Top 10 Poker Players: Best Poker Players of All Time

People play poker for a variety of reasons. Entertainment forms the foundation of everyone’s reasons, but there are many more.

Some love the taste of victory. Some people want to win money, while others love the challenge. Whatever reasons you have for playing, poker is a great game. However, like all sports, there are winners and losers. 

The good thing about poker is that we can rank the winners based on two variables: winnings and titles. We’ve done exactly that. The following list contains the best poker players in history based on prize money and titles. As a teaser, one player in our list has won over £49 million playing poker! To see who it is, as well as how much other top poker players make, check out our top 10 now.

Top 10 poker players of all time

1. Justin Bonomo (US) – £49 million
2. Bryn Kenney (US) – £47 million
3. Daniel Negreanu (CAN) – £41 million
4. Stephen Chidwick (UK) – £37 million
5. Erik Seidel (US) – £35.27 million
6. Jason Koon (US) – £35.20 million
7. David Peters (US) – £35.18 million
8. Dan Smith (US) – £32 million
9. Phil Ivey (US) - £31.98 million
10. Mikita Bodyakovsky (Belarus) - £31.97 million

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Who are the best professional poker players in the world? 

Success in poker is determined by two things: prizes and titles. The following players have all won plenty of both. From WSOP bracelets and WPT trophies to high roller crowns, these 10 players are the best in poker. So, to see who’s won millions and solidified their status as a poker great, scroll down for our top 10 pros:

10. Phil Ivey aka The Tiger Woods of Poker

Phil Ivey is the greatest poker player of all time. That’s all we need to say about this man. Even though he’s not top of the all-time money list, he’s still regarded as the best. Winning over £30 million, as well as WSOP and WPT titles, certainly makes him a contender for poker’s GOAT.

However, it’s the fact Phil Ivey is capable of beating the toughest cash games in the world that makes him the best. It doesn’t matter if it’s at a live poker table or online, Ivey will play and win. Indeed, you can go on YouTube and see him winning cash game pots worth over $800,000. Add to this the fact he’s got a natural talent that people can’t learn, and it’s easy to see why people call him the GOAT.

9. Mikita Bodyakovsky aka fish2013

When poker fans think about high-roller tournaments, such as the Triton Series, they think about Mikita Bodyakovsky. The Belarusian started playing live tournaments in 2010 when he turned 18. However, it wasn’t until he appeared online that people started to take notice. He joined PokerStars and used the name fish2013. Why? Because 2013 was the year he turned 21 and made his WSOP debut in America. 

Bodyakovsky’s results between 2010 and 2015 were solid but far from spectacular. However, once he entered high roller poker tournaments, things changed. Deep runs in EPT high rollers eventually turned into top-three finishes in Asia. As well as making high roller tournaments his niche, Bodyakovsky is a world-class cash game player.  

8. Dan Smith aka Cowboy Dan

Dan Smith learned to play poker when he was 16, but his grounding in game theory and logic came years before. The New Jersey native was an avid chess player in his youth. He parlayed his skills into a chess scholarship at the University of Maryland. However, by the time he was 18, Smith abandoned his studies to play poker full-time. 

That was in 2007. A year later, he secured his first victory in a Heartland Poker Tour main event at Turning Stone Resort & Casino, one of the most popular casino establishments in the world. The legal gambling age in New York was 18, so Smith was able to ante up and take it down for $101,960. That lit the proverbial touchpaper and, over 10 years later, he’s won just about everything there is to win in poker. 

7. David Peters aka The Silent Assassin

Like other players on the all-time money list, David Peters isn’t the most outspoken or vocal poker pro you’ll ever see. However, when it comes to winning money, he’s flush with success. The man from Ohio started playing poker in 2003. Why? Because, like millions of people, he saw Chris Moneymaker win the 2003 WSOP Main Event. 

That prompted him to find an online poker site and enter some freerolls. That early run of free poker tournaments turned out to be the perfect learning environment for Peters. Battling through thousands of players forced Peters to master the art of flexibility. He eventually won $600 in a freeroll and the rest, as they say, is history. 

6. Jason Koon aka JAKoon1985

Jason Koon is the perfect example of what happens when you combine talent, commitment and hard work. Koon was an athlete in school and used his competitive nature to win in poker. Indeed, after mastering the basics, he learned how to win a pot on the flop, turn or river, regardless of the hand he’s holding. 

