How much do you get for winning the Main Event?

Not as much as you might think - at least, not after tax. Especially if you're from Denmark:

http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2008/11/after-taxes-world-series-winner.html

After taxes, Peter Eastgate only gets to take home $2.5 million of the first place money. Second place finisher Ivan Demidov, on the other hand, walks away with over $5 million after tax.

No wonder Gus Hansen moved to Monaco

from what i heard, eastgate moved to london so he only had to pay like 13% or something around there
i dont know how true this is but its what i heard

pantin007 said:

from what i heard, eastgate moved to london so he only had to pay like 13% or something around there
i dont know how true this is but its what i heard

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I heard he spent the four month break trying, but couldn't get citizenship.

OzExorcist said:

I heard he spent the four month break trying, but couldn't get citizenship.

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that kinda suxs and would explain the absense of celebration when he won

i cant really feel too bad for the guy. its not like he is walkin around broke nad unknown. yeah thats a sizeable chunk, but 2.5 million is hardly pocket change.

i'm kind of curios about that. so he doesn't pay any us tax what so ever on that money even though he earned it here. And what about pro poker players from around the world that win money in the us. They are working kinda sorta so do they have to have a green card.

Insaneasylm said:

i'm kind of curios about that. so he doesn't pay any us tax what so ever on that money even though he earned it here. And what about pro poker players from around the world that win money in the us. They are working kinda sorta so do they have to have a green card.

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No idea. He does pay rake to the American organisers just like all the other players.

Remember too that not all of the prize money was American - people from around the world bought into that tournament and contributed to the prize pool.

I believe that the UK has a reciprocal arrangement with the US.

US players winning over here have to pay tax on it in the US and UK players in the US are exempt from tax as they would be in the UK.

Read this in a similar thread before so not first hand knowledge.