Daniel Negreanu Total Poker Winnings
Are you sure you picked the right career? After reading our list of the richest poker players in the world, you might second guess yourself.
Daniel Negreanu Poker Results. Date ↓ Event Buy-in Place Winnings POY Pts. Dec 30, '20: $10,000 WSOP.com No-Limit Hold'em Main Event 2020 World Series of Poker: $10,000: 92. Daniel Negreanu has won 6 bracelets and 1 rings for total earnings of $19,550,955. See all events where they placed in-the-money.
While most of us go into ‘traditional trades’, the 10 players on this list opted for a career path playing games – poker, that is. We’re sure their parents rolled their eyes at them at the time, but looking back, we’re sure no one on this list regrets their decision.
Poker is a tough game to navigate as for every one of the big winners on this list, there are thousands who came up short. Nonetheless, let’s celebrate poker’s best and see who are the richest players of all time in terms of career earnings.
10. Antonio Esfandiari
Antonio Esfandiari celebrates during a celebrity poker tournament.
Career Earnings: $27 Million
Born in 1978, Antonio Esfandiari will be 42 by the end of 2020 (his birthday is December 8th). Our guess? He’ll won’t experience a mid-life crisis, as he has already made quite a name for himself in the poker community. He used to be a magician before his poker career took off, even writing a book titled The Magician’s Secrets for Winning Tournaments in 2012. So far, his poker career has been magical.
Esfandiari has managed to win three WSOP bracelets as well as three WPT titles too. His most notable win came back in 2004 at the Los Angeles Poker Classic. Doing a full tally, Esfandiari has compiled $27 million in his career, which is why he is No. 10 on our list.
His biggest recorded win was back in 2012 when he won the “Big One for One Drop” tournament. That’s, of course, one of the biggest poker payouts each year and it’s one of the biggest reasons for him being on this list. At the time, that first-place prize got him the record for the largest recorded prize ever with $18,346,673.
However, that number has now been passed by someone else. Esfandiari even held the number one spot on this list for a brief time before falling behind as of late. You can’t blame him for resting on his laurels a little bit.
9. Antanas ‘Tony G’ Guoga
Career Earnings: $36 Million
His full name is Antanas Guoga but you might recognize him better as Tony G. That’s how he’s known in the poker world. He’s quite an interesting person as he also happens to be the public Chief Information Officer to the Remigijus Simasius, who is the mayor of Vilnius – the capital of Lithuania. If that’s not enough, the man is even the chief executive officer of Cypherpunk Holdings.
Flipping over to his poker accomplishments, while he has never been able to win a WSOP bracelet, he has been able to cash out 15 different big paydays. When you do the full tally, he has won a total of $36 million throughout his career. How does he find time for all of it?
8. Justin Bonomo
Career Earnings: $49 Million
Bonomo is a big fish that’s well-known for his winnings. He frequently swims with sharks but usually comes out on top. His love for the game has attributed to the incredibly high success that he has had throughout his very young poker career so far – that includes both online and in person.
Bonomo has won three WSOP bracelets and has been able to win a cash prize over 50 times in various events. One of his most notable victories was in the Super High Roller Bowl Online that took place earlier this year. However, his biggest win was during the “Big One for One Drop” tournament in 2018, which saw him bring home around $10 million. He currently sits at $49 million total career earnings, but that number is sure to change as he continues collecting the wins.
7. Daniel Negreanu
Career Earnings: $50 Million
Daniel Negreanu has been in many spots on this list but nowadays, as he’s scaled back from the game a little bit, he’s at No. 7.
Daniel Negreanu.
The Canadian was originally introduced to the poker world at a very young age and he’s thrived in it ever since. He used to play in high school, which is where he started honing his craft. Those games in the halls of Canadian high schools have more than paid off – likely more than anything else he learned in the classrooms.
Nowadays, Negreanu has six World Series of Poker bracelets under his belt and is the only player in the poker community to be named the WSOP Player of the Year more than once. Daniel Negreanu’s net worth is about $50 million. He’s already a member of the Poker Hall of Fame, and has collected his winnings with both his tournament earnings as well as sponsorship deals. He’s undoubtedly one of the most successful players of all time.
6. Bryn Kenney
Career Earnings: $56 Million
Kenney is one of the youngest players on this list in terms of active time in the game. Kenney was actually first introduced to online poker back in 2003, so when you compare him to some of the other people on this list, that’s not that long. That’s mostly because he originally was into a different card game growing up: Magic: The Gathering. Good thing he made the switch as poker has proven to be quite profitable.
Kenney is now a wildly successful poker player who has about $56 million in total career earnings. While he only has one WSOP bracelet in his portfolio, more are probably on the way. And don’t worry as he’s got so much in other earnings as he’s finished in the money in 32 other events.
