How many players do you think have won more than $1 million in live poker tournaments over the past 40 years?

A couple dozen? A couple hundred?

The truth is the number is 1,385 different poker players. That’s quite a flabbergasting figure.

There are towns in the world with fewer inhabitants than there are poker players that have hit the magical $1m mark.

These days, though, just hitting the milly-mark isn’t enough to “be someone” in the poker world.

To be in the crème de la crème of that big group of the biggest winners (and presumably the best players), you need to aim a little higher.

Poker’s $10m Winner’s Club

We’ve set the benchmark for this article at 10x the $1m mark: AKA the 10 Million Dollar Club.

Opposite of one-hit wonder.

The number of players that have accomplished this feat is considerably smaller.

In fact only 43 have managed to surpass the $10m mark in their live careers and most of them are considered the biggest stars in the poker world.

Still, we had questions.

Who was the first $10m winner? Who won the most in the shortest time frame?

Who’s the most consistent player? Who are the One-Hit Wonders?

While “Jamie Gold” is the correct answer to almost all of those questions, we’ll get into way more detail with the following 9 facts about the biggest poker winners in history. 

1. Where Do $10m Winners Come From?

Poker was, and is, a very American game. While Europe, Asia and South America are slowly catching up, most of the big poker winners hail from the US.

A full 27 of the 43 players (62.7%) that have made more than $10m come from the US. Only three other nationalities are featured more than once in this club: Canada, Germany and (maybe a bit surprisingly) Denmark.

The Canadians have the privilege of holding the top spot on the All Time Money List with Daniel Negreanu, who has cashed for the stupendous amount of over $32m in his career.

The two Danish players, by the way, are Main Event winner Peter Eastgate and currently retired triple WPT champion Gus Hansen.

2. Who Were the First to Reach Eight Digits?

It wasn’t until 2006 that the first player breached the eight-digit barrier and it was, of course, no less a figure than Jamie Gold.

Gold won the biggest WSOP Main Event of all time and took home $12m to skyrocket him right to the top of the All Time Money List.

Hachem second over the line.

The next player to reach $10m was Joe Hachem, also in 2006.

Hachem won the WSOP Main Event in 2005 for $7.5 million and surpassed the eight-digit mark when he won the WPT Five Diamond Classic in December of 2006.

For over a year those two were alone in the $10m club but in 2008 Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey both joined them.

Incidentally, they managed to do so in the very same tournament – the 2008 LAPC Main Event – which Ivey won. Hellmuth finished 6th.

Later that same year Allan Cunningham and Daniel Negreanu also piled in to the $10m club.

Eight years later the club has lost some of it’s exclusivity, with 43 players now and more joining the list every month it seems.

The newest three members – Philipp Gruissem, Ole Schemion and Dan Smith – joined less than a month ago as all surpassed the $10m mark during the EPT Grand Final in Monaco.

3. Who’s Won More than $10m in One Tournament?

While some players needed hundreds of cashes over dozens of years to accumulate more than $10m winnings, other players made that much in just one tournament.

Huge Main Events, High Roller and Super High Roller tourneys made this possible.

Five times a player has scooped $10m+ in a single tournament. One of them didn’t even have to win the tourney to get there.

These are the five highest payouts in poker tournaments so far:

• July 2012: Antonio Esfandiari – WSOP $1m One Drop – $18,346,673
• June 2014: Dan Colman – WSOP $1m One Drop – $15,306,668
• July 2006: Jamie Gold – WSOP Main Event – $12,000,000
• July 2012: Sam Trickett – WSOP $1m One Drop (2nd place) – $10,112,001
• July 2014: Martin Jacobson – WSOP Main Event – $10,000,000

The relevant date for our statistics is the first day of the tournament, not the last. That’s why Jacobson’s winnings are attributed to July (start of the ME 2014) and not November (November 9).

4. Who’s Been at the Top?

So far five different players were at the top of the All Time Money List while having more than $10m in live cashes.

Once and future king

The first was obviously Jamie Gold, who took the spot after winning the Main Event in 2006 for $12m.

He held top spot for roughly three years and, believe it or not, after the UIGEA happened and WSOP numbers declined in 2007, people thought he might keep the spot forever.

Boy, were they wrong. In 2009 Phil Ivey eventually surpassed Gold  and battled with Daniel Negreanu for the top spot for almost two years.

Then, a 51-year-old high roller took the top spot: Erik Seidel. He held that spot until Antonio Esfandiari shot up by winning the mind-boggling $18m in the first-ever $1m One Drop event during the 2012 WSOP.

Esfandiari was also the first player to surpass $20m in lifetime winnings. But as staggering as Esfandiari’s winnings might have been, he only held the top spot for two years.

Then Negreanu returned to the top once more after he finished 2nd in the second $1m One Drop event in 2014 for more than $8m. Shortly afterwards Negreanu also became the first (and so far only) player to surpass the $30m mark.

Timeframe – Top Spot on All Time Money List:

5. Who’s Made Millions More Than Once?

What’s a good tourney result for you? 100 bucks? $1,000? $50,000?

6x a million $ winner.

