirds.

However, one pot officially stands out among the biggest poker wins in online history. It was played between two high stakes regulars, Patrik Antonius and Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom. The two squared off at a heads up pot limit Omaha table and, sitting with more than $600,000 in front of them (each), they managed to put it all in the middle. The end result? A pot worth $1,356,946!

10. Largest Online Tournament Win ($2,278,097)

Rounding up this list of top 10 biggest poker wins in history, we must mention the biggest ever online tournament win. That honor went to Tyson ‘POTTERPOKER’ Marks. He triumphed in the 2010 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event, taking home just shy of $2.3 million.

Marks had to battle his way through the field of nearly 2,500 players. It was an uphill battle but the one well worth the effort as he came out of it a couple of million richer!

Relevant news

Monster Casino of the Month: PlayFrank

PlayFrank: Monster Casino of The Month August Due to the sheer number of online casinos…

read more +

Craziest Bets Ever Made

Craziest Bets Ever Made There are so many crazy bets recorded throughout history that…

read more +

PPPoker Team Member Borge Dypvik Making Some Noise

Biggest Online Poker Winners 2019

PPPoker Team Member Borge Dypvik Making Some Noise The PPPoker Team may be fairly young…

read more +

Lucky Swede Wins Record-Breaking Joker Millions Jackpot on Mobile Casino

Lucky Swede Wins Record-Breaking Joker Millions Jackpot on Mobile Casino A couple of weeks ago,…

read more +

Biggest Casino Heists of All Time

Biggest Casino Heists of All Time Casino heists is a plot featured in countless movies,…

read more +

Biggest Online Poker Winners 2017 Mlb

10 Most Amazing Gambling Records

10 Most Amazing Gambling Records People are constantly trying to leave their mark on…

Biggest Online Poker Winners 2017 Winner

read more +