What is a win in poker called? The biggest poker winnings Which player has the biggest poker winnings
Not just gambling. Everyone finds something for themselves in it: some choose it as a way to escape from the daily routine, others quench their thirst for excitement in this way, and still others improve their poker skills day by day to hit the biggest win in the competition.
Poker, unlike many other gambling hobbies, is an excellent tool for improving personal qualities and developing intelligence, since in this form of entertainment the outcome depends not only on luck.
Poker has grown into one of the most popular card games of all time. During its existence, it has gone from a simple Friday entertainment to a full-fledged competitive one, which has become the largest form of gambling in the world.
This happened largely thanks to the World Series of Poker (World Series of Poker). The main event is held every year. In addition, within the context of the competition, there are several small tournaments that raffle off millions of dollars to potential winners. The WSOP has created several millionaires around the world whose stories of the biggest poker winnings have inspired thousands of players around the world to play poker professionally. Here are some of them.
Antonio Esfandiari: $18.3 million
Country: Iran
Winnings: $18,346,673
Total tournament prize pool: $42.6 million
Event: 2012 WSOP Event #55 - The Big One For One Drop
Interesting:
Antonio is actually a former professional magician, widely known for his unusual tricks with poker chips.
Antonio Esfandiari is one of the most famous in the world, and for good reason. The poker player won the largest cash prize in a single poker tournament. This is the $18.3 million generated by the 2012 WSOP The Big One For One, which was held to benefit the One Drop Foundation.
The total prize fund of the competition was $42.6 million. The runner-up received $10.1 million, which in itself is not a bad result for a loss.
Photo source: academypoker.ru
Daniel Colman: $15.3 million
Country: USA
Winning amount: $15,306,668
Total prize pool of the tournament: $37.3 million
Event: 2014 WSOP Event #57 - The Big One For One Drop
Dan Colman, 23, beat 41 professional poker players to claim a $15.3 million prize in June 2014. It was the second highest amount ever won by a single player in a poker tournament. He also became popular on social media for showing absolutely no signs of joy after winning.
Known as an online poker pro, Colman trusted his ability and demonstrated his skills brilliantly at the 2014 WSOP Big One For One Drop, a charity event that raised $4.6 million to help clean up the water. The total prize fund of the competition was $37.3 million.
It was a life-changing win, as back in 2012 he planned to leave poker for good and go to college. However, he soon took the documents from the educational institution and decided to give poker another chance.
Elton Tsang: $12.2 million
Country: China
Winning amount: $12,248,912
Total tournament prize pool: $27.4 million
Event: 2016 Monte-Carlo One Drop Extravaganza
Chinese professional poker player Elton Tsang has the world watching as he takes home the third largest cash prize in a single poker tournament and the largest prize awarded in a non-US poker tournament, $12.2 million.
Born in Canada, Tsang currently lives in Hong Kong and invests his acquired wealth in real estate and other areas. He took down 25 others en route to winning the big tournament, which had a total prize pool of $27 million.
Photo source: u.pokernews.com
Jamie Gold: $12 million
Country: USA
Winning amount: $12,000,000
Total tournament prize pool: $82.5 million
Event: 2006 WSOP Main Event #39
The current president of production company Buzznation, Jamie Gold, gained worldwide fame for his brilliant victory at the 2006 WSOP Main Event.
Gold was one of the standouts who arrived at the event. The buy-in for the event was in the order of $10,000, resulting in the largest prize pool in poker history of $82.5 million. It was distributed among the top 873 players (top 10%) with the largest winnings of $12 million and the smallest the prize is $14,597.
Jamie was known for his antics at the table, including showing his opponents his cards and even muttering strange words during the game, which almost got him banned.
It's rare that a player enters a poker tournament with no hope of winning it and claiming the first place prize. We've taken a look at the five biggest wins in live tournament poker history and followed the fortunes of those who have made $9 million or more in one go.
5. $9,152,416
The largest prizes for the first place are traditionally played within the framework of the World Series of Poker. The winners of the main tournament, and, of course, the Big One For One Drop, the largest super high roller tournament, received the most in history.