One of the biggest was his haul at the 2019 Triton Million charity event, which took place in London, England. More than one-third of his career winnings came from that event as he picked up $20.5 million that night.
5. Doyle Brunson
Career Earnings: $75 Million
The ‘Texas Dolly’, Doyle Brunson is not only a legend in the poker community, he’s one of the pioneers who helped bring the game to new heights. He has over 60 years of poker experience, which is not something many players can say.
Originally, the Texas Dolly had his sights set on a basketball career and had hopes of playing professional basketball in the NBA. However, that didn’t pan out, so he began to ply his trade in another competition: poker. Needless to say, that was a good choice.
Brunson has 10 WSOP bracelets to his name, which includes two Main Event victories. That’s a tough tournament to win once, let alone twice. He’s also written a book titled Super System, which has been known as one of the best poker strategy books out there. As of right now, his total career earnings are around $75 million, which lands him at No. 5 on our list.
4. Chris Ferguson
Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson—Jesus might’ve not worn a leather trench coat, but we see the resemblance.
Career Earnings: Over $80 Million
‘Jesus’ Chris Ferguson got his nickname because, well, with his long hair and beard, he bears a resemblance.
The California native began to playing poker with his father from a young age. Whenever he took a break from his schoolwork, his father would deal him in. Those bonding experiences were incredibly important to the success that Ferguson has had in professional poker.
Some of Ferguson’s big wins include the WSOP Main Event back in 2000, which saw him bring home $1.5 million in winnings. It’s interesting to note how small that prize looks nowadays for the main event. Nonetheless, he also happens 90 or so other events where he’s finished in the money. He’s won over $80 million in his career.
Unfortunately, Ferguson’s reputation took a huge hit when he was accused of being involved in the Ponzi scheme at Full Tilt Poker. This has put a sour note on the end of an illustrious career.
3. Sam Farha
Career Earnings: Over $100 Million
Born in Beirut, Lebanon, Sammy Farha is one of the best poker players – if not the best – ever from the Middle East. He moved to the United States as a teenager in order to escape from the Lebanese Civil War. As they say, this is the land of opportunity and Farha surely took advantage of it.
In his few years in the United States, Farha began playing poker here and there where he was able to pick up a few bucks. That first taste ended up being his welcome to the poker community and he never looked back.
So far, Farha has earned three WSOP bracelets and his largest recorded tournament win was in 2010 at the WSOP $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship. That tournament led to him earning $488,241. Overall, his career earnings have surpassed $100 million.
2. Phil Ivey
Career Earnings: Over $100 Million
Ivey is a legend on the poker circuit but most of the recent things we’ve heard from him have been in the legal world – we’ll focus on the positives here, as he’s truly made a big mark on the game.
Ivey was interested in poker from a young age – maybe a little too young. He used to love poker so much that he was caught using a fake ID at a casino while he was a teenager. Nicknamed ‘The Phenom’, Ivey had won 10 World Series Of Poker bracelets throughout his career, which is second-most in the world behind only Phil Hellmuth, whose net worth is $23 million.
Ivey also owns one WPT title and has reached the final table nine times. Taking a look at his biggest win (in terms of dollar amount), which came in 2014 at the Aussie Millions LK Boutique AU$250,000 challenge, which saw him bring home AU$4 million. Not only has he produced a ton of success in live tournaments, he also happens to be an outstanding online player as well. Phil Ivey’s net worth is $100 million.
1. Dan Bilzerian
Career Earnings: Over $200 Million
Is Dan Bilzerian more successful at poker or Instagram? The Instagram king has cleaned up in both communities, but it’s hard to say which one accepts him more. It’s rumored that he isn’t widely liked around the poker community, but he still holds high stakes games all the time.
He started off with some money he inherited from his parents due to his father being a corporate takeover specialist, but many wonder how much Bilzerian has actually won, because the exact amount of his trust fund is unknown. However, he still happens to be the richest poker player in the world — he even claims that he’s won over $50 million in the year of 2014, and that he’s won over $200 million in his career, earning him the #1 spot on our list as the richest poker player in the world.
Playing heads-up cash games online for hundreds of thousands of dollars isn’t something most poker players will ever experience. However, poker fans recently got a taste of this action with Daniel Negreanu squaring off against Doug Polk at WSOP.com.
Beyond the play on the felt and results, there was plenty of action behind the scenes as well. The two men spent hours in preparation and studying each day’s hands behind the scenes. That involved reviewing hand histories, solver analysis, coaching, and more.
