For the last several years, the largest tournament in the world has been the World Series of Poker Main Event. With the exception of 1992, the US$10,000 buy-in tournament increased in prize pool year-over-year from its start in 1970 until 2007 (the latter a result of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006, which reduced the number of players winning their seats via online play).
The first tournament to reach a million dollar prize pool was the 1983 WSOP Main Event. The WSOP Main Event of 2004 had the first prize pool of above $10,000,000.
The largest non Hold'em Tournament has been the 2008 WSOP $50K HORSE with a prize pool of $7,104,000 and the first prize of $1,989,120 going to Scotty Nguyen. [1]
Below are the 30 largest poker tournaments with respect to the prize pool in United States dollars and not number of entrants. This list includes live and online poker.
Currently, 14 of the 15 largest prize pools in history have been WSOP Main Events. The second largest prize pool outside of the Main Event is the 2012 WSOP event known as The Big One for One Drop, held from July 1–3. It featured a buy-in of US$1 million, the largest in poker history. Of the buy-in, $111,111 was a charitable donation to the One Drop Foundation, and the WSOP took no rake. All 48 seats available for that event were filled, resulting in a prize pool of $42,666,672, with over 5 million dollars donated. [2] The second largest pool for any event outside of the WSOP was the 2012 Macau High Stakes Challenge, with a HK$2 million (US$260,000) buy-in plus a rebuy option. The event drew a field of 73, of which 21 made a rebuy, resulting in a prize pool of HK$182,360,000 (slightly over US$23.5 million). [3]
All of the 30 richest tournaments to date were played in No Limit Hold'em.
Event | Prize pool (US$) | Winner | 1st prize | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2023 WSOP Main Event | $93,399,900 | Daniel Weinman | $12,100,000 | [4] |
2006 WSOP Main Event | $82,512,162 | Jamie Gold | $12,000,000 | [5] [6] |
2022 WSOP Main Event | $80,782,475 | Espen Jørstad | $10,000,000 | [7] |
2019 WSOP Main Event | $80,548,600 | Hossein Ensan | $10,000,000 | [8] |
2018 WSOP Main Event | $74,015,600 | John Cynn | $8,800,000 | [9] |
2010 WSOP Main Event | $68,799,059 | Jonathan Duhamel | $8,944,310 | [10] |
2017 WSOP Main Event | $67,877,400 | Scott Blumstein | $8,150,000 | [11] |
2019 Triton Super High Roller Series - Triton Million | $65,660,000 (£54,000,000) | Aaron Zang | $16,775,820* (£13,779,491) | [12] |
2019 Triton Super High Roller Series - Triton Million | $65,660,000 (£54,000,000) | Bryn Kenney* | $20,563,324* (£16,775,820) (2nd place) | [12] |
2011 WSOP Main Event | $64,531,000 | Pius Heinz | $8,711,956 | [13] |
2008 WSOP Main Event | $64,333,600 | Peter Eastgate | $9,152,416 | [14] |
2016 WSOP Main Event | $63,327,800 | Qui Nguyen | $8,005,310 | [15] |
2014 WSOP Main Event | $62,820,200 | Martin Jacobson | $10,000,000 | [16] |
2012 WSOP Main Event | $62,021,200 | Greg Merson | $8,527,982 | [17] |
2009 WSOP Main Event | $61,043,600 | Joe Cada | $8,547,042 | [18] |
2015 WSOP Main Event | $60,348,000 | Joe McKeehen | $7,680,021 | [19] |
2007 WSOP Main Event | $59,784,954 | Jerry Yang | $8,250,000 | [20] |
2013 WSOP Main Event | $59,708,800 | Ryan Riess | $8,359,531 | [21] |
2005 WSOP Main Event | $52,818,610 | Joe Hachem | $7,500,000 | [22] |
2012 WSOP Event 55 – The Big One for One Drop | $42,666,672 | Antonio Esfandiari | $18,346,673 | [23] |
2014 WSOP Event 57 – The Big One for One Drop | $37,333,338 | Dan Colman | $15,306,668 | [24] |
2016 Monte-Carlo One Drop Extravaganza | $27,437,564 | Elton Tsang | $12,248,912 | [25] |
2019 PokerStars NL Hold'em Players Championship | $26,455,500 | Ramon Colillas | $5,100,000 | [26] |
2018 WSOP Event 78 – The Big One for One Drop | $24,840,000 | Justin Bonomo | $10,000,000 | [27] |
2004 WSOP Main Event | $24,224,400 | Greg Raymer | $5,000,000 | [28] |
2012 Macau High Stakes Challenge Super High Roller | $23,511,128 | Stanley Choi | $6,465,560 | [29] |
Super High Roller Bowl 2015 | $21,500,000 | Brian Rast | $7,525,000 | [30] |
2016 WSOP Event 67 – High Roller for One Drop | $19,316,565 | Fedor Holz | $4,981,775 | [31] |
Super High Roller Bowl China | $18,542,370 | Justin Bonomo | $4,821,516 | [32] |
