At the elite level, poker is a highly lucrative business and for the very best players in the world, multimillionaire standards of wealth can be achieved. In a profession where winning money is at the forefront, a player’s career prize money is the greatest indicator of their overall success.
Based on the latest 2020 reports, here are the five richest players in poker history. The list and the sums mentioned are limited to poker earnings only. Therefore, players like Dan Bilzerian (approximate personal fortune of $150 million) are excluded because most of his wealth was accumulated away from the poker table.
All statistics based on The Hendon Mob’s database and accurate as of August 4, 2020.
5) Dan Smith ($36.7 million)
Remarkably, the fifth-richest poker player in history based on career earnings has no World Series of Poker bracelets to his name. Smith does, however, have a World Poker Tour title, achieved in 2013 , as well as a number of highly lucrative finishes.
Smith’s most recent tournament saw him pocket a cool $8.7 million when placing third at the Triton Million event in London in August 2019. Meanwhile, his third-place finish at the 2013 WSOP was worth $4 million.
At just 31-years-old, the New Jersey native looks set to have a long and prosperous career ahead of him and will have ambitions to climb the all-time money list.
4) Erik Seidel ($37.7 million)
A true veteran of the professional poker circuit, Seidel has enjoyed a long, illustrious, and lucrative career. He placed runner-up at his first major poker tournament, the 1988 World Series of Poker, before winning the first of his eight WSOP bracelets four years later. His most recent WSOP bracelet came in 2007.
Seidel also has a World Poker Tour title (2008) and a European Poker Tour title (2015). A 2010 inductee to the Poker Hall of Fame, 60-year-old Seidel is still playing professionally and remains a constant presence on final tables at tournaments around the world.
3) Daniel Negreanu ($42 million)
Perhaps the most famous poker player in the world is also, unsurprisingly, one of the game’s richest. Negreanu is a winner of six WSOP bracelets, two World Poker Tour titles, and in 2014 was named poker player of the decade by the Global Poker Index. The same year, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame.
The Canadian has also reached 45 final tables at WSOP events and a massive 148 money finishes. Interestingly, Negreanu’s biggest single event prize came when he didn’t win the event but when he placed runner-up to Daniel Colman in the No Limit Hold’em at the 2014 WSOP, taking home more than $8 million.
Negreanu continues to be one of the most influential and high-profile figures in poker and even launched his own Masterclass series.
2) Justin Bonomo ($49.1 million)
Bonomo’s lofty place on the list owes much to his $10 million win at the 2018 WSOP – a win that made him the highest-earning poker player of all time until August 2019.
As well as that monster win, Bonomo has two more WSOP bracelets, and has landed other lucrative prizes, including more than $2 million during a 2012 European Poker Tour event in Monaco, $4.8 million at the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl in Macau, and $5 million at the 2018 Super High Roller Bowl in Las Vegas.
Although still only 34-years-old, the American has been on the professional poker circuit for quite some time and even made history when, in 2005, he became the youngest player (19) to feature in a televised final table at the European Poker Tour’s French Open.
1)Bryn Kenney ($56.4 million)
Coming in at top spot with more than $56 million is Kenney, who shot to the top of the standings in August last year after winning more than $20 million when he placed second at the Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in London.
The Triton Series has proved extremely lucrative for the 33-year-old from New York having pocketed over $7.7 million over five tournaments in 2019.
As well as great success on the Triton Series, Kenney has won WSOP bracelet.