The WSOP Main Event has kicked off and after the weeks Big One tournament mentions and lists of pokers biggest cash earners or winners are being touted in the poker news. But is the title of pokers biggest live tournament money earners as clear cut as it seems?
Obviously top of the list is now Antonio Esfandiari with Sam Trickett behind him. If you take away the – at the moment – one off result of the Big One that skews the results and the recent other super High Rollers and look at the ‘old’ list of top winners what are you looking at?
Are you looking at people who have earned that money for themselves or are you looking at those who have won the most money but then had to give away a lot of it to those who staked them to get into the tournaments, poker sites that sponsored them and other people and players who had a percentage of any winnings?
Although no one knows for sure perhaps perhaps Antonio Esfandiari earning from the Big One were more like this. He will still be on top of the list as pokers biggest winner for tournaments but perhaps not for money he has won for himself?
And last years WSOP Main Event champion Pius Heinz self earning may have resembled this instead of the full $8,715,638.
Phil Hellmuth won $2,645,333 for his 4th place in the WSOP Big One but he had numerous backers so earned so his figure of having earned or won $16,119,302 needs to be clarified as to which it is.
Is it more important to count how much they have won – when they could be staked into events that lots of other people could not afford to play – or is it more important how much they have won for themselves. Or would you count only the tournaments they have bought into with their own money and when they have 100% of themselves?
Pokers top live tournament winners list
1st Antonio Esfandiari $23,245,828
2nd Erik Seidel $16,945,834
3rd Phil Ivey $16,691,415
4th Sam Trickett $16,471,099
5th Daniel Negreanu $ 16,176,541
6th Phil Hellmuth $16,119,301
7th Michael Mizrachi $14,069,765
8th John Juanda $12,378,558
9th Jamie Gold $12,245,468
10th Joe Hachem $11,742,845
I would bet that this top 10 when shown as live poker tournament earnings for the actual player would be different to the top winners all time earnings list.
Rumours on the WSOP tables are that Antonio Esfandiari had 5% or 10% of his Big One winnings and that Sam Trickett had 50% of his own action
These can not be officially confirmed unless the players themselves speak about it but they sound about right considering the circumstances and players deals