Who are the top five live poker tournament winners?

Table of contents

Justin Bonomo
Bryn Kenney
Daniel Negreanu
Stephen Chidwick
Erich Seidel

Every poker player dreams of traveling the world, visiting luxurious locations and winning huge sums of money in the biggest tournaments the game has to offer. For many it remains a dream, but for some tournament poker seems ridiculously easy and they regularly top up their bankroll with scores that mere mortals can only dream of.

The Hendon Mob Database tracks the results of most live poker tournaments, from $10 buy-ins to the $250,000 Super High Roller events. Of course, the database doesn’t track entries, meaning their all-time money list shows only cash and no winnings, but it’s fair to assume that the following five live poker tournament superstars are in terms of their winning and losing accounts in the green area are .

The current top 5 and the prize money won are as of February 18, 2023

Justin Bonomo – $60,222,954

Justin Bonomo hails from Fairfax, Virginia and is the world’s number one live poker tournament prize pool. Bonomo raked in nearly $640,000 from two final table appearances in the Bahamas in January 2023, taking his lifetime earnings to almost unbelievable levels $60,222,954; Bonomo is the only player to break the $60 million mark.

Bonomo has nine seven-digit scores and an incredible 79 prizes ranging in value from $100,000 to $928,200! The Three-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner is one of the few players to have an eight-figure price tag on their resume. Bonomo drew $10,000,000 after winning the $1,000,000 buy-in The big one for a drop at the WSOP 2018.

Bryn Kenney – $57,265,665

Bryn Kenney from Long Beach, New York $57,265,665 in live MTT earnings, which puts him second on poker’s all-time money list. The controversial grinder has seven scores worth more than $1 million, the first coming in January 2016. A regular at the highest buy-in events in the world, Kenney has 56 prizes of $100,000 or more won, but one result stands out from the crowd.

Kenney was one of 54 participants in the £1,050,000 Triton Million to charity Event that took place in London in August 2019. A staggering £54m prize pool was on the table and Kenney took the lion’s share of the pot. Despite second place Aaron Shu Nu ZangKenney took home £16,890,509 compared to Zang’s £13,779,491 as the pair struck a deal heads-up.

Daniel Negreanu – $50,297,798

Photo courtesy of the WPT Flickr account

Six-time WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu has won $50,297,798 of live poker tournaments and placed him third on the all-time money list and first against all Canadians. A Toronto native but now based in Las Vegas, Negreanu is one of poker’s true superstars, one who has stood the test of time and is a worthy contender at poker Poker Hall of Fame.

Negreanu has recorded live cashes since 1997, but he’s still one of the most feared players in the world. Nine of Negreanu’s results are worth more than $1 million, and another 66 in-the-money deals are in the six figures!

Of Negreanu’s standout results, his second place finish in the 2014 edition of the Big One for One Drop is his biggest single award. Negreanu walked away with $8,288,001 when he lost heads up Daniel Kolmanthe latter receiving a payout of $15,306,668.

Stephen Chidwick – $44,674,070

Stephen Chidwick from Deal, Kent, United Kingdom, is considered to be one of the best all-around poker players to have ever played cards. Chidwick, having cut his poker teeth in the online poker world, is just as dangerous to play No Limit Hold’em how he is Pot Limit Omaha2-7 Triple Draw or any other poker variant.

Chidwick is fourth in the all-time money list and number one in England thanks to accumulation $44,674,070 in tournament funds. For a long time, longer than Chidwick liked, he carried the unintentional moniker of best poker player without a WSOP bracelet next to his name. Chidwick got the proverbial monkey off his back in 2019 when he won the $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha High Rollera win worth $1,618,417.

Amazingly, that’s not Chidwick’s biggest buck. That honor is given to his fourth place finish in the aforementioned £1,050,000 Triton Million for Charity which brought in £4,410,000.

Erik Seidel – $42,469,394

The word legend is used without much thought in the poker community Erich Seidel is a player worthy of such a title. Seidel has cashes dating back to 1988, with his first cash recorded being a second-place finish in the 1988 WSOP Main Event, where he lost Johnny Chan; Scenes from this tournament are shown in all-rounder poker movie.

Seidel more than made up for that bridesmaid finish by serving no less than nine gold WSOP bracelets! The fact that Seidel’s first bracelet came in 1992 and his ninth at an online event in 2021 shows just how much work Seidel put into his game and just how much natural talent the New York native has. To this day, Seidel has life gains that are worth cooling off $42,469,394.

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