The 43 players were talking about in this article won at least $1m 122 times if you combine their results.

Two of them, Ivey and Negreanu, have scored seven-digit prizes on 6(!) different occasions.

And only two players have managed to make $10m lifetime without a single $1m cash.

Players in the $10m Club with the most (and least) $1m+ wins:

• 6 – Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey
• 5 – Dan Colman, Sam Trickett, Scott Seiver, Michael Mizrachi, Mike McDonald, Tom Marchese
• 4 – Brian Rast, Dan Smith, Tobias Reinkemeier, Gus Hansen, Ole Schemion
• …
• 0 – T.J. Cloutier, Men Nguyen

6. Who’s the Fastest (and Slowest) to $10m?

We know Jamie Gold was the fist to reach the $10m mark, but was he also the fastest? For this stat we looked at the time it took the players from their first recorded live result until they surpassed the $10m mark.

And then there’s TJ Cloutier.

As it turns out, Gold indeed was the fastest. By a landslide. It took him only 1.33 years to go from his first live cash to double-digit million winnings. The Main Event, which netted him $12m, was only the 10th event he ever cashed in.

No other poker player made eight digits that quickly. Danish Main Event winner Peter Eastgate was also quite fast, but it took him almost twice as long as Gold to go from zero to $10m – 2.5 years.

All other players played for at least five years before hitting $10m. Poker legends like Phil Hellmuth and Erik Seidel played more than 20 years before making eight digits in tournaments.

They, of course, started playing back in the 80s when even WSOP Main Event winners took home less than $1m.

And then there is T.J. Cloutier. He started playing tournaments in 1983 and it took him 307 cashes and more than 30 years before he finally crawled over the $10m line.

Apparently, slow and steady also wins the race in poker. Fittingly enough it was a $400 tourney in July 2013 where he finished 35th and min cashed which pushed Cloutier over the $10m line.

The fastest and slowest double-digit millionaires:

• 1y 102d: Jamie Gold ( Apr 05 – Jul 06, 10 results before reaching $10m)
• 2y 180d: Peter Eastgate ( Apr 07 – Oct 09, 14 results)
• 5y 10d: Joe Cada ( Jun 09 – Jun 14, 19 results)
• 5y 22d: Ole Schemion ( Apr 11 – Apr 16, 67 results)
• 5y 54d: Sam Trickett ( May 07 – Jul 12, 45 results)
• …
• 17y 61d: Scotty Nguyen ( Nov 91 – Jan 09, 248 results)
• 20y 125d: Phil Hellmuth ( Oct 87 – Feb 08, 195 results)
• 21y 313d: Erik Seidel ( May 88 – Mar 10, 165 results)
• 22y 234d: Men Nguyen ( Nov 87 – Jun 10, 420 results)
• 30y 214d: T.J. Cloutier ( Jan 83 – Jul 13, 307 results)

7. Who’s a One-Hit Wonder? Who Has Staying Power?

Like in sports or music, poker also produces a lot of one-hit wonders: Players that manage one big result but can’t repeat that success. Or even come close to it.

The Brat has staying power.

Here, we once more we see Jamie Gold topping the chart. He won $12m in the Main Event. How much has he won in all other tournaments he played in?

Less than $600,000 – meaning his Main Event cash represents more than 95% of his winnings.

Compare this to Phil Hellmuth, for example. The Brat has made more than $19m but his biggest cash was “only” $2.6m (4th place at the inaugural $1m One Drop).

That’s less than 14% of his total winnings. Definitely not a one-hit wonder, as his 14 bracelets and 115 WSOP cashes attests.

Gold (who is currently working on improving his results with 2 WSOP final tables in the past 12 months) is in good company: Main Event winners Peter Eastgate, Joe Cada and Greg Merson all accumulated more than 75% of their winnings in one single tourney.

On the other end of the spectrum are the poker players that have been around a long time and have seen plenty of action over the years: Jason Mercier, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, John Juanda and of course T.J. Cloutier – none of them won more then 10% of their total winnings in a single tournament.

Persistent.

Meaning, they’ve showed great results over a long time.

But nobody has been as persistent as Men “The Master” Nguyen. He might be a controversial figure in the poker business, but he certainly has an iron butt:

462 cashes, $10.5m in winnings and his top result is $412k (2nd place in a $5k WSOP event in 2010) – equaling less than 4% of his total winnings.

The One-Hit Wonders and Poker Evergreens in the $10m Club (percentage of biggest cash vs. total winnings):

• Jamie Gold: 95% ($12m/$12.6m)
• Peter Eastgate: 82% ($9.2m/$11.1m)
• Joe Cada: 82% ($8.5m /$10.4m)
• Greg Merson: 75% ($8.5m /$11.4m)
• Antonio Esfandiari: 69% ($18.3m /$26.7m)
• …
• Erick Lindgren: 10% ($1m/$10.2m)
• Erik Seidel: 9% ($2.5m /$26.7m)
• John Juanda: 9% ($1.6m/$18.1m)
• T.J. Cloutier: 9% ($0.9m/$10.2m)
• Men Nguyen: 4% ($0.4m/$10.5m)

8. How Many are Main Event Winners?

Eleven of the 43 members of the $10m club are former (or reigning) Main Event Champions:

Winning the main helps.