Koon’s ascent up poker’s tournament ranking started online. He was long considered a tough opponent to play against and, after graduating from college, he won a variety of online titles, including FTOPs and SCOOP. From there, he began tearing up the live scene and, today, as well as WSOP events, Koon has found his niche in super high rollers. 

5. Erik Seidel aka Seiborg

Erik Seidel might not be as charismatic as Phil Hellmuth, but he knows how to win. The native New Yorker has been into numbers his whole life. Back before poker was popular, Seidel was a professional backgammon player. In fact, that’s how he started playing poker in New York City’s famous Mayfair club alongside the likes of Stu Ungar and Dan Harrington. 

A stint as a trader followed before poker tournaments became his thing. Seidel finished second in his first ever WSOP Main Event appearance in 1988. He took home $280,000 after losing heads-up to Johnny Chan. That result gave Seidel the confidence to move from cash games to live poker tournaments. Now, over 30 years on, he’s won numerous titles, including WSOP bracelets, and over £35 million. 

4. Stephen Chidwick aka Stevie444

Stephen Chidwick might not say much at the poker table, but his results speak for themselves. The Englishman burst onto the scene in 2008 but his skills, and reputation, were forged a few years earlier. Like another Englishman, Chris Moorman, Chidwick was an online MTT master. He earned millions online before he even sat down in a live tournament. 

However, once he made the switch, things really took off. Today, he’s regarded by pros as the best tournament player in the world. Chidwick’s tournaments winnings are impressive, but it’s the manner in which he secures victory that stands out. A lot if his wins are in super high roller tournaments, which means he’s beating the best of the best.

3. Daniel Negreanu aka Kid Poker

Daniel Negreanu earned his nickname, Kid Poker, when he won his first tournament back in 1997. Negreanu was just 23 at the time but he’d been playing poker (at home) since he was 15. This early start helped the Canadian become part of poker’s next generation. By that we mean he was among a group of young pros that took over the tournament scene during the late nineties and early noughties. 

Alongside the likes of Allen Cunningham and John Juanda, Negreanu gradually started to gain some traction. Although it would be a few years before he was playing high stakes cash games with legends like Doyle Brunson, Negreanu blasted through many of the day’s mediocre pros. Since then he’s evolved in step with modern poker strategy and that’s allowed him to win six WSOP bracelets (as of 2022), dozens more titles and over £41 million.

2. Bryn Kenney aka BKD

Bryn Kenney may divide opinion when it comes to certain things in poker, but there’s no denying he’s a beast when it comes to tournaments. The American pro has notched up more than £47 million in prize money since his first cash in 2007 at the East Coast Poker Championship. 

Like a lot of successful people in poker, Kenney started out as a gamer. He was a competitive Magic: The Gathering player before he found poker. Once he caught the bug, Kenney harnessed his skills from gaming and found ways to win in poker. Fast-forward a decade or so and he’s among the top players on poker’s all-time money list. 

1. Justin Bonomo aka ZeeJustin

Justin Bonomo is the biggest winner in poker based on tournament results. His record includes a bevy of WSOP bracelets, Triton titles and EPT honours. Put simply, if there’s a poker tournament title up for grabs, Bonomo has probably won it. Not only has he won titles, he’s won money, and a lot of it. His biggest single prize came in 2018 when he won the Big One for One Drop. The victory earned the American over £8 million. 

Add the rest of his wins and cashes into the mix and Bonomo has banked over £49 million as of 2023. Interestingly, he didn’t start out in live tournaments. Bonomo made his name online under the moniker ZeeJustin. Despite a small infraction for multi-accounting back in the day (which he apologised for), Bonomo was one of the top online poker players for years and won just about every major MTT on PokerStars and Full Tilt. 

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Who are the most famous poker players?

Some of the most famous poker players in history are the old-school Texas pros such as Doyle Brunson, Stu Ungar, Johnny Moss and Chip Reese. Those four, and others, were the best players of their generation. Not only that, they helped shape poker into what it is today. 