But we start with the victory in 2008, which became a landmark not only for Denmark, the homeland of the champion, but also for all Russian-speaking players. Peter Eastgate took first place in the WSOP Main Event. He began to play actively in 2007, in order to become at that time the youngest world poker champion in a year (at 22 years old). The Dane got $9,152,416. But for us in this story, the second prize is important - $ 5,809,595 - because it was received by none other than Ivan Demidov, producing the "Rublemaker" effect (that's what the final table commentators called him). This second place gave an incredible impetus to the development of Russian poker. Nobody disputes that the strongest players of the final table went into that heads-up, but for many, it is Ivan Demidov who remains the winner of this confrontation.
After the victory, Eastgate moved to England. For a while he continued to play and travel the world. A couple of years later, Peter was done with poker as quickly as he broke into it.
4. $10,000,000
The WSOP Main Event is often won by amateurs, which is always good for the poker ecology and often the economy. But in 2014, a round sum of exactly $10,000,000 (plus, with pocket tens in the last hand) was absolutely deservedly won by Swedish professional Martin Jacobson. The final table of that year turned out to be interesting and difficult for all participants, it was a rare case when the level of play of almost all the finalists was incredibly high. Jacobson, the top reg of live and online multi-table tournaments, started in the top 9 with the penultimate stack, but showed amazing versatility and played equally well both at the full table and in the denouement. He admitted that he put the greatest pressure on himself, but at the same time he was concentrated and absolutely calm, because he felt that victory would be his.
Like Eastgate, Martin moved to London after the victory. Swedish tax laws prevented him from playing poker seriously. One of the most famous facts of his biography: before starting his poker career, he studied to be a chef and dreamed of working in a restaurant in Barcelona. Despite the fact that Martin still earns money from poker, he does not forget about his dream and continues to improve in cooking. At the same time, by the beginning of 2018, the amount of Jacobson's tournament prize money exceeded $16.5 million.
Formally, the next place should go to the winner of the third in the history of the Big One For One Drop in Monte Carlo. However, this tournament, as well as side events, was closed to professionals, which means that we cannot equate it with the WSOP open tournaments. As a result of an experiment called "tournament for amateurs", only 26 players entered the fight. All participants had the right to seek help from well-known professionals, but although they could give advice to their wards, they did not have the right to appear at the table. Tournament winner Elton Tsang received €11,111,111. The second place was taken by our player Anatoly Gurtovoy this time too, he got €5,427,781.
Since then, Elton Tsang hasn't won anything else, or maybe he didn't even try.
3. $12,000,000
It's still the biggest prize in WSOP history, as the 2006 tournament remains the biggest WSOP Main Event in its history. Thanks to the victory of Chris Moneymaker around the poker has risen incredible excitement, and in the tournament in 2006 played 8,773 people. The result was a legendary prize pool of $82,512,162. The first prize of $12,000,000 went to amateur television producer Jamie Gold.
Until now, he is considered almost the most famous recreational player. To make Jamie more attractive to the audience, he was provided with a mentor by Johnny Chen, with whom they barely knew before the tournament, and on the air they talked about the serious health problems of Gold's father. It was true, he suffered from Lou Gehrig's disease and soon passed away. However, even these two television moves were not enough to make Gold the favorite of the public. Of all the main event winners, Jamie received the most criticism. He was phenomenally lucky, and at the table he behaved very loudly, infuriating opponents, and such behavior is not very liked by professionals.
With all this, after the victory, he remained on the crest of the wave of success for a long time, but it was not without problems - the champion was repeatedly sued, trying to take part of the prize money for some near-poker services. As a result, half of the winnings had to be given to a friend, with whom Gold had entered into an unfavorable verbal agreement before the tournament, and Jamie lost the other half in an expensive cash game.
Despite being an amateur, Jamie won nearly $500,000 more in other tournaments, including the WSOP, after the biggest cash in main event history.
2. $15,306,668
Second place in the ranking of the largest winnings is Daniel Colman. In 2014, when he received $15,306,668 in cash, he was 24 years old. He went down in history not only because he won such money, but also because of the extremely controversial position that Colman took after the tournament.