Phil Hellmuth, Jonathan Duhamel, Martin Jacobson, Jamie Gold, Joe Hachem, Carlos Mortensen, Scotty Nguyen, Joe McKeehen, Greg Merson, Peter Eastgate and Joe Cada.

How big the Main Event is compared to other poker events becomes evident when considering this fact:

From those 11 players only one would have more than $10m if you ignore his Main Event cash.

We’re pretty sure you can guess who that one player is. In the past 10 years only three Main Event winners haven’t made the $10m club (yet): Jerry Yang, Pius Heinz and Ryan Riess.

9. How Many are Women?

Just Vanessa.

Finally, we take a look at the ratio of women to men in the $10m club. This is a bit disillusioning: Exactly one woman has amassed winnings exceeding $10m.

This woman, of course, is Vanessa Selbst.

As a matter of fact, from the 1,385 players that have made $1m or more, only 28 are women – a little bit more than 2%.

Overview: All $10m Winners

Below is a table of all 43 players that have cashed for more than $10m.

The column Time shows how long it took each player to accumulate $10m in winnings and the One Hit Wonder column shows the proportion of the biggest single cash to the total winnings.

Player	Winnings	Results	First Result	Time	One-Hit Wonder
Daniel Negreanu	$32,315,817	226	Jul 97	10y 325d	26%
Antonio Esfandiari	$26,730,570	84	Feb 02	10y 143d	69%
Erik Seidel	$26,683,817	241	May 88	21y 313d	9%
Dan Colman	$25,239,801	29	Oct 08	5y 255d	61%
Phil Ivey	$23,856,035	141	Dec 98	9y 86d	15%
Scott Seiver	$21,209,508	92	Aug 06	7y 249d	24%
Sam Trickett	$20,563,347	63	May 07	5y 54d	49%
Phil Hellmuth	$19,310,195	277	Oct 87	20y 125d	14%
John Juanda	$18,111,006	237	Aug 97	12y 302d	9%
Jonathan Duhamel	$17,605,726	86	Aug 06	5y 149d	51%
Jason Mercier	$16,422,563	128	Apr 08	5y 308d	10%
Brian Rast	$16,313,290	54	Jul 05	10y 0d	46%
Steve O’Dwyer	$15,230,464	107	Jan 07	8y 122d	12%
Martin Jacobson	$15,106,285	63	Oct 08	5y 251d	66%
Michael Mizrachi	$14,874,470	147	Mar 04	6y 101d	16%
Tom Marchese	$13,095,156	67	Jan 10	5y 141d	12%
Mike McDonald	$13,022,571	87	Nov 07	6y 79d	13%
Jamie Gold	$12,586,358	31	Apr 05	1y 102d	95%
JC Tran	$12,238,204	142	Mar 03	10y 128d	17%
Joe Hachem	$12,153,803	72	Aug 00	6y 112d	62%
Carlos Mortensen	$11,954,406	151	Dec 99	11y 51d	33%
Scotty Nguyen	$11,874,538	287	Nov 91	17y 61d	17%
Vanessa Selbst	$11,758,867	73	Jul 06	7y 332d	16%
Allen Cunningam	$11,632,374	206	Dec 96	11y 152d	31%
Joe McKeehen	$11,545,712	98	Aug 10	5y 146d	67%
Greg Merson	$11,371,974	27	Nov 07	6y 46d	75%
Ike Haxton	$11,371,676	64	Jan 07	8y 300d	22%
David Peters	$11,311,364	148	Dec 06	9y 37d	20%
Igor Kurganov	$11,244,901	52	Aug 09	6y 156d	14%
Sorel Mizzi	$11,148,823	112	Sep 06	8y 103d	19%
Peter Eastgate	$11,131,450	22	Apr 07	2y 180d	82%
Joseph Cheong	$11,102,124	94	Jan 09	5y 303d	37%
Ole Schemion	$11,084,895	68	Apr 11	5y 22d	16%
Bertrand Grospellier	$10,992,424	104	Feb 05	7y 114d	18%
Anthony Gregg	$10,860,188	37	Jun 08	7y 201d	44%
Tobias Reinkemeier	$10,539,684	51	Mar 07	7y 320d	19%
Men Nguyen	$10,504,630	462	Nov 87	22y 234d	4%
Joe Cada	$10,403,598	26	Jun 09	5y 10d	82%
Gus Hansen	$10,258,053	43	May 02	9y 243d	17%
Erick Lindgren	$10,236,288	104	Apr 00	14y 72d	10%
T.J. Cloutier	$10,225,191	350	Jan 83	30y 214d	9%
Dan Smith	$10,107,125	72	Jun 08	7y 314d	20%
Philipp Gruissem	$10,060,541	36	Aug 09	6y 253d	14%

Remarks: Data taken from Hendon Mob in May ’16. The statistics only consider winnings before taxes, shares, expenses for buy-ins and other deductions.