For the uninitiated, the behind-the-scenes work might be surprising. USPoker took a look at what kind of efforts went into the match and how each got ready to hit the tables.
Team Polk
Preparing for an online poker duel
In NASCAR, a driver earns major accolades for crossing the finish line in the top spot. But a big team in the background helps make that possible. The pit crew, team engineers, crew chief, and spotter all make efforts to get that driver to the checkered flag.
These two online poker warriors took a similar approach to the High Stakes Feud. Simply rolling out of bed and firing up the computer to play wouldn’t have been a good plan.
There’s no doubt Polk is an amazingly talented player. The founder of Upswing Poker didn’t go it alone in the challenge however.
After the final match in the series, Polk discussed his team on the final Upswing stream of the series. He offered a look at what into his efforts.
“I’m very happy that I spent so much time preparing and I felt that it ended up helping me tremendously and I got to execute at such a long period of time,” Polk said.
That execution came with lots of fine tuning and adjustment. And the Polk war room included a team helping make that happen. A couple of players served as coaches to help build a framework for play and also run simulations on a poker solver.
A solver is a software program identifying the optimal play in a given situation. Players, or in this case Polk’s team, enter each situation and the software indicates the best choice. The routine involved hours of work each day.
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Another few players helped create hand ranges based on all of Negreanu’s bet sizes. A team of Upswing poker members also recorded statistics for all the hands throughout the series. That meant every continuation bet, raise, and any other move.
“They created a spreadsheet for me and were just straight-out grinding out stats,” Polk said.
Battling in the background
The match may have lasted three months, but Polk spent several months preparing beforehand. He hadn’t played in over a year before that and said he got “wrecked” initially playing at smaller stakes.
After finding his team of coaches, however, Polk’s game began to improve. His team constantly ran simulations – cross-testing bet sizes and hand ranges.
In reviewing the series, Polk believes Negreanu played well and could top most players who aren’t heads-up high-stakes specialists.
“I really think Daniel played exceptionally well for what I would have expected,” he said in a recent video analyzing Negreanu’s play throughout the series. “It’s a completely different beast heads-up. You have to play the vast majority of your hands.”
That involves continually making tough calls, sharp bluffs, and fighting for every pot, Polk noted. The effort may not have been NASA landing a rover on Mars, but there was a deep, high-tech team strategy underway.
Polk described his team as “some of the brightest minds in poker.” Sometimes that included reminding him to fold more and stick to the game plan. His tech team looked for a counter to every Negreanu change or adjustment.
That paid off to the tune of a $1.2 million win playing two tables at $200/$400No Limit Hold’em.
“That full team of people helped me in different ways,” said Polk, who’s now heading to play in PokerGO’s High Stakes Poker. “I’m obviously thankful that I got to work with such great guys to get me to the level at where I am today. I just couldn’t have done it without them.”
Team Negreanu
Assembling a team for the challenge
Despite losing in the matchup, even Polk conceded that his opponent made considerable progress. He labeled Negreanu as a really good heads-up player who could do well against most challengers.
The problem is that Polk isn’t like most challengers. Extremely talented and possessing an innate gift for aggression at the right moments, he gives an opponent fits in extremely tough spots.
Negreanu knew he’d be the underdog going into the match and put together a team to help. After weeks of studying and preparing, Kid Poker hit the tables on Nov. 4.
The Team Negreanu crew consisted of two people coaching him as the series went along. That came to as many as six hours a day. A third person was also involved learning along with Negreanu throughout the process to help fine tune the strategy.
This “poker pit crew” used a GTO (game theory optimization) practice driller. GTO is the concept of using analytical tools to make optimal choices regarding certain decisions.
That involved making use of the PioSolver and running simulations on hands Negreanu played. The team could use that analysis to create and work on new concepts.
A growing complexity to high stakes online poker
What does all this high-tech analysis say about where online poker is now? It means playing at some of the highest stakes continues to require massive amounts of training and analysis.
“The game is more complex at the highest levels and the skill set to become a great poker player has changed,” Negreanu told USPoker. “It’s less about talent and more about work ethic and study when it comes to online poker. I think live poker is mostly safe from being totally overtaken.”
This one is not good for my all in EV stats 😂😂😂@CoreySteel_pic.twitter.com/HIJpg9kkmz
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) February 4, 2021
Looking back, Negreanu was forthcoming about the matchup and everything that went into it. He even recently discussed heading back to the tables heads-up against Phil Hellmuth.
How Much Daniel Negreanu Worth
“I learned a lot rapidly throughout the process,” he said, “but definitely needed more time to prepare for the match and be ready for hand one.”
That says a lot about what it takes to win in such an environment. The two treated the poker world to quite a show and there were plenty of hours of prep time to make that happen.