2013 WSOP Event 47 – One Drop High Roller | $17,891,148 | Anthony Gregg | $4,830,619 | [33] |
Super High Roller Bowl 2017 | $16,800,000 | Christoph Vogelsang | $6,000,000 | [34] |
2007 WPT Championship | $15,495,750 | Carlos Mortensen | $3,970,415 | [35] |
2013 GuangDong Ltd Asia Millions Main Event | $15,376,897 | Niklas Heinecker | $4,456,885 | [36] |
2011 Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure | $15,132,000 | Galen Hall | $2,300,000 | [37] |
* | Due to a prize splitting deal Aaron Zang received £13,779,491 ($16,775,820) for 1st, original payout for 1st was £19,000,000 ($23,100,000). Bryn Kenney received a larger cash prize of £16,775,820 ($20,563,324) for 2nd place. |
Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari, is a professional poker player and former professional magician, known for his elaborate chip tricks. Esfandiari was the face of the now-defunct poker site, UltimatePoker.com.
Johnson "John" Juanda is an Indonesian professional poker player of Chinese descent based in Tokyo, Japan. He has won five World Series of Poker bracelets.
Maciek Gracz is a Polish professional poker player, based in Raleigh, North Carolina.
The World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) is the first expansion effort of World Series of Poker-branded poker tournaments outside the United States. Since 1970, participants had to travel to Las Vegas if they wanted to compete in the World Series of Poker (WSOP). Although the WSOP held circuit events in other locations, the main tournaments, which awarded bracelets to the winners, were exclusively held in Las Vegas. The inaugural WSOPE, held in 2007, marked the first time that a WSOP bracelet was awarded outside Las Vegas. From its inception to the 2013 tournament, players from 19 countries — USA (10), France (4), UK (3), Denmark (3), Canada (2), Norway (2), Portugal (2), Italy (2), Afghanistan, Germany, Indonesia, Spain, New Zealand, Sweden, Tunisia, Switzerland, Australia, Italy and Finland — have won bracelets.
Sorel Mizzi is a Canadian professional poker player. Mizzi plays online poker under the names of "Imper1um" and "Zangbezan24". As of January 19, 2015, information gathered by Cardplayer.com's database states Sorel Mizzi has live tournament earnings of over $10.6 million. He also has online tournament earnings of approximately $3.6 million. He is also a regular in the online high-stakes cash games where he plays at Titan Poker under the name of 'Imper1um'.
The Super Bowl of Poker was the second most prestigious poker tournament in the world during the 1980s. While the World Series of Poker was already drawing larger crowds as more and more amateurs sought it out, the SBOP "was an affair limited almost exclusively to pros and hard-core amateurs."
The Super Bowl of Poker was the second most prestigious poker tournament in the world during the 1980s. While the World Series of Poker was already drawing larger crowds as more and more amateurs sought it out, the SBOP "was an affair limited almost exclusively to pros and hard-core amateurs."
Scott Seiver is a professional poker player from Cold Spring Harbor, New York, now residing in Las Vegas, Nevada who won the 2008 World Series of Poker $5,000 No Limit Hold'em event and is the winner of the $25,100 buy-in High Roller event at the 2010 L.A. Poker Classic. On April 29, 2015, Seiver became the 9th player in GPI history to be ranked #1.
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Sam Trickett is an English professional poker player. He is best known for finishing second, losing heads-up to Antonio Esfandiari in the Big One for One Drop - winning over $10 million in prize money. He is currently the twelfth-highest earner in tournament play of all time.
Jonathan Duhamel is a Canadian poker professional from Boucherville, Quebec, best known as the winner of the Main Event at the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP). He has won three WSOP bracelets in his career.
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Fedor Holz is a German professional poker player, originally from Saarbrücken, who focuses on high roller tournaments. He was ranked by Pocketfives.com as the best online MTT player in 2014 and 2015. In July 2016, Holz won his first WSOP bracelet, in the $111,111 High Roller For One Drop, winning $4,981,775.
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