Daniel, who is not going to help popularize poker in any way (unlike the professional of this discipline, his namesake and heads-up rival, Daniel Negreanu). 5 minutes after the end of the tournament, the winner fled the hall, "like a robber from a crime scene," in the words of the Las Vegas Sun, without giving a single interview about his brilliant victory. He even had to be persuaded to take a photo portrait with a bracelet, which almost every player on the planet dreams of. After some time, Colman wrote a post on the 2+2 forum, which was discussed for a long time in the poker community:
It annoys me that people care so much about the state of the poker industry. Given that poker has such a negative effect on those who play it. Both financially and morally.
As for me personally, in my opinion, celebrating individual achievements is most often useless. I am not going to take part in the glorification of others, and I do not want this for myself. If you're wondering why our society is so obsessed with individuals and their successes and their big lives, it's no coincidence. All this happens because someone needs it. When people create idols for themselves and dream of a life of their own, they forget about social obligations, and this is very good for those who are in power. In addition, it allows you to distract people from the really important things.
This is just my point of view. And yes, I understand that I myself am full of contradictions. I make money playing games that attack human weaknesses. I like it, especially its strategic part, but in general the game seems to me very gloomy.
As conflicting as Daniel Colman's feelings about poker are, he's certainly managed to draw attention to both his win and his game.
1. $18,346,873
In 2012, it turned out that a million-dollar buy-in tournament could attract a considerable number of players. The first ever tournament with a $1,000,000 buy-in, with part of the prize fund traditionally donated to charity, brought together 48 participants. Among them were professionals, and amateur businessmen, and guests from Macau, and unknown players, who, however, sold shares per million. It was the number of participants that became one of the reasons that the “Magician” Antonio Esfandiari became interested in the tournament.
I am shocked by how many people this tournament gathered, - Antonio shared his impressions before the start of the game. - I'm so surprised that I even decided to play! It's just that when I heard how many great players were going to be in this tournament, I thought I wouldn't forgive myself if I missed the greatest tournament of all time.
In particular, they described the decisive distribution, which gave the champion more than 18 million.
The final took place at the level of 400,000/800,000/100,000. Antonio raised to 1,800,000. Sam Trickett called. The flop came Jd 5d 5c. Trickett check-raised to 5,400,000, Esfandiari 3-bet 10,000,000, got 4-bet 15,000,000 and shoved his trips – 7d 5s. Trickett had a flush draw Qd6d. With the same cards, Ilya Bulychev took off on the bubble, and the Briton also did not escape defeat. Turn 3h, river 2h, and Antonio Esfandiari wins $18,346,673. His father then walked for a long time with a check for this amount through the corridors of Rio and took pictures with everyone.
After such a resounding victory, Antonio had a lot of fun and lit up at parties, but he did not forget about poker either. He won his next bracelet in the €1,100 WSOP Europe tournament just three months later. Since then, The Magician has won 45 more times in live tournaments.
He has earned $27,614,381 throughout his career and continues to be one of the top five most successful tournament players in history. Indeed, a wizard.
At the poker tables, players not only get a sea of emotions and drive, but also pursue their main goal - to win money. For some it turns out with varying success, someone stands still, others are played to smithereens. Players look with envy at those who have managed to achieve the greatest success in the game and disrupt biggest win in poker history. It is to these people that this review is dedicated. Their names are known to every player who is even slightly interested in poker.
3. Sam Trickett ($10,000,000)
The British are proud to have a poker star of this magnitude. Sam is only 27 years old, but in his years he has already managed to become a millionaire. Its total balance is $16.6 million. Most of that amount was won at the 2012 World Series of Poker in London. Trickett made it to the finals, reached the heads-up, but couldn't eliminate his opponent and finished in 2nd place. He wasn't disappointed as 2nd place netted him a whopping $10 million and 3rd place in our ranking of the biggest wins in poker history.
2. Jamie Gold ($12,000,000)
Jamie Gold is an American professional poker player and producer. Many young players haven't heard his name, as other than winning the World Series of Poker in 2006, Jamie hasn't had much success since. Almost 9,000 people took part in the tournament and the prize money was not small. The entry fee for the 2006 tournament was $10,000. Jamie Gold took 1st place and hit the jackpot of $12 million. For a long time he was in the lead, but ...
