10 Most Successful Tournament Players of All Time

Debi

Debi

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I found this article by Gary Wise very interesting so thought I would share it with you:

http://www.globalpokerindex.com/the-all-time-money-list-and-why-gpi-matters/

Here are the leaders:
  1. Antonio Esfandiari - $23,270,636 (GPI = 106)
  2. Erik Seidel - $16,968,220 (GPI = 5)
  3. Phil Ivey - $16,694,534 (GPI = 61)
  4. Sam Trickett - $16,471,099 (GPI = 47)
  5. Daniel Negreanu - $16,252,686 (GPI = 51)
  6. Phil Helmuth - $16,119,301 (GPI = 39)
  7. Michael Mizrachi - $14,074,765 (GPI = 18)
  8. John Juanda - $12,458,281 (GPI = 136)
  9. Jamie Gold - $12,245,468 (GPI = n/a)
  10. Joe Hachem - $11,742,845 (GPI = n/a)6

 
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Debi

Debi

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Here is part of the article: (as written by Gary Wise)

On this list, we have the ten most-successful live tournament poker players of all time, at least as winnings go. We don’t know how much history’s winners have spent accumulating their winnings. While the efforts of organizations like the world series of poker to track entries go a long way towards determining ROI (a truer test of success), we really can’t know aside from those rare exceptions (even wsop only started making entry lists available in 2011), so the above is what we have to go on. That and ranking systems like GPI.

Looking at that list, we have three guys (Esfandiari, Trickett, Hellmuth) whose winnings were artificially enhanced by The Big One for One Drop (I loved the tournament, but let’s face it, winning it doesn’t put Esfandiari in the GOAT argument) and two (Gold, Hachem) for whom the world championship accounts for more than half their winnings. Seidel, Ivey, Negreanu and Juanda have all reaped the recent benefits of Super High-Roller events, leaving Mizrachi as the only guy who built his total entirely off major multi-table tournaments of more than 50 players (and yes, that remarkable fact will make him the focus of a future feature). As good as most of these guys are, for the majority of them, their place on this list is in part a case of right place, right time than a true testament to skill, or at least, skill above and beyond all others. If you recognize that, the question becomes how that matters.
 
Daniel72

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Indeed, ONE result and Esfandiari and Gold are in the top 10, thats a little bit of a joke. I often hear about the "winnings", nothing or little about the buy-ins or if they were staked, sponsored, in make-up, broke etc.
 
jordanbillie

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Always thought that ranking players by winnings was a joke.
 
ckickenking

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Indeed, ONE result and Esfandiari and Gold are in the top 10, thats a little bit of a joke. I often hear about the "winnings", nothing or little about the buy-ins or if they were staked, sponsored, in make-up, broke etc.
The differences is Esfandiari has the skills to win many more and Gold doesn't.
 
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BluffYou123

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Esfandiari has won a WSOP bracelet and 2 WPT titles too so that makes his place on the list a little more credible although it is due to the fact he took down The Big One. Good article, thanks for posting Debi.
 
momasaidnokuout

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Best player on that list....Phil Ivey.
 
Tom1559

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I am not sure that listing players by the most winnings is the best assessment. There have been very many great poker players who have had fantastic success but in a time when the prize pool was much smaller. If these guys had been playing now they would have been in the top 10. I think you have to judge the best players on their results in major tournaments and not just on winnings.
 
Pascal-lf

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Hellmuth plays like a billion tournaments anyway
 
duggs

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I am not sure that listing players by the most winnings is the best assessment. There have been very many great poker players who have had fantastic success but in a time when the prize pool was much smaller. If these guys had been playing now they would have been in the top 10. I think you have to judge the best players on their results in major tournaments and not just on winnings.

tournaments have become exponentially tougher over time tho.
 
MediaBLITZ

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...winnings were artificially enhanced by The Big One for One Drop (I loved the tournament, but let’s face it, winning it doesn’t put Esfandiari in the GOAT argument)

Yes, thank you - I love Antonio but come on - the Big One is 78% of his figure.

But I wish him well and hope to see him continue working hard and get in the discussion.
 
sam1chips

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Haha yeah...Trickett had also won like 3 or 4 $1,000,00+ prizes this year (separate from The Big One for One Drop). Esfandiari as well is obviously inflated a little bit due to OneDrop.

Hellmuth does have a ton of bracelets, so his number may not be so inflated...however (it was stated by someone above) he does play in a ton of tournaments, and is bound to cash in a couple of them.
If we were looking at a real list of successful tournament players, I feel like the two things that would need to be taken into account is ITM%, and the average number of players in each field...
 
Leo 50

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Antonio has won other tournies so he deserves a place on the list.
Hachem has won a WSOP and a WPT and I think some smaller Australian tournies
Hellmuth has the bracelets and the wins.

I recently heard that Jamie Gold is broke. Not sure if it’s true but......

The rest of that list seems reasonable.

Just my 2¢

:cool:
 
MediaBLITZ

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Antonio has won other tournies so he deserves a place on the list.
Hachem has won a WSOP and a WPT and I think some smaller Australian tournies
Hellmuth has the bracelets and the wins.

The rest of that list seems reasonable.

Just my 2¢

:cool:

Well every single guy on the list deserves to be there - it's irrefutable - It's titled the All-Time Money List and is not based on opinion or conjecture - it's plain factual statistic.
 
MediaBLITZ

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Antonio has won other tournies so he deserves a place on the list.
Hachem has won a WSOP and a WPT and I think some smaller Australian tournies
Hellmuth has the bracelets and the wins.

The rest of that list seems reasonable.

Just my 2¢

:cool:

Well every single guy on the list deserves to be there - it's irrefutable - It's titled the All-Time Money List and is not based on opinion or conjecture - it's plain factual statistic. Should not be confused with a "greatest of all time" list.
 
Debi

Debi

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That is definitely a valid and factual list - I think the discussion is - what kind of a list should we really be looking at.
 
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baudib1

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Don't hate on Antonio -- he has more than $5 million in tournament winnings apart from the One Drop. Not shabby IMO.
 
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Well of course Antonio has to be number one, he just won the One Drop by all means. And of course he is tearing up poker tables on the side from this.
We wonder here in my home if my name will make this list within the next five years. Ok, let's hear it.
 
fozziethebear

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Jamie Gold is already broke? Must have spent a fortune on that lawsuit then.
 
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