Of those names, Doyle Brunson is regarded as the most iconic because he’s still beating the toughest cash games. Other famous poker players regarded as greats in their respective disciplines are:

• Phil Ivey
• Johnny Chan
• Daniel Negreanu
• Tom Dwan
• Fedor Holz
• Justin Bonomo
• Erik Seidel 
• Patrik Antonius
• Phil Hellmuth

Who is the most successful poker player ever?

The most successful poker player in the world based on live tournament earnings, as of March 2023, is Justin Bonomo with over £49 million in prize money. However, you can’t simply rank poker players on tournament wins. There are cash game specialists such as Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan and Andrew Robl who win millions every month by making a flush or bluff at the right time. 

Then, of course, there’s the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Bracelets are often used as a measure of success in poker, and no one has more WSOP titles than Phil Hellmuth (16 as of 2022). He understands the nuances of winning hands against weak players who call with little more than ace-high.

The person who tops the annual Global Poker Index (GPI) rankings can also be named among the most successful players. William Alex Foxen and Jeremy Ausmus always rank highly on the GPI tournament leaderboard. The 2022 GPI Player of the Year was Stephen Song.

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What are the highest poker tournament Earnings?

The single biggest payout in a poker tournament, as of 2023, was £16.8 million. That prize was won by Bryn Kenney in 2019 at the Triton Million for Charity in London. If we look at the all-time money list in poker, Justin Bonomo had the most prize money with total earnings of £49 million. 

How much do poker players make?

Estimating the average income for poker players is tough because everyone plays different games at different stakes. For example, a tournament player might have £1 million in winnings but spend £500,000 on buy-ins. 

A cash game player might win a huge pot on the river in one session but lose an equally big hand a few days later. Therefore, you can’t base a poker player’s earnings on a single pot, cash game or tournament. You need to take into account the natural swings of poker and assess someone’s earning based on their total wins, losses and expenses. 

Having said this, the average poker pro is capable of earning £100,000+ per year or, at the highest stakes, £500,000+ per year. For a cash game player, the right hand could help someone make over £1 million in a week. Away from the pros, the average poker player who plays recreationally can make anything from £10 to £10,000+, depending on the games they play and how skilled they are.

How many professional poker players are there in the world?

It’s hard to say exactly how many professional poker players there are in the world, but the number is probably less than 50,000. The total number of poker players (pro and amateur) in the world is estimated to be over 100 million. 

Who is the best professional poker player in the UK?

Stephen Chidwick is arguably the best poker player in the UK because he’s ranked within the top five on the all-time money list with over £35 million in earnings. However, he’s not the only world-class poker player. Other ace players from the UK are Chris Moorman, Sam Trickett, Ben Heath, Sam Grafton and Charlie Carrel.

Who are the best female poker players?

The biggest ace among poker’s top female players is Vanessa Selbst. The American, who now works as a trader, has over £10 million in live tournament cashes. She’s followed by Kathy Liebert (£5 million) and Kristen Foxen (£4.8 million). Other top-rated women in poker are Jennifer Tilly, Ebony Kenney, Vanessa Kade and Angela Jordison. 

What are the biggest poker tournaments in the world?

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is the biggest tournament festival and pays out the most money. However, fans of the game can also win big prizes on other tours, including the EPT, WPT, PGT, and Triton Poker Super High Roller Series.

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Climb the ladder to poker success one step at a time

Reading about the best poker players in the world is great, but getting to the top takes time, dedication and skill. Therefore, if you want to win millions and become a successful poker player, you need to take small steps. Find a popular online poker site, enter freerolls and learn how to play every type of hand. 

Then, once you’ve mastered the nuances of winning a pot pre-flop, as well as on the flop, turn and river, take a shot at bigger games. If you make the right moves and luck is on your side, you could be flush with money and find a place among the greatest poker players in history. 

Daniel Smyth

Daniel Smyth has seen the online poker, casino, and betting industry from every angle. He previously played poker semi-professionally before working at WPT Magazine as a writer and editor. From there, he transitioned to online gaming where he’s been producing expert content for over 10 years.

Remember to gamble responsibly

A responsible gambler is someone who:

• Establishes time and monetary limits before playing
• Only gambles with money they can afford to lose
• Never chase their losses
• Doesn’t gamble if they’re upset, angry or depressed

For help with a gambling problem, call the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133 or go to www.gamstop.co.uk to be excluded from all UK-regulated gambling websites.