1. Antonio Esfandiari ($18,346,673)
Jamie Gold's record was broken by the not-so-famous Iranian Antonio Esfandiari. Antonio's family moved to the States when he was 9 years old. Esfandiari's main achievement as a poker player is the 1st place in the World Series of Poker in London in 2012. He went heads-up with Sam Trickett, who holds the 3rd position in our rating, and won. In addition to the well-deserved WSOP bracelet, he snatched off a fabulous prize pool of $18,346,673! Breaking such a record will not be easy.
Poker legend. Phil Hellmuth
Let's digress a little from material values and talk about the sports side of poker. Dry numbers will sink into oblivion, but the achievements of Phil Hellmuth will remain forever. What does winning the WSOP mean, if you do not take into account the prize money? The winner gets the WSOP title and bracelet. Phil Hellmuth managed to win tournaments of the World Series of Poker 13 times and this is an absolute record. Only a professional in his field could achieve such a result. Luck plays a role, but you can't argue with Phil's skill. By the way, in 2014 at the WSOP, Phil Hellmuth did not even manage to break into the prize zone.
Probably, any poker player, both beginner and more experienced, dreams of learning how to play so well that he can support himself in life with his game. And, probably, each of us has heard many times about multimillion-dollar winnings at major tournaments in the USA, where players literally turned from an ordinary fan of this card game into a millionaire literally overnight!
So what are the biggest wins in poker? Who won them, and what was the money then spent on? What is the fate of these champions after their triumph at the poker tournament? Interesting? Especially for you, we have selected the top ten biggest poker winnings that exist at the moment. Note that this list includes only official results that are published at legal tournaments. We can only guess what amounts are played out at the “closed” poker tournaments for millionaires ...
10th place. Ryan Reess (USA) - $8,361,560
Our rating is opened by a young poker player from the USA named Ryan Riess. In 2013, he managed not only to get to the WSOP Main Event, but also to win this tournament, earning a total of $8,361,560! This poker win was so big that Ryan couldn't even wrap his hands around this mountain of dollars that lay in front of him!
It is noteworthy that even despite his rather young age - Ryan was only 23 years old at the time of that victory - this player did not squander his winnings. On the contrary, he tried to further invest them in the business, and today he is a fairly large shareholder of companies Facebook, Apple And Disney, as well as a co-owner of one of the American railway companies.
9th place. Greg Merson (USA) - $8,531,853
Greg Merson is one of those people whose big win in poker is remembered for a long time. The thing is that when Greg won the Main Event 2012, he could not recover for a long time and just cried for five minutes, looking at a huge pile of money in front of him. It took him a good ten minutes to finally pull himself together and give an interview to journalists.
In his interview, Greg said: “I used to think that I was completely ready to go through the entire marathon of the WSOP Main Event, but it turns out that it is simply impossible to prepare for this!” .
After his victory, Greg Merson completely changed his lifestyle: he got rid of alcohol and drug addiction, bought his family a large mansion and took poker lessons from past winners of this tournament. Greg spent the rest of the money he won on closed cash games, which he previously could not get into for financial reasons.
8th place. Joe Cada (USA) - $8,547,042
Joe Cada is one of those guys who is said to have achieved his "American Dream". Coming from an ordinary working-class family, where his mother worked as a croupier in a casino, and his father worked part-time at a construction site, Joe from childhood sought to understand poker. From almost the age of 16, he began to play online, earning quite a considerable amount of money with his game - by the age of 21, his bankroll amounted to half a million dollars!
However, as soon as he celebrated his 21st birthday, Joe decided to move to live tournaments and try his hand there. And, I must say, at first things didn’t work for him. In just a year, he lost all his savings, which he previously won online. He was so unlucky that in the end he didn't even have the money to pay for the entry fee to the 2009 WSOP Main Event.
As a result, part of the buy-in for it was paid by sponsors, who ended up in the black. Each of them received 2 million of the 8 he won! True, another million dollars was paid to Joe by a well-known poker room for the fact that he played the entire tournament in their equipment.
Now Kada lives in his own house in Las Vegas and plans to open his own business.
7th place. Pius Heinz (Germany) – $8,715,638
Young German player (only 22 years old at the time of victory) Pius Heinz made the whole world talk about himself after he was able to win WSOP Main Event 2011 and earn a fabulous poker winnings of $8,715,638!
Interestingly, after his victory, Pius said that he, by and large, did not like Las Vegas, with its tinsel and deliberate brilliance. The player said that he feels much more comfortable at home, with tea in his hands and in front of his own monitor screen, than at such large tournaments. After this victory, almost nothing was heard about Heinz.
6th place. Jonathal Duhamel (Canada) - $8,944,310
Jonathan Duhamel is also one of the young WSOP Main Event winners who won the tournament in 2010 at the age of 23. However, Duhamel is remembered not so much for his game in the final, but for what happened after him.
It is known that Jonathan has always been an ardent hockey fan, and after his victory, he even financially supported the children's team of his favorite club - Montreal Canadiens. Moreover, he often even refused to participate in major poker tournaments in favor of going to the next match of his favorite team.
And somehow, upon arrival from one of these matches, Jonathan discovered that everything his money, kept in the house, as well as his WSOP bracelet and watch with his name engraved, are gone! The player immediately reported the theft to the police, and three days later the robbers were still caught. It is noteworthy that Jonathan's girlfriend acted as a gunner, who believed that her boyfriend was giving her too cheap gifts ...
5th place. Peter Eastgate (Denmark) - $9,152,416
Peter Eastgate, a young Dane who, at the time of his victory in WSOP Main Event 2008 was only 22 years old. By the way, it was 2008 that became a turning point in his poker career. First of all, he managed to win several small online tournaments, and his winnings there amounted to just over 46 thousand dollars. And it was from this money that Peter made his buy-in to the WSOP Main Event 2008, which he subsequently won. Interestingly, on the final table he was able to beat our Ivan Demidov, who took second place in that tournament.
At the moment, Eastgate practically does not play poker, preferring to travel the world more in search of new experiences and acquaintances.
4th place. Martin Jacobson (Sweden) - $10,000,000
Martin Jakoobson, the 2014 WSOP Main Event winner, stands alone on our list of poker's biggest wins. And the point here is not even the tidy sum that Martin received for his victory. The fact is that this Swedish player has been earning money professionally by playing poker since the age of 18, and for him poker is not an attempt to “catch luck by the tail”, but a real job.
And this victory is far from the only one in the list of achievements of this Swedish player. Throughout his life, Martin has won many tournaments, and its total prize money for 2017 is already more than 15 million dollars! And this despite the fact that as a child, Martin dreamed of becoming not a poker player, but a cook in one of the local restaurants…
3rd place. Jamie Gold (USA) - $12,000,000
Jamie Gold, who won the 2006 WSOP Main Event, is a rather controversial character. On the one hand, this is a rather smiling and talkative guy who entertained himself and the viewers as much as he could during the entire tournament. But on the other hand, so much negativity has not yet fallen on a single winner of the WSOP tournaments.
The thing is that while playing at the final table, Jamie kept provoking his opponents, bringing them out of balance. Actually, this is not prohibited by the rules of poker, although it is considered by some to be “bad form”. However, in the case of Jamie, the situation was further complicated by the fact that every time he “reached” the right card on the river when he was all-in.
After the victory, Jamie was sued by his former friends, whom he allegedly promised to give a part of his winnings after winning for their services. However, Gold himself did not remember such words and was clearly not going to give anything away ...
2nd place. Daniel Colman (USA) - $15,306,668
Daniel Colman rose to fame after winning The Big One for One Drop tournament, winning it and earning over $15 million! This tournament is interesting in that the entry fee for it is $1 million, and there are usually not so many participants - no more than 50 people. At the same time, either very large businessmen play here, or ordinary players for whom the sponsors paid the buy-in.
Daniel Colman just belongs to the second category of people, since part of the entrance fee for him was made by his friends. It is noteworthy that after his victory in this tournament, after he beat Daniel Negrianu himself in the final, he did not give any interview, simply running away from the awards ceremony.
And two days later, on his Twitter, Daniel wrote words that even more amazed the poker community. He wrote: “Poker is a very dark and violent game. This is a game where more people lose than win. Because of this game, so many young guys lose their jobs, get in debt, spend money they can't afford to spend. I left the awards show because I don't want to get involved in poker promotion.” .
It remains only to guess how it was possible to write such a thing when you have 15 million dollars won in front of you, even if some of them will have to be given to sponsors ...
1 place. Antonio Esfandiari (USA) - $18,346,873
Tournament win by Italian-American Antonio Esfandiari The Big One for One Drop in 2012 and to this day remains one of the most significant events in the world of poker over the past 10 years. Still, because this is the biggest win in poker, which only received a person in the tournament! More than 4 years have passed since that tournament, but no one has yet been able to surpass the achievement of this player!
It is noteworthy that after his victory, Antonio compared the impressions of her ... with sex! According to him, such a big win in poker is similar to sex, only several times stronger than it in terms of the strength of emotions.
Poker is one of those card games that attracts attention with its huge winnings. After all, even those who are far from the world of gambling have heard about the multimillion-dollar prize money that players received as part of major tournament series. Such poker players turned from ordinary fans of such a card game into wealthy and famous people.
But everyone wants to do more than just know that some poker players once won several million in one of their tournament competitions. Players who have just started their ascent in the world of poker want to know their heroes by sight and have an idea of the real size of their prize money.
Who has the biggest win in poker? In what tournament? What was the money spent on? We will talk about all this in the framework of this article. Let's start our TOP 10 most successful poker players in the world.
10. Ryan Reess
Our ranking of the players who have received the biggest poker winnings is opened by young Ryan Riess from the USA. When he was 23 he applied for the 2013 WSOP Poker Series and managed to win the event. As a result, Rhine's prize amounted to a staggering amount for many players - $ 8,361,560!
Despite his young age, the poker player very wisely used the money he won. Rhine has made very successful investments in large companies such as Facebook, Apple and Disney. Now the poker player is their shareholder. Rine also invested money in the railway industry.
9. Greg Merson
Poker in the USA is one of the most popular card games, which is why it is not surprising that players from this country win resounding victories. One of those lucky ones was Greg Merson. He took part in the Main Event 2012, defeating his rivals in such an event and receiving a jackpot of $8,531,853.
After his resounding victory, Greg Merson cried for several minutes and then could not recover for a long time. The poker player simply could not believe that he won such a lot of money that was in front of him.
Big wins in poker are the driving force behind many people to change their lives, and Greg was no exception. The poker player recovered from alcohol and drug addiction, bought a huge house for his family and began taking lessons in this card game from past winners. With the remaining money, Greg decided to take part in closed cash games.
8. Joe Cada
Let's continue voicing the biggest wins in poker, and now let's focus on another successful player from America - Joe Cada. He has been involved in poker since childhood, since his mother worked as a dealer in a casino. From the age of 16, Joe began to take part in online distributions and by the age of 21 he was able to put together a bankroll of $ 500,000.
Then Joe decided to expand the boundaries of his game, which is why he began to take part in live tournaments. But the poker player turned out to be unable to do it, which is why he lost almost all his money. As a result, Joe had no money left for the entry fee to the WSOP 2009. But there were sponsors who paid for his game, and for good reason. After all, Joe won $8,547,042. Of these, each sponsor received 2 million.
However, Joe Cada was not left without money. After all, most of the prize was given to the player. In addition, he received another million from the poker room for playing the hand in their branded clothes.
Big wins in poker have improved the living conditions of many players, and Joe is one of them. With the prize money received, the poker player bought a house in Las Vegas. The remaining amount the player plans to invest in his own business.
7. Pius Heinz
The biggest winnings in poker belong not only to Americans, but also to representatives of other countries. One of them is Pius Heinz, a young poker player from Germany who, at the age of 22, managed to win the WSOP Main Event 2011. For this, the player was paid $8,715,638. After such luck, the whole world started talking about him.
Pius Heinz himself believed in his victory and counted on a big jackpot. But after she said that he did not like Las Vegas. Too much pathos in this city. It is more comfortable for him to be at home with a cup of coffee and at the computer monitor. Pius did not say where he spent the money he won.
6. Jonathal Duhamel
Another young WSOP Main Event winner is Jonathan Duhamel from Canada. He won such a tournament series in 2010 when he was only 23 years old and won $8,944,310. However, many people remember Jonathan not for his victory, but for the way he spent his big poker winnings. On them, he sponsored the children's hockey team Montreal Canadiens.
But in the life of Jonathan Duhamel after winning the tournament, there were also disappointments. After a while, he discovered that he had been robbed. Not only part of the money won was missing, but also the gold bracelet. Fortunately, the police managed to return all this to the owner. But the joy of this was overshadowed by the fact that his beloved acted as a gunner for the robbers. She felt that Jonathan was not being generous with her.
5. Peter Eastgate
Now let's move on to Peter Eastgate from Denmark. He was able to win the 2008 WSOP Main Event at the age of 22 and received a payout of $9,152,416. For him, 2008 was a very significant year and allowed him to take a new round in his career. So, at first he won several major online tournaments. Thanks to the prizes he received as part of them, he managed to raise money for participation in the WSOP Main Event 2008, where he won.
Peter in the final met with our compatriot Ivan Demidov, who got the second place of honor.
Today, Peter Eastgate has practically retired from poker. The former player spends his prize money on traveling the world. A poker player likes to visit new places and meet interesting people.
4. Martin Jacobson
For Martin Jakoobson from Sweden, since the age of 18, poker has become the main source of income. He always approached such a game seriously and played hands very successfully in the rooms. In 2014, he took part in the WSOP Main Event and became the owner of one of the biggest winnings in poker - $10,000,000.
However, he did not stop at such a victory. By 2017, he was able to win more than $5,000,000 in other tournaments, and this despite the fact that Martin dreamed not of a poker career as a child, but of working in a restaurant.
3. Jamie Gold
American Jamie Gold became the winner of the WSOP Main Event 2006, and since we announce the biggest winnings, it was in this tournament series that this player managed to get the maximum jackpot. Jamie's prize was a staggering $12,000,000.
The player was remembered literally by all spectators of this tournament. The fact is that he was a difficult opponent. In appearance, he was smiling and talkative, he actively entertained viewers. However, he did not miss the opportunity at the final table to piss off his opponents.
However, such behavior is not prohibited by the rules of such a card game. However, many players find this unacceptable. In addition, the opponents were angry with him for the fact that on the river he miraculously always “reached” the need for a card when all-in.
Jamie Gold's victory was a resounding one. But after her, his friends sued the player. According to their statements, he promised them a part of his prize money. However, Jamie did not remember such words, so he did not give them anything.
2. Daniel Colman
Unlike the players listed above, American Daniel Colman hit a big jackpot outside of the WSOP tournament. He took part in The Big One for One Drop event. It is notable for the fact that the buy-in for it is $1,000,000 which is not affordable for everyone. Therefore, there are relatively few participants in such a tournament - no more than 50 people.
It is noteworthy that either very wealthy entrepreneurs or ordinary poker players, but who have good sponsors, take part in such a tournament.
Let's just say that Daniel Colman was not an entrepreneur. Most of the buy-in was paid for by his friends. In the final, he competed with Daniel Negreanu himself. Having defeated him, Colman did not appear at the awards ceremony and did not give any interviews, although he hit a very large jackpot - $ 15,306,668.
However, two days later, the poker player explained why he behaved this way. He tweeted that he thinks poker is a very tough and dark game. Daniel stated that there are more of those who lost. Meanwhile, such people lose their jobs, loved ones because of their love for such a card game, get into debt and often ruin their lives. With his departure from the ceremony, Daniel Coleman made it clear that he would not advertise poker and call for it to be played.
1. Antonio Esfandiari
American Antonio Esfandiari also took part in The Big One for One Drop. Here he was able to win more than Colman. It is Antonio Esfandiari who owns the biggest poker winnings - $18,346,873. Despite the fact that 5 years have passed since the victory of this poker player, no one has been able to beat his record.
Esfandiari said that he received indescribable emotions from winning such a tournament, which he had not experienced before. But he never said what he spent his prize money on.
This is what the TOP 10 players who have received the biggest poker winnings look like. Perhaps, starting to master such a card game now, in the future you will be among such famous and rich poker players. All in your hands